In the midst of having to pivot their entire business model, Karen Carmichael Taylor, co-owner of Simple Fare Catering, is focused on the community. “We are so grateful and impressed with the amount of support we have received during this time, and continue to be a proud member of the Medford community.” Read on to find out how their GoFundMe is feeding first responders.
How did you get started? Where did your concept come from?
Mike and I met when we worked together at a restaurant/catering company located in Wellesley. We worked together for four years prior to deciding to go out on our own. That’s when we began creating a menu that would provide folks with a small batch, handmade option for home delivery, as well as a kitchen location closer to home for both of us.
Simple Fare opened our doors to the public at 460 High Street, West Medford in March 2015.
What’s one thing you’d love for people to know about your business? What makes Simple Fare different?
We started out as a dine-in, take-out, delivery shop with some social catering events. We embraced our “home” in West Medford, becoming friendly with and helpful to our neighbors. We began participating in city events such as Circle the Square, Farmer’s Markets, Energy Festival, and the Mystic River Celebration. We were also one of the co-founders of the West Medford Halloween Block Party.
The catering aspect of the business grew to be 85% of our sales. At that point we shifted our hours to better accommodate the multiple corporate breakfast and lunch orders we were receiving daily, as well as the evening/weekend social events that occurred each week.
Something that makes Simple Fare different is our handmade, small-batch approach. We hand roll our meatballs and egg rolls, hand bread our cutlets, roast our sandwich meats, make our soups and salad dressings from scratch, the list goes on.
Now, can you tell us a little about how COVID-19 has affected Simple Fare? How have you, as a local business, responded? When the pandemic hit, all social events were cancelled. We spoke with many clients who were concerned about having to cancel or reschedule their birthday party, baby shower, bar mitzvah, wedding, assuring them that we will be available if a new date was determined.
When offices began to close, we saw tens of thousands of dollars in corporate orders cancel. We took inventory and realized that we had quite a bit of food that was not shelf stable and would go to waste if it was not consumed within a certain number of days. That is when we decided to feed first responders and deliver individually packaged meals to local fire, police, and hospital staff.
A couple of friends created a GoFundMe in order to further our reach, as well as to help keep Simple Fare open for business. Medford High School Class of 1982 reached out asking if we could accept donations and deliver food on their behalf. And several of our friends and family members have put together their own collections. We have delivered over 700 meals, with another 150 being arranged for delivery next week!
We also made the decision to expand our storefront hours to keep our business open, our full-time employees working, and to provide individual meals/family trays, for pick up or delivery, to our friends, family, and neighbors.
How can Medford residents help your business in this crisis?
There are a few things that could help us during these trying times. Customers can place an order, either individual or a family tray (delivered hot and ready to eat or to be heated and enjoyed later). They can sponsor our GoFundMe to help us to continue producing food for front line workers. Or they could purchase a gift card for a later in store purchase or catering order.
Simple Fare Catering
460 High Street, Medford
(781) 391-3335
Hours:
Monday - Saturday: 11am–7pm
Available 7 days a week for catering
Check out our other Medford Spotlight posts.