Lunch Box Deli At APG Serves Front Line In Coronavirus Battle

ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, MD — With employees of Aberdeen Proving Ground teleworking, business has slowed at The Lunch Box Deli. Since her restaurant was at a lull, owner Theresa Ray said she wanted to do something to help those battling the new coronavirus pandemic.

“Nobody is coming from upstairs,” Ray said of the customers in her building, where workers from companies like Leidos used to come down for breakfast or lunch. Since these employees are in the tech field, they are mostly teleworking now, under orders to stay at home to slow the spread of the virus.

While other restaurants around the state have started offering delivery since the governor ordered dine-in restaurants to close March 16, it's a bit more complicated for The Lunch Box.

"You can't just drop it," Ray said of a meal at Aberdeen Proving Ground. "It's considered an unmanned package. It has to go from hand to hand. It's not the same as being out in the normal world."

The business also can’t do individual deliveries off base. To leave the post and drive back on, “it’s not feasible,” Ray said. “It takes so long to get off and back on" because of lines at the guard gate.

To keep her restaurant in business, Ray is asking the community to pay for lunches that she will deliver to hospitals and first responders around the region.

People are encouraged to donate $10, which will pay for one lunch.

One man is purchasing 12 lunches a week, she said.

"His wife works in a primary care physician’s office, and they’re already exhausted," Ray said.

He wanted to help so much that he made the first delivery on Friday, at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air, where an employee came outside to accept the lunches.

As of Monday, Ray said 481 meals have been donated.

But now she has a problem: She has had requests for more than 1,200 meals and needs people to donate to pay for them.

There are 230 lunches going to Harford Memorial Hospital and 200 to Upper Chesapeake Medical Center this week, Ray said.

Before the deliveries, she sends the staff the menu, so they can make their selections.

And these are not just any lunches that The Lunch Box delivers. Each $10 meal contains a handmade card along with a sandwich, salad or wrap; bag of chips; brownie or cookie; and drink.

The notes have uplifting messages like “Donut forget you are awesome,” with a picture of a doughnut. Ray said she makes the cards by hand, and they have become a staple at her business. She started putting them in lunch bags about eight or nine months ago, and they've taken off.

"My [Aberdeen Proving Ground] workers collect these things,” Ray said of the “love notes,” as she called them. “They line their cubicles with them. They get recycled through the office, [where] they put them on each other’s desks. So I do not watch TV or a movie without sitting and doing cards.”

She recalled a man in his 60s digging through his bag one day at the restaurant. “He was like, ‘There’s no note,’” she recalled. “These people are the backbone of our nation’s security. They have really stressful jobs and maybe sometimes they come to us for lunch because I have a phenomenal staff who I do really push to ... smile, be personable, love them and that kind of thing.”

Now she wants to send that love out to first responders, health care workers and truckers.

“It’s sustaining their mental capacity,” Ray said of first responders. “Beyond that, it’s knowing that people care. It’s knowing that this was made possible because people in our community donated to your cause."

Ray said she was brainstorming with her friends and the idea for Feeding Our Heroes evolved. The concept is still growing, as Ray alerted Patch she was getting her food truck in gear Sunday after hearing that truckers were finding they had limited options.

“They’re saying with places closing, they’re having a difficult time finding places to eat because trucks can’t go through drive-thrus,” Ray said. “I’m sure we could find a spot off [Interstate] 95 that was safe for trucks to pull off on,” she continued, saying she was considering Maryland House or Park & Ride as possible locations.

"You want those masks, you want those medical supplies. But who’s bringing those to you? People take them for granted," Ray said. “I know I can’t save the world, but … the more donations that come in, the more people we can help.”

For those staying in, “you can get on your computer and donate a lunch,” Ray said.

Lunch Box Deli is at 6210 Guardian Gateway, Aberdeen Proving Ground. Hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.

See more about the Feeding Our Heroes campaign.

See Also:

• The Lunch Box Cafe to Open at APG
• The Lunch Box Packs Up for Good in HdG