Caitlin Cullen is the Head Chef and Owner of the Tandem Restaurant in Milwaukee. Caitlin was a speaker at the World Affairs Seminar for young people, which was held virtually this spring. She spoke about the restaurant's direction in reaction to COVID-19.
When the stay-at-home orders were issued in March, Caitlin realized that her restaurant may close. So, she started looking at what she could do to help her community...how she could do the most while she had the chance. She decided to make "tv dinners" out of the ingredients she had at the restaurant. The first day, she assembled 85 dinners she thought may last for a few weeks. After promoting the meals to her community, response was overwhelming and the meals were gone in two hours! The second day, she assembled 150 meals and they were also gone in two hours! Since March, the Tandem has distributed 50,000 free meals to the community.
At this point, the restaurant began operating on donations. The largest donation received was $430,000 from World Central Kitchen, a non-profit dedicated to finding creative solutions to hunger and poverty. In Milwaukee, with a population of 600,000, over 20,000 residents are employed in the restaurant industry. The money from World Central Kitchen was directed to eight restaurants in the Milwaukee area, and the residual funds will be used to tutor students to keep them in school.
Caitlin realized the importance of keeping people employed and developed a program to employ young, black youth and give them a chance to get a job. She has targeted two populations: youth who need a job to get experience and youth who have been released from incarceration. These entry level jobs are meant to be a stepping stone for the youth.