California cafe stays alive with charity lunches

Employees at Farley’s East café in Oakland, California are glad to be back at work but instead of churning out loads of $4.50 lattes and $13 whole health protein bowls, they're using assembly-line-like precision to put together about 200 sandwich lunch plates a day to give out free of charge.

Thanks to funding from Washington, D.C. based nonprofit World Central Kitchen, Farley East is prepping these turkey, ham and egg salad sandwiches to hand out to health care workers, school-age kids, the homeless and others down on their luck.

The charity work has actually provided a financial rescue for Farley’s East since it reopened in April, says eatery co-owner Chris Hillyard.

"Yeah the meals from World Central Kitchen are equal to what we actually do in the cafe sales all day so it's really a lifeline for our business. We would be going into debt daily without the World Central Kitchen program to help support our business."

The situation at Farley’s East highlights a growing dilemma facing small businesses across the country.

It received a $221,000 loan, as part of the Payroll Protection Program created by Congress in response to the crisis. That money helped pay for the 16 employees Hillyard has rehired. But without the full return of his customers, the future remains sketchy.

“So we've been open for a few months now and the cafe is about 30 percent of what we used to do. We're in a downtown area with a lot of office workers and there's just no office workers. Even when companies say they can come back, we don't know when or if they ever will, quite honestly."

And with states like California curtailing re-openings, small businesses like this one could face another downturn, leading to a fresh wave of layoffs.

But for now, Farley’s East will keep on making charity sandwiches -hoping that doing good will provide the bridge it needs to stay alive until diners return.