Editor鈥檚 note: This is part of a series exploring how Northeast Ohio entrepreneurs and small businesses have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic and their plans for moving forward.
Maker: Candace Maiden, Catering Director, and Kurtis Williams, Sr., Executive Chef
Business: Squash The Beef, a plant-based catering company
How has the outbreak impacted your business?
Williams: 鈥淲e just take it one day at a time, because, as we鈥檝e seen, each week has changed. We can鈥檛 plan for tomorrow, so we want to give out the best quality that we can to everyone that we come across, because you never know what can happen the next day.鈥�
Maiden: 鈥淲e鈥檝e not had a pop-up and all the festivals we were planning to go to have been canceled. We have an event that we were actually hosting, which was a 鈥渧eg out.鈥� We pushed it back till June, but even now we鈥檙e not sure if that鈥檚 going to be possible. But if we canceled, we have to refund all the vendor fees. There鈥檚 things that we鈥檝e already purchased that鈥檚 going to be a loss. It鈥檚 been a little bit of a slow process with food distributors. There鈥檚 some wait time. So we鈥檝e actually closed our kitchen for April and will reopen in May. That鈥檚 just time for us to re-up on inventory and take stock in what we have. But I think because everything is changing, we needed that pause. It鈥檚 allowed us to focus on what鈥檚 important and what we can prioritize.鈥�
What have you been doing to stay creative?
Maiden: 鈥淭he thing about it, that even in a crisis, people still need to eat. We鈥檙e definitely using the time experimenting in the kitchen. And so when we do come back people can say, 鈥榳ow, they got like all these new food items!鈥� And I get to taste all of it, so I鈥檓 happy about that.鈥�
Williams: 鈥淚鈥檓 always trying to find something different, something fun, something exciting that someone wants to eat, that I want to eat. I鈥檓 actually working on something different tonight. I can鈥檛 tell you right now because I don鈥檛 know how it鈥檚 going to turn out.鈥�
