Owner Elizabeth Blau and her husband, Chef Kim Canteenwalla, are longtime Las Vegas residents who knew they had to help when shutdowns threatened the livelihood of most people in the tourism-dependent city. They launched Delivering With Dignity, which provided almost 400,000 meals to the city’s most vulnerable, while saving jobs at the small independent restaurants that prepared the meals.
They also dealt with reduced dining-room capacity in the most charming way, with teddy bears in empty seats. Blau and Canteenwalla recognized the value of being visible, hopeful faces throughout the pandemic.
“Customers appreciate communication,” says Blau. “Even though we weren’t serving them face to face in our dining room, we did our best to keep personal communication through social media, weekly e-newsletters and notes from our staff in every to-go bag. And now that we’re back open in our dining room, we feel closer to our customers than ever before.”