Moorestown Harvest Owner Donates Food, Gift Card Sales To Workers

MOORESTOWN, NJ — The Harvest Seasonal Grill & Wine Bar chain, which has a location in Moorestown, has laid off 700 total employees, including roughly 70 at the Moorestown Mall location. The layoffs were a result of the emerging crisis surrounding the spread of the novel coronavirus.

To help employees, restaurant chain owner Dave Magrogan will be diverting 100 percent of the sales from online gift cards to employees. He's hoping to raise a minimum $100,000 in gift card sales to help employees pay their rent and other bills. So far, he's raised $16,000 in gift card sales, said Mike Prince of Peter Breslow Consulting & Public Relations, which represents Harvest.

Additionally, Magrogan went to the Moorestown restaurant Wednesday afternoon to help cook the rest of the food left at the location for those employees to take home and feed their families.

“I was trying to keep as many locations as possible open for delivery and takeout,” Magrogan said.

That didn’t work in Moorestown, where the restaurant made just $250 in sales on Tuesday, according to Magrogan.

“Moorestown was always a strong store with a really good group of people,” Magrogan said. “Two years ago, it was voted the best store in the company. It functions really well.”

In addition to the Moorestown restaurant, the Radnor and Harrisburg locations in Pennsylvania were forced to close temporarily. Harvest locations open for takeout and delivery include Glen Mills, Lancaster, Newtown, Montage, and North Wales. Gift cards can be purchased at the locations that remain open or online.

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All restaurants in New Jersey were told to close at 8 p.m. Monday, and malls were told to close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Read more here: These Restaurants Still Deliver While Moorestown Mall Is Closed

Like the closures, owners are hoping the layoffs are only temporary as well. In the meantime all money raised from the sale of gift cards will go into a reserve fund to help all employees in the event they need it.

“Our workers had already been planning vacations and made plans for spring break,” Magrogan said. “They had already spent some of their savings.”

Magrogan described the employees as heartbroken.

“Everybody’s shocked,” Magrogan said. “They can’t believe this happened. They didn’t think America’s infrastructure was weak enough to be shut down by a virus.”

Magrogan said his profits dropped from 100 percent to 50 percent and ultimately to 1 percent very quickly.

He’s looking into getting grants instead of SBA loans because he doesn’t think the hospitality industry should have to pay interest to reopen after being forced to close through no fault of their own.

“It should be 0 percent for 2 to 3 years,” Magrogan said.

He estimates it will cost about $100,000 to open each story. Harvest is a farm-to-table operation. Without being able to freeze its food, it will have to buy all new food to start over, in addition to smaller costs for shutting down and restarting a business. He also questions if people will flock back to restaurants once they do reopen.

“Will they go right back, or will they stay home at first because they’re still afraid?” Magrogan said.

He’s been working with legislators in Pennsylvania to get paid sick leave and unemployment available as soon as possible.

“They’re doing a lot, but they need to move quick on immediate relief,” Magrogan said. “They need to get something to them right away and get moving quickly.”