Bend restaurants offering free meals to laid-off workers

'This is a chance to help out those who really need.'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ)-- A growing wave of Bend restaurants are giving back to the community to those in need. As one example, a group of restaurants in NorthWest Crossing have come together to help feed service professionals who are out of work due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

We Are Bend is a collaboration that started Friday among restaurants interested in giving away food to service professionals who have been temporarily laid off. Those include restaurant and bar workers, and those in the entertainment and hospitality industry.

Bend Pizza Kitchen, Sparrow Bakery, Poke Row and La Rosa Mexican Kitchen are the restaurants participating in the effort so far. To receive a meal at the partnering restaurants, all you have to do is share where you've been laid off from.

Many restaurants are seeing a serious drop in customers, so each restaurant is providing food based on what their inventory allows at his time.

"We feel like right now is really a time for everyone to show who they really are," BPK Manager Robert Eisenberg said Monday. "For us at Bend Pizza Kitchen and anyone who wants to provide, this is a chance to help out those who really need. We know all of us working together will get through this."

BPK is offering a free medium pizza and drink. La Rosa Mexican Kitchen will be providing La Rosa Meals that feed up to four people of either a taco or burrito bar. You can also receive a La Rosa Meal from both of its locations on Brookswood Boulevard and at NorthWest Crossing.

Other businesses looking to join the We Are Bend effort you can email BendPizzaKitchen@yahoo.com, or visit BendPizzaKitchen.com to find the latest participating restaurants and partnerships.