Bend community comes together to help amid coronavirus

Several local businesses pool, use resources to help those in need

(Update: Adding video, more information)

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- At a time when people are being asked to stay at least six feet apart -- "social distancing" -- several businesses in the Bend community are using this critical time as an opportunity to come together and help one another.

Foxtail in northwest Bend is one of those businesses. While the bake shop is technically closed, its doors are still open. People can walk in and pick up free quarts of bone broth, a product store owner and pastry chef Nicole Hayden-Cody said is known to boost your immune system.

"We can't really be next to each other, but we can still go out of our way to help people," Hayden-Cody said.

Foxtail plans on giving away about 120 quarts of bone broth Wednesday and Thursday.

"I just feel like, in this time, it really shows our character and who we are as humans," Hayden-Cody said.

Raganelli's Pizza is also playing a role. Local businesses pooled together about $1,000 because they said some families in the Family Access Network don't have the resources to pick up the free meals some schools are offering. Now, the northeast Bend restaurant can make 50 pizzas to dish out to those families.

"I mean, we're all not going to catch this damn virus, it's just not going to happen,” said Patrick MacCrone, Raganelli’s chief pizza czar. “So if we can just reach out, and if I can do something with other community members, then I'm all in."

Silver Rail Elementary is one of the schools in Bend which has students and parents who need the help. Principal Tammy Doty will be hand-delivering pizzas to those families over the next four business days.

"Those kids will have lunch, and families will be able to eat today," Doty said.

Earthie Mama is making hand deliveries as well, except instead of pizzas, it's dropping off hand sanitizer. The natural health and wellness store hopes to drop off thousands of sanitizer spray bottles to places in need over the next few weeks.

Shepherd’s House Ministries received the first of many cases on Wednesday. Earthie Mama Owner Alex Du Toit said it's especially important at homeless shelters like Shepherd's House and the Bethlehem Inn, because people are in close quarters.

"There is absolutely no hand sanitizer anywhere,” Du Toit said. “There is no alcohol, you can't even make it yourself. So we have the sources, we have the supplies, and we are bulking up production so we can support and get everybody in our community healthy."

Ecolink, a chemical solution supply company, is sending Earthie Mama 16 55-gallon drums of isopropyl alcohol over the next few weeks. Du Toit said that will allow them to make 44,000 bottles of hand sanitizer.

These are just a few examples of businesses in Bend stepping up and playing a role right now. Many different groups are coming up with different ways to reach the same goal; Keep the community safe.