Food drive puts O'Toole's extras to use

Faced with an abundance of food when it had to close its dining rooms because of the COVID-19 pandemic, O'Toole's Pub Group found a way to put the food to good use.

Instead of letting it go bad, O'Toole's cooked up some of the food and packed it all up in grocery bags to give away Saturday at its Libertyville restaurant.

"We went to a limited menu and there were items that were going to go bad and we were thinking, what can we do with this stuff? owner Sara McKinnon said. "So we got to talking and then Sysco Foods was generous enough to donate palettes of things for us as well."

All told about 450 grocery bags were filled with perishable and nonperishable grocery items and made available in shifts starting at 11 a.m., when O'Toole's invited the 230 employees it had to furlough to come pick up food.

"It's pretty cool that they're helping us out with some food," said furloughed O'Toole's employee Edgar Flores, who works at the Gurnee location. "It's cool seeing our name being out there and that they're doing all these things for the community."

O'Toole's later opened the line to any restaurant employees who found themselves out of work. Then first responders were invited to take part.

"Our goal is really just to give back to the community, people that are in need in this difficult time that we're all experiencing right now," McKinnon said.

As of 1:30 p.m. McKinnon estimated 150 people had come through, leaving 200 grocery bags still available plus cases of bread, potatoes and prepared items. Anything left over was taken to local food pantries.

She said the restaurant was employing the honor system on how many bags each person could take.

The restaurants, which also are in Lake Villa and downtown Chicago, remain open for curbside dinner pickup with a limited staff.

"We're keeping our heads above water," McKinnon said. "It's a lot of work right now because obviously we don't even have dishwashers and cleaning crews, so the people that are here, they're all in doing multiple tasks per shift. So it's a lot of work, but everyone's trying to stay positive and we're just really excited to have this over and reopen our doors."

• Daily Herald Photographer Joe Lewnard contributed to this story.