Against the COVID-19 odds, Puyallup nonprofit restaurant survives first year
The Puyallup restaurant and nonprofit, Farm 12, celebrated its first anniversary this month, in a year many restaurants have shuttered.
Executive director of Farm 12 and Step By Step, Krista Linden, credits generous donors and continual community support for the restaurant remaining open.
“The hearts of the community have just been the lifeline for all of us and our employees,” she said while tearing up.
Farm 12 is a farm-to-table restaurant off Shaw Road that employs low-income single mothers returning to the workforce. The restaurant, bakery, and pastry shop serve as a stepping stone for the women to get back on a path toward financial independence.
The coronavirus has not been easy for the business. Linden said it has operated at a loss every month apart from one this year.
Yet, she has been determined to keep her staff. All 90 Farm 12 part-time and full-time employees have kept their jobs, apart from an events coordinator who was furloughed.
Her envisioned business model fell apart in March when the pandemic began. \
The Germaine Korum Center includes Farm 12, Step By Step, an event hall and a greenhouse. Linden had planned for events and wedding bookings to carry the restaurant for the first three years. The COVID-19 virus wiped out the center’s almost-full 2020 event calendar.
“Now the restaurant is having to carry everything,” she said. “If we would have seen that in the beginning, we would have thought there’s no way that this could ever happen. But the community has responded to everything we put out there.”
The federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program was integral to staying open, Linden said. Farm 12 received $330,000 to keep women employed. While hoping Congress passes more financial aid for businesses and nonprofits, Linden isn’t holding her breath.
“Unfortunately no one can depend on any assistance at this point, and everybody’s having to make their decisions assuming there will not be any,” she said.
Linden said the restaurant’s ability to be flexible has been crucial. It transformed from a dine-in restaurant to takeout and curbside to a ski lodge-style experience. The new restrictions for restaurants Gov. Jay Inslee put in place to curb the cases of the coronavirus during the highest surge yet have proven difficult.
The lodge-inspired restaurant allows for outdoor dining with heaters and warm dishes.
“In the next few months we hope to stop the bleeding and break even. We are really just trying to survive right now,” she said. “Our hope is that we can resume events after the first quarter of next year, and the vaccine will help bring things back to where people can start gathering again or having events.”
The Germaine Korum Center is completely booked for 2021, filling up for 2022 and starting to take reservations for 2023.
Community outreach
Linden has opened the banquet hall to serve as a food bank and a mask-making shop.
The nonprofit has also stepped up to help out more families than ever.
More mothers and older clients have been reaching out to Step By Step, Farm 12’s parent nonprofit, for groceries, rent and support. The nonprofit helps struggling pregnant women have healthy births and provides help in the early years of motherhood.
Linden is concerned for these families when the eviction moratorium expires at the end of December.
Farm 12 is helping small local businesses stay afloat this November with a pop-up outdoor market. On Saturdays, up to 40 vendors bring handmade goods to be sold. Linden said it was so popular, customers were driving around for an hour to find parking.
With that much enthusiasm, Linden is considering a winter market.
“We just feel like a community hub,” Linden said. “We just really want to use our space however we can to support the community.”
