Restaurant gives out free food to essential workers

By JEFF STITT

jstitt@yourmvi.com

Ben Bartilson, co-owner of Yoli’s Cucina and Crafthouse in Jefferson Hills, realizes the attempt to mitigate the coronavirus’ spread has brought a lot of change to life as we know it.

In Pennsylvania, it has forced businesses deemed by Gov. Tom Wolf as “non life sustaining” to shutter their doors and furlough or lay off employees.

Ben said he’s has been fortunate because, as a restaurant, Yoli’s is able to offer take-out, delivery or curbside service, which allows him to keep employees on the payroll.

“We have been able to keep everyone working that wanted to keep working,” Bartilson said, adding that his “loyal” customers have been keeping his staff busy.

He appreciates employees working in industries considered “life sustaining” despite the threat of being exposed to COVID-19. He said municipal public works crews; fire, police and EMS departments; and administrative workers essential to executing daily municipal operations are still hard at work, and said those “dedicated workers” are handling the projects, problems, complaints and duties they normally do, while also tending to new tasks and needs that have arisen as a result of the virus. 

To say thank you to essential workers, Bartilson, a McKeesport native, and his business partners, Denny and Danny Eggerton and Brent Enos, donated lunch Thursday to the McKeesport police and parks departments and city hall workers. 

Bartilson’s mother, Kathy Bartilson, delivered the meals to the city workers and to employees at Lampert’s Fine Meats & Deli in McKeesport — the first place Ben Bartilson ever worked.

“I’ll never forget where I came from,” he said. “There’s a lot of good people doing a lot of good work in McKeesport. We were just glad to feed some of them, show them love and say thank you for all that they are doing.”

Mayor Michael Cherepko said he was overwhelmed with gratitude.

“We have the utmost appreciation for community members who are thinking of our city workers and first responders during these uncertain times,” Cherepko said. “We thank Yoli’s Cucina and the Bartilson family for their kindness and generosity.”

On Saturday, Bartilson authored a Facebook post that ended up getting a huge response.

In the post, he told Yoli’s customers he wanted to provide free meals to area grocery store and gas station employees, first responders, postal and hospital workers and more. He asked customers to send private messages “nominating” area workplaces and plans to pick one “essential” business per day to donate meals to.

“We’ve received over 400 nominations for lunches to donate,” Ben said. “We initially planned on only doing one a day, but the response has been so awesome. We won’t be able to get to everyone, but we will do what we can.”

Operating on the motto of “we feed you like family,” Yoli’s food has also been given to West Jefferson Hills School District cafeteria workers and bus drivers who have been providing lunches for students that need them while school is closed; Clairton, Jefferson Hills, Pleasant Hills and West Mifflin police departments; Port Authority of Allegheny County workers at the West Mifflin garage; nurses and environmental services employees at UPMC McKeesport, Presby and Shady Side hospitals and UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Giant Eagle employees in Elizabeth borough; Jefferson Hospital Emergency Department workers; Weiss Meats employees; area churches and more.

Bartilson estimates that Yoli’s will have given meals to a total of 75 to 100 workplaces by the end of today.

Customers have given extra money when picking up their orders and have asked Bartilson to “pay for it forward for meals for someone who needs it.”

“Some of the business owners are paying it forward, too, and are paying for other business’ meals after we gave them food,” he said. “So many people have taken our lead in feeding others that are in need or deserving and working during these difficult times.”

Workplaces with smaller staffs have been receiving items such as pizza, while organizations with larger staff numbers have been given family- and catering-sized items like tortiglioni with Sunday sauce, Yoli Rolis and/or Casa Di Yoli salad.

Jamie Gori, a Yoli’s employee, said she’s proud of her bosses for “all they are doing for their employees and the community.”

“My boss and his wife are so wonderful,” she said. “They’re worrying about all their employees and trying to give hours doing take-outs and packing orders. We are really lucky to have them in our community and I am for sure lucky and for them to be my bosses.”

Bartilson was inspired to give meals away after thinking about other businesses that have been forced to close.

“We’re in strange times right now,” he said. “We started thinking ‘We’re lucky to be open when others have to close.’ 

“Then we started thinking about people working because they have to even if they are worried or don’t feel safe doing so. When you start thinking about all the people out there who have to be working and taking care of people and putting themselves at risk you start to wonder what you can do to help.”

Yoli’s, located at 1101 State Route 885 in Jefferson Hills, is open seven days per week and is offering regular take-out and curbside ordering.

Bartilson said he and his co-owners aren’t worried about losing revenue from feeding others for free.

“Kindness comes back to you,” he said. “Kindness is contagious.”

McKeesport first responders think Bartilson is right about that.

Earlier this week, Pizza & Gyro Express on Oneil Boulevard in McKeesport donated pizzas to the fire department and wrote “stay safe” and “thank kou” on the pizza boxes.

Broadway Pizza at the corner of Versailles and Evans avenues in McKeesport also donated pizzas to paramedics and emergency medical technicians at McKeesport Ambulance Rescue Service.

“A BIG THANK YOU to Broadway Pizza in McKeesport,” MARS wrote in a Facebook post. “We really appreciate the support from our local folks during these trying times.”

McKeesport police also gave a shout out on Facebook to Sam’s Club in West Mifflin for donating cases of disinfectant and sanitizing wipes to the department.