Everybody Wins With Milford 'Benevolence Project'

MILFORD, CT — About a month and a half ago, two chiropractors hit upon a plan to get food into the mouths of residents who needed it, and money into the tills of businesses hurt by restrictions enacted to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. It's a simple plan, really, but you didn't think of it because it involved taking money out of their own pockets and buying the food for their neighbors

"What we wanted to do, was come up with a way to help the community of Milford and at the same time help the businesses by driving business to them," said Dr. Kyle Floryan, who is one-half of Specific Chiropractic at 100 Lansdale Avenue, alongside Dr. Autumn Cussen. Once a week the doctors pick a different business and open up a tab of a $100 or more. They get the word out by plugging the business of the week on the 'You Know You Live in Milford If...'' Facebook page. Residents then call in their orders and have it placed on "Doctor Kyle's tab," Floryan said.

"It's pretty much a win-win all around," he said, and the response has been "massive."

Well, sure. Free food's usually a big hit. But "The Benevolence Project," which is what Cussen and Floryan call their initiative, is not just driving residents to traditional restaurants. Pints of ice cream from the local creamery and large cheese pies from one of the pizzerias are also being enjoyed by folks who didn't think they'd be eating frozen desserts or pizza anytime soon. Cussen and Floryan even reserved a couple of cases of wine from a local shop for health care workers at Milford Hospital.

"We don't have a ton of disposable income," Cussen said, "but we knew we could open up a $100 tab once a week to get some cash flow for these businesses.

Cussen is still an associate chiropractor in South WIndsor where she has worked for four years, after opening Specific Chiropractic last year with Floryan. She had planned to drop her South Windsor gig with the start of the new practice, but then the coronavirus swept into the area. Now she works two jobs, to ensure her own cash flow keeps flowing.

Cussen and Floryan, whom she describes as her "significant other," have been together for six and a half years. The two met while they were attending Palmer Chiropractic College in Iowa. Five years ago, Cussen, a Michigan native, decided to move to Connecticut with Floryan, who was born and raised in Cromwell. They decided to set up their joint practice in Milford because they are here every weekend for the beach volleyball at Walnut Beach, which makes perfect sense if you're familiar with the volleyball scene at Walnut Beach. They both currently live in North Haven.

"I now a lot of the business owners in the Milford community, and many are struggling pretty hard with what is going on," Floryan said. "At the same time, a lot of companies have had to lay off many of their workers."

That's led to a number of out-of-work Milford residents, Cussen said.

"A couple of the parents we have talked to said, "'Hey, thanks very much for the pizza, my kids haven't had takeout in a while. We lost our jobs and we didn't really have a lot of money to buy a lot of food,'" Cussen told Patch.

Feeling as though Milford is now on the downhill side of the virus crisis, Floryan's begun thinking about what phase two of The Benevolence Project might look like.

"Once all of these restaurants and businesses get the go ahead (to open up), we'll continue it for a little bit," he said. But instead of buying takeout for their neighbors, the chiropractors' gifts must be used to dine inside the restaurants, as an incentive to overcome whatever squeamishness residents might have about gathering inside a restaurant.

"People's psyches play a big part in (a successful reopening)," Floryan said. "It's going to take a little encouragement."