Spotlight on Adam Gooch of Common Plea Catering
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Image via Common Plea Catering
The catering industry continues to see tremendous growth in the way of businesses pivoting their offerings and products to give back to their community and meet the needs and wants of clients.
Common Plea Catering has been a shining example of going above and beyond – from feeding front-line heroes with donated meals, creating online cooking demos via Facebook and Zoom, virtual meetings, and more. We sat down with Adam Gooch, Corporate Executive Chef, to discuss some of their recent initiatives, including what their business’s future looks like.
How Common Plea Catering has shifted their efforts
Aside from delivering meals to medical and emergency workers, Common Plea knew that they needed to adjust their business model to bring the party to their clients. In a time where events have been postponed and canceled, it was important that they fill in the gaps to continue serving those that have supported them over the years.
“We have started working with event planners on virtual events, and even a couple where we’ve delivered food to houses so the guests would have a meal during the virtual event to enjoy with each other,” says Gooch. “Along with food, we created a beverage program to offer sangria, margaritas, and Bloody Marys. We’ve also started a new line of products that will be launching the last week of May - CPC Handcrafted Catering - that will focus on home delivery meals, special occasion packages, and to-go business.”
In addition to their efforts of supplying meals to those in need and adding home delivery to their services, the catering company has also managed to make some sizable donations to local food banks on a weekly basis.
What they’re doing to stay safe
Health and safety practices are extremely important to Common Plea, so it’s no surprise that they’ve taken great strides to ensure clients and donated-meal recipients stay safe. Full PPE continues to be required, especially during delivery and food preparation.
“All team members must be screened when entering the building with their temperature taken, safety questions to gauge if they are sick, or have been in contact with anyone who is sick. Everything is documented to show health tracking of our team members. We have also put other health and hygiene procedures into place with full PPE, which involves face masks, disposable aprons, hair nets, and uniforms. There are hourly sanitizing procedures where we are cleaning and sanitizing common touch-points which include handles, rails, doors, and more,” states Gooch.
The future of their events
Like many others in the industry, Common Plea is still in the process of navigating their continued planning process for events and coordinating with clients. Without a clear date of when events will be permitted to resume, they’re doing their best to stay in touch with those previously booked, as well as screening new inquiries.
According to Gooch: “We are continuing to stay in constant communication with all of our upcoming rescheduled events in order to let them know that we are still working hard behind the scenes. Virtual consultations with new clients are also on our radar, and we’re planning events to the best of our abilities. It’s unclear what the future holds but we have to move forward.”
In the meantime, they’ve added online cooking demos to their offerings, making gourmet at-home meals attainable to those during quarantine.
Despite being hit by COVID themselves, Common Plea Catering has truly exemplified what it means to give back. They’ve shared countless resources and hours of their time to make sure people in need are fed, all while pivoting their business to stay ahead of the curve and be accessible to their clients.
