Newtown Business Feeds Thousands Of Coronavirus 1st Responders

NEWTOWN, PA — Kathy Buczek has been a fixture in the Newtown community for decades. Now, as owner of The Temperance House, she is using her connections and relationships to give back during a time when many are struggling.

Buczek, who bought The Temperance House in 2015, has spent the past five years transforming the longtime Newtown Borough restaurant and inn into her vision. But in mid-March, when the coronavirus hit, Buczek shifted her focus to two things: safety and giving.

Lauren Abbott, the manager of The Temperance House who has a close relationship with Buczek, said the establishment is busy these days providing thousands of free meals to essential workers and first responders.

"Our first priority is following CDC guidelines. Our second is that everybody on the front lines is being taken care of right now,"Abbott said.

To make that happen, Abbott and Buczek have launched several new programs.

First, they're giving free curbside pickup meals to all first responders. Any police officer, firefighter, paramedic, nurse, doctor or any other first responder can call in an order and get it for free at curbside pickup.

The program is made possible through donations from friends and partnering businesses, Abbott explained. "Responders just call us up and order and they come pick up curbside," she said. The only requirement is that the first responder takes a picture with a member of The Temperance House staff so they can share the photographs with the donors and partners.

Buczek is "the type of woman who just wants to help everybody," Abbott explained. When they decided to feed the first responders for free, they had a big banner made announcing the program and put it up at the State Street restaurant.

From there, it started to take off. Calls for wings, burgers, and other favorites would come in and the response would be: "come on over, we'll take care of you," Abbott said.

To support the free meals program, The Temperance House launched a raffle. Tickets are $10 and the winner gets a prize basket that includes a hotel stay at The Temperance House, a cooler, craft beers, t-shirts, and more.

But they didn't stop there.

The restaurant is also donating meals to staff at local hospitals. They've donated hundreds of meals to Jefferson Hospital, St. Mary Medical Center, Capital Health and more.

"To date we have given out over 1,000 meals to individual and teams of first responders," Abbott said.

That includes 600 meals to Jefferson Hospital, 300 meals to St. Mary, 60 meals to the Newtown Township Police Department, and 40 meals to the Newtown Fire Association, she said. Plus, dozens of individual first responders who've picked up curbside.

And, since early April, they've been collecting donations for local food local pantries. So far, more than 1,000 pounds of food has been donated at two drop off locations at the restaurant. Non perishable food donations are contact free, Abbott explained. "Drop and go we will sanitize any and everything before donating."

The Temperance House staff remains humble in their cause. "We are not doing this for notoriety, we are doing this to help people," Abbott said.

At the same time, the restaurant — like so many other businesses during the coronavirus crisis — is using creativity to stay afloat. They're offering takeout, specials, growler fills, and free delivery within a two-mile radius. They're preparing family meal deals, and some of them — Easter hams, for example— were recently delivered by the business owner and her husband, clad in a bunny costume.

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For Mothers Day, they're planning specials for takeout and curbside delivery. And they're even providing live music through Facebook streams. During the performances, raffle tickets that support the free meals are buy one, get one free.

They're doing it all with just a handful of staff: three kitchen workers, two in the front of the house, and a housekeeper.

Nonetheless, "we're okay," Abbott said. "Is it getting to be a little scary? Absolutely. We are every day just rolling with the punches and trying to create new ways to draw attention to our building."

Business comes in waves, she said. When the coronavirus first disrupted their regular way of business, "all of our regulars came in and supported us." And that, she said, was the initial motivation behind their gesture to support others on the front lines.

Here's more information on an upcoming Facebook Live performance at The Temperance House: