Cafeteria crews cook for community amid pandemic

In ordinary times, cafeteria workers feed hundreds of people a day at Boehringer Ingelheim sites in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and Duluth, Georgia.

These are not ordinary times.

The COVID-19 pandemic has most employees at those sites working from home. With hardly any customers, the kitchen, cafeteria and catering staffs in Ridgefield and Duluth have turned their attention to the community: The staffs are cooking more than 500 meals a day for first responders, homeless residents and others.

“We’re living through history, and we get to be part of that history by helping the community,” said Margaret Cotnoir, executive chef in Duluth.

Preparing meals for the community represents just one way Boehringer Ingelheim is fighting COVID-19. Boehringer Ingelheim also has contributed more than $1 million to protect healthcare professionals. And it has helped ensure that the cafeteria staff continue receiving a paycheck in tough economic times.

“Boehringer Ingelheim and Sodexo have been partners for over 30 years, and we view their dedicated team members as if they were family,” said Dr. Wolfgang Baiker, U.S. Country Managing Director and President and CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim USA.
 

The cafeteria staffers work for Sodexo, a company that provides food and other services in corporate settings. Boehringer Ingelheim contracts with Sodexo to run its dining facilities in Ridgefield and Duluth.

After social-distancing and work-from-home guidelines took hold to combat the spread of COVID-19, the Sodexo workers found themselves with fewer customers. Many businesses laid off employees. A record 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance one week in late March.

The cafeteria workers worried, said Bekki Bailey, who runs the deli in Duluth.

“Most don’t have anybody else to fall back on,” she said.
 

At its U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, Boehringer Ingelheim worked with Sodexo and the nonprofit Food Rescue US to deliver 250 meals a day to the City of Danbury Emergency Shelter and Housing Authority and to social service agencies.

“I commend Boehringer Ingelheim for opening up their kitchens to meet this important need, and Sodexo and their food-production team for stepping up to produce healthy meals that Food Rescue US is delivering,” said Carol Shattuck, CEO of Food Rescue US.

In Duluth, site of the headquarters of Boehringer Ingelheim’s U.S. Animal Health business, the cafeteria crew started making 60 meals a day for police and firefighters and 250 for employees at a plant in nearby Gainesville, said Dan Arenovski, who oversees dining and security teams. They did that three days a week and are exploring options to deliver meals elsewhere on other days, he said.

“I’m incredibly proud of what we’re doing,” Cotnoir said. “Everybody is scared and stressed, but we’re getting to serve other people.”