Employees of Old Nick’s Pub bustled about the restaurant, making preparations for an influx of customers on Saint Patrick’s Day as they usually do every March. But March of 2020 was anything but usual.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered restaurants and bars to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic on March 16, 2020, according to a press conference. The owners of Old Nick’s Pub were left with $2,000 worth of food ordered and an empty restaurant on one of their busiest days of the year.

“I was sitting there, and I just said, ‘Well, I’m not going to let this food go to waste. Why don’t we just cook it and give it out to people in the [Washington Jefferson] park?’” co-owner Emily Chappell said.

Chappell reached out to the Whiteaker neighbors community Facebook page and posted on a homeless support Facebook page she runs to spread the word about the free food.

“I just told everybody, ‘Hey, if you need to be fed, come see us. No questions asked. We’re not going to make you feel bad,’” Chappell said.

Employees cooked the food meant for Saint Patrick’s Day and handed it to people through a walk-up window.

“I thought to myself, seeing how appreciative all these people were, I was like, ‘Man, this is something that we could just do any time,’” Chappell said. “If somebody walks up to our window and they’re hungry, they could always be fed.”

The owners approached the staff about a pay-it-forward program where customers could donate money for anyone in need to receive free food.

“I thought it was really great because, for me personally, in the past, I’ve experienced food insecurity,” bartender Jean Woest said. “Being in a place where I could see those people and actually help them, it was just really satisfying.”

It was decided. The pub would continue handing out free food to anyone who needed it. During the first six months of the pandemic, four or five people a day would come for free food, Chappell said.

During that time, many people lost their jobs. Chappell said many people seeking food were not homeless but living paycheck to paycheck. She recalled a man who said he spent his last paycheck and seemed very depressed coming to her for a meal.

“I could kind of see it change as like his body was able to process nutrition and his basic needs were met,” Chappell said. “It was like, ‘Okay, I’m going to make it through this.’ And to see that just a simple act of feeding, somebody can give them hope in the world to maybe keep going, that was why this had to keep going to me. It had to be an anytime thing.”

Woest said he remembers when a family living in Washington Jefferson Park came to the restaurant for food but seemed hesitant about ordering food, only asking for one or two meals.

“I was like, ‘Oh, no, we’ll get food for all of you. What do you want?’” Woest said. He served them and even gave them extra food to take home. “The mom had the kid with her. She started to tear up and cry, and she was just like, ‘We haven’t had a hot meal in months, so this is making such a huge difference.”

Thanksgiving was a huge day for the pay-it-forward program, Chappell said. Whole families came out to receive food from Old Nick’s Pub. One man, who told Chappell he couldn’t feed his family that year because he was out of work, broke down crying, she said.

“It was heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time,” Chappell said. “Heartbreaking because why is he having to weep over being fed? How broken is our system?”

However, Woest said it is harder for people to come to the restaurant and use them as a resource for food ever since Washington Jefferson Park, the previous location of a sanctioned camping site, shut down on March 16. Old Nick’s Pub is just across the street from the park.

“It’s sort of sad to have this way of supporting the community and kind of see, due to policies and stuff, it’s harder for folks to make it here,” Woest said.

Chappell said donations have been low lately as well. However, she believes pay-it-forward programs should expand to other businesses.

“I think that this is an accessible thing for many businesses to be able to do. It seems like giving away free food is a bad idea, but I think you’d be surprised to see how much community support you get,” Chappell said.

Woest said the program has helped build trust between the employees of the restaurant. “I’ve seen the employees stepping up and being like, ‘We want to really help each other now, and we really want to be there for each other in the same way that we’ve seen the business being there for the community,’” Woest said.
People can donate to Old Nick’s Pub’s pay-it-forward program through its website or at the restaurant.