Fresh Healthy Cafe staffers pack meals for Kids Against Hunger

Fresh Healthy Cafe owners Rick Hetzel and Cheryl Mothes hope to combat food uncertainty in the Cape Girardeau community while also keeping employees on payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The couple, who also run the Southeast Missouri satellite of Kids Against Hunger, have redirected employees to package 100,000 meals for distribution to local organizations.

Hetzel and Mothes own the restaurant at Saint Francis Medical Center, which offers healthy alternatives in a fast-casual dining environment. Opened last year, the cafe grew from the couple’s desire to bring their own healthy lifestyle to Cape Girardeau, which otherwise has limited options, Hetzel said.

As COVID-19 has created economic uncertainty, Hetzel said he wanted a way to provide income to Fresh Healthy Cafe employees while also serving the community. For the past two weeks, cafe employees have packaged more than 200 meals a day. Every weekday, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Hetzel said four to five employees at a time don masks and gloves, put on music and package meals at the Kids Against Hunger satellite’s warehouse.

Fresh Healthy Cafe employee Austin Mueller of Cape Girardeau and Trenton Powell, 11, pack meals through Kids Against Hunger on Friday in Cape Girardeau.Jacob Wiegand

Hetzel said the meals themselves consist of four ingredients: rice, pre-cooked beans or vegetables, fortified soy and mineral powder. All are essential to providing correct nutrition, Hetzel said; the mineral powder is especially vital as it contains all essential vitamins and minerals.

The meals are also vegan, Hetzel said, and can be cooked in several ways. Added with boiling water, the meal can be created into a casserole. The packaged and heat-sealed meal has a shelf life of three years, Hetzel said; they retain 10% of meals for storage in case of emergency.

While Hetzel and Mothes have identified a few local organizations to accept food donations, they are still reaching out to more organizations to reach individuals with the most need.

“We feel there’s organizations in our community, whether they work with the homeless, or church congregations or schools, they know the families and they have relationships with families in need,” he said.

Tackling challenges as a united community is important to overcoming a situation such as COVID-19, Hetzel said. And as the former Cape Girardeau chief of police, he said his mind went immediately to emergency preparedness.

“In terms of COVID-19, I don’t know what the duration of this is going to be. But I do know, being 67 and having seen some challenging times in the United States, I know we will come through this as a community, not as individuals,” Hetzel said.

After the 100,000 meals are packaged and should the need for meals still be present, Hetzel said the couple will continue meal distribution as resources allow.

Organizations interested in distributing meals through Kids Against Hunger can contact Hetzel at (573) 803-1542 or rick@kah-semo.org.