Coronavirus has left Puyallup nonprofit undeterred in serving low-income moms
The coronavirus pandemic has caused a Puyallup nonprofit to quickly change focus and adapt all while continuing to help underprivileged families.
“We got hit on every side,” Step By Step founder and executive director Krista Linden said.
Step By Step, a social service nonprofit that helps new mothers get back on their feet, has been in the community for more than 20 years. This is the first time it has had to shift from ensuring a better future for women to ensuring they are just getting food.
Case managers who normally help women break out of cycles of poverty, abuse and neglect are delivering groceries to doorsteps. Many of the nonprofit’s clients have turned to case managers to help with issues like talking to a landlord about upcoming rent and asking for a deferment.
“I do feel like this is a different environment, and we are built for hits,” Linden said. “It’s just hard.”
Some employees staying at home are now creating face masks for health care workers.
Farm 12, a restaurant where many former Step By Step clients work, downsized into take-out only.
Linden said she is not making any rash decisions. In the 23 years of Step By Step, she has never had to lay anyone off, she said. Linden has guaranteed all staff at Step By Step and Farm 12 one month of income. The nonprofit averaged out salaries to create a base one-month stipend for all 128 employees.
Linden said she is glad to have the staff and community support to stay going during this difficult time.
“It is awful and blindsided us all, but we can always find the silver lining in something like this,” she said.
Farm 12
Step By Step owns Farm 12, a restaurant to help moms get back into the workforce. Normally, the restaurant serves three meals daily and employs 60 women and men, but the coronavirus pandemic turned the business model from a dine-in restaurant to pick-up only overnight.
Linden said they had to order takeout boxes and disposable containers to stay open. Now, customers can order online and pick up curb-side at the restaurant.
They offer breakfast, lunch, dinner and desserts from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Pastry boxes and family meals are their most popular items. The menu includes soups, salads, salmon plates and burgers. The bakery has added cinnamon rolls to the menu, and Linden said they have become quite popular.
Farm 12’s profits have dropped about 30-40 percent, which is not as bad as other restaurants, Linden said.
Staff are not required to work, but those who do come in split the tips from the orders. Many have chosen to stay at home due to a lack of child care, or they or family members are considered high-risk.
The restaurant has given back to health care workers. At a discounted rate, Farm 12 made lunches for Pediatrics Northwest and Woodcreek Pediatrics this week.
Making masks
Linden was asked by Pierce County to help out with a shortage of medical masks. She reached out to about 300 women who sew to make masks at home. So far, they’ve sewn about 1,500 cloth masks made. They will be sterilized and shipped to those who need them across the Puget Sound.
Step by Step is looking to make 40,000 masks with materials provided by the county. The masks are rayon and polyester on the inside and cotton on the outside.
“There is such a shortage, and we’ve had an amazing response from our community,” Linden said.
Helping moms
Families left jobless or stuck inside have turned to Step By Step for help. The nonprofit has delivered food, gift cards, cleaning products and baby supplies to mothers across Pierce County.
After overcoming homelessness, one mother found a short-term living situation and got a job. She was days away from moving out and on track toward self-sufficiency, a Step By Step Facebook post said. The coronavirus pandemic orders cut her hours, and she lost her ability to make ends meet. The nonprofit brought her groceries and baby supplies to her doorstep.
The community has come together to help out, Linden said. One couple served by a single mom at Farm 12 months ago offered their stimulus checks to the server for a total of $2,400. Linden said moments like those have kept her going.
“A lot of these women aren’t used to that kind of generosity,” she said.
For those looking to help Step By Step and Farm 12, Linden asks to get in contact with a case manager for specific needs by moms, drop by diapers and wet wipes, and continue to eat at Farm 12 to keep the restaurant up and running.
