Wine and Food founder’s bake sale for laid-off workers returns with savory snacks
The “Putting on the Pounds” Bake Sale fundraiser for restaurant and hospitality workers laid off temporarily is making some new additions to its Sunday menu this week.
Nearly an hour before the noon call time last Sunday, hundreds of cars were already lined up for blocks near LeJeune Road, waiting to pick up a $20 box of Night Owl Cookies to support local restaurant workers.
But after 23 minutes of overwhelming support, the bake sale had sold all 250 boxes.
“We were turning literally hundreds of cars away for the next three hours,” said Lee Schrager, founder of the South Beach Wine and Food Festival and organizer of the bake sale. “We had no idea how successful it would be ... People drove literally from West Palm Beach.”
This Sunday, Schrager said the bake sale is adding a Cuban snack box from Finka, baked ziti from Macchialina and a special cocktail mixer with fresh ingredients from Gio Gutierrez, going for $25 each.
The original cookie sale that drew a massive drive-thru crowd last week raised $10,000, which will benefit the SOBEWFF and FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund launched in late March.
The fund has raised over $1.5 million so far to support the thousands of workers at local independent restaurants and bars who have lost their jobs as a result of mandated closures stemming from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The bulk of the money pooled on Sunday was received through individual donations and was raised after paying for the 250 boxes of Night Owl Cookies.
Schrager said Bacardi and Badia Spices have each made $250,000 corporate donations to the fund as well.
Schrager and a group of volunteers will continue to hold the fundraiser every Sunday for as long as stay-at-home orders continue in effect, in front of his home at 517 Hardee Drive in Coral Gables. The sale runs from noon to 4 p.m. — unless they sell out again.
“I love food and I kind of thought, ‘People are bored in the weekends,’ I don’t know if we would’ve done well had it not been a quarantine,” Schrager said. “If we could figure out a way to do wine and spirits, I’d be thrilled to incorporate that as well ... [but] I kind of knew that people relate to comfort food during this time.”
While Schrager was apologetic for selling out so quickly, he assured future crowds they would not sell out of Night Owl Cookies again. He said they’ll order “more than double” this Sunday.
“One of the beauties of this is giving [business to the] people who need business during this time,” Schrager said.
According to one recent survey, only one in five restaurant owners thinks their restaurants can survive temporary closures from the coronavirus pandemic. Restaurant and hospitality workers have been especially hard hit by a growing unemployment crisis nationwide.
Individual donations can be made anytime at www.sobewff.org. For more information on the weekly sales, check Schrager’s Twitter and Instagram accounts @leeschrager.
This story was originally published April 26, 2020 at 6:54 PM.
