April 26, 2020

Nathan Bill’s owner reaches out to home parish and beyond during pandemic

REGIONAL
By Carolee McGrath

 

SPRINGFIELD – When Nathan Bill’s Bar and Restaurant had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they remained open for take-out.

Owner and manager John Sullivan said while  they might have actually saved money staying closed, they remained open because “it’s the right thing to do.”

With a skeleton crew of two cooks, a manager, and dishwasher, Sullivan has been juggling a take-out business and providing meals to first responders, healthcare workers, and members of his home parish, Holy Cross, on Plumtree Road in Springfield since mid-March.

“Right from the start, we started to donate to healthcare workers and the elderly in the community,” Sullivan said.

Nathan Bill’s has donated hundreds of meals and baskets packed with masks and sanitizer out of pocket. But with donations from the wider community, including the gift cards, Sullivan and his workers have been able to provide more than 7,000 meals to date.

“There were actually two or three families affected by COVID,” said Sullivan of families who were stricken with the virus from the parish. “We were dropping off meals, hand sanitizer, and masks with Sister Cindy right from the start.”

Franciscan Sister of Allegany Cindy Matthews is the pastoral minister at Holy Cross Parish. She said both Sullivan families, John, and his manager, and close family friend Joe Sullivan, grew up at Holy Cross Parish. Sister Matthews said Nathan Bill’s provided her and the pastoral staff of Holy Cross meals on St. Patrick’s Day and again on Easter weekend, in addition to gift cards for people in need.

“Some people had donated money to him and asked him to give them to people who needed support during this time. We were able to give those (gift cards) to families who needed the help,” said Sister Matthews.

Some of the gift cards donated to Nathan Bill’s were worth $500. This, in turn, allowed Sullivan to continue making meals for people in need.

“So people were supporting us,” said Sullivan, who added he’s grateful for those supporting his business. “So we chose to keep it close to our neighborhood and donate to her (Sister Cindy).”

 “The elderly were the most affected when this happened. We were getting meals supplied to the elderly, hot lunches, and dinner before grocery stores designated senior hours,” said Sullivan, who served as an altar boy at Holy Cross Parish. The restaurant has also collected personal protective equipment for hospitals and first responders.

He and his wife, Jessica, have two little girls, Autumn and Willow, who attend St. Michael’s Academy preschool. In 2017, Jessica was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was treated at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. Since then, Nathan Bill’s has organized several fundraisers to help others fighting cancer. He said his family has very close ties to healthcare workers at both Baystate and Mercy Medical Center in Springfield.

“I started seeing a need for third shift workers getting left out. I started feeding all departments and shifts. The skeleton crew was kept on until 3 or 4 in the morning. We stayed open and delivered to anybody and everybody,” Sullivan said. He thanks King Ward Bus Lines for providing a bus for all of the deliveries to the hospitals and first responders.

“It’s a perfect way to turn a negative into a positive,” he said.

Sister Matthews said she is grateful for the outreach.

“He tries to give back because people were so supportive of him when his wife was sick. He’s always been supportive of Knights of Columbus when they need something,” said Sister Matthews.

She added that in the midst of this isolation, anxiety, and loss, she is encouraged by people’s generosity and service.

“To me, God is present in every person who is present to the other. To me, God is touching our world right now in the goodness. That’s where God is.  There is a lot of goodness, a lot of pain, but a lot of goodness in response to the pain. Anything that is good is of God,” she said.