Hello dear friends,

I'm sure you've heard by now that the governor and the state of IL have issued a mandate yesterday afternoon for all restaurants and bars to close for dine-in service. While dining-in is now banned, curbside pick-up and delivery service is allowed. These changes are being made in an attempt to control the spread of COVID-19 and they go into effect tonight (March 16th) at 9pm. We have been working with the Rockford City Market staff and board, as well as our fellow tenants, for the last 24 hours to quickly figure out a plan on how to proceed in the face of all these restrictions. Our C&C crew met today as well to discuss and prepare as a team for these unprecedented conditions.

First and foremost, we are committed to the health and well-being of our staff and customers. Without them, there would be no Crust & Crumbles to begin with and so, from the public safety standpoint, we definitely support these aggressive measures in halting the spread of this terrible virus within our community. But the unfortunate truth is that small businesses, especially newer ones and those in the food service industry like ours, are particularly vulnerable when it comes to closures like this. In one fell swoop, folks are faced with incredible reduction or loss of income to everyone involved on top of the fear and anxiety that uncertainty of the future and health crises cause. It's a difficult situation to balance the question of health with the question of how to make ends meet. In addition, our customers who make the trip out to get their daily coffee or favorite treat or weekly loaf of bread suddenly are facing extra challenges in doing so. I've already gotten multiple messages from some of you asking about what we are going to do and also informing me that there is a bread shortage out at all the grocery stores.

Here's our idea for providing solutions and support for all involved in these extraordinary times. We will be closing the bakeshop Tuesday-Thursday and opening for limited hours on Friday and Saturday for prepaid order pick-up only. We intend to implement a system where these pick-ups are curbside so that we can properly allow for social distancing while getting you what you need. This plan allows C&C to not only provide a safe personal space in-between customers but also in-between our staff and customers. With being closed Tuesday-Thursday, we can stagger work shifts, allow for less employees to occupy our small kitchen in a given time frame, as well as allow more time for people to complete their work. If we are able to gather enough pre-orders to be picked up over the weekend, we can help keep our staff employed in a safer manner even it's not at the full amount of hours as before.

My hope is that all of you reading support this idea on how to move forward and that we can get through this together. We are aware that we probably won't be able to produce the big variety of items we normally offer so in order to prepare what customers truly want and need, we've prepared a very short survey for you to fill out. Here's the LINK and we hope you take the time to fill it out sooner than later. After seeing what demand there is for what items, we can then build our online shop with items you can pre-order that can be picked up later in the week. We are also looking at ways to produce other bread than just our naturally leavened ones. After being made aware that there are no loaves of bread to be found in many stores, we knew that we needed to figure out a way to bake bread that doesn't take as long as our sourdough to make and that can be more easily accessible for everyone in the community. We know that times are tough and we intend to have bread for you that's not going to further hurt anyone's pocket.

People need community and a community needs its people. Please support each other, your neighbors, our safety and health workers who are on the frontlines, and your local businesses. Even if getting bread and pastries is low on your priority list, keep in mind the countless other businesses who are facing the same difficulties as us. I usually make it a point to not spam people's inboxes with constant emails but you may see them more often in the coming days as we announce order and pick up information as well as any new developments regarding state and city mandates. We appreciate your patience, understanding, and compassion during this time.

I hope you and your family stay well,

Jojo

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