Torry Katsiroubas Stamm ’03 distributes produce boxes in Needham with longtime Katsiroubas兄弟. 员工的泰迪. Peter Julian摄影.
While the coronavirus pandemic has forced many business owners to limit interactions with customers, the opposite is true for Torry Katsiroubas Stamm ’03. In fact, the president and fourth generation owner of Katsiroubas兄弟. has seen more faces (albeit masked and from a distance) in the past 10 months than the previous 10 years combined.
The change of pace came after Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker ordered restaurants to cease the majority of their operations in March. Stamm, whose company distributes produce to restaurants all over New England, 投入行动, diverting truckloads of perishable food to local grocery stores as order cancellations flooded in. Forced to lay off half her workforce and with 80 percent of her business up in the air, Stamm invented a new business model on the fly.
“We got together and we thought, everyone eats and we have food here,” she recalled. “How do we get it to people who need it the most?"
The large and small produce boxes contain a different mix of fruits and vegetables each week.
Out of a frenzied brainstorm emerged the Katsiroubas Cares Box: a cardboard container of fresh fruits and vegetables sold directly to consumers at wholesale prices. 一开始, 斯塔姆亲自送箱子, calling restaurant owners to identify staff who might be in need of free food, 然后把它丢在门外. 最终, she set up no-contact pickups at empty parking lots throughout Eastern Massachusetts, inviting the public to reserve boxes online and retrieve them without stepping out of their cars.
The concept took off quickly and, months later, interest hasn’t waned. 在十月一个阳光明媚的下午, a line of cars snaked through an otherwise empty parking lot in Needham, pausing next to a green Katsiroubas兄弟. truck, where Stamm stood with a clipboard. 接下来的两个小时, 她分发了180盒, 每个都装满了西红柿, 桃子, 柠檬, 瑞士甜菜, 和更多的.
“People have likened it to playing ‘Chopped’ at home,斯塔姆说。, referencing the popular cooking show where chefs create dishes from mystery ingredients. “Others say it’s like Christmas in a box because they don’t know what they’re getting. It’s a moment of joy in their day in an otherwise depressing situation.”
Stamm grew up in the offices of Katsiroubas兄弟., a business her great-grandfather started in 1914. While a student at 电子游戏软件—majoring in communication at the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences—she spent Wednesday mornings in the warehouse office in Roxbury, 毕业几年后, she took over the company full-time with her brother, 泰德Katsiroubas.
Stamm’s dedication to the family business extends to the communities it serves. 在大流行的早期, she drew funds from the company’s family foundation to cover the cost of produce boxes for those in need. 从那时起，Katsiroubas兄弟. 与非营利组织合作过吗 新鲜的卡车 和 波士顿地区的拾荒者 以及美国.S. Department of Agriculture to bring fruits and vegetables to areas where fresh food is scarce.
泰德Katsiroubas和tory Stamm
“任何人都不应该挨饿, I think that’s one of the most fundamental things you have to believe as a human,泰德Katsiroubas说, who sits on the 新鲜的卡车 board of directors. “Food insecurity is one of the most important battles that the country, 和 world, faces. It’s important to me to be able to participate in that.”
通过公司的 电子商务网站， Katsiroubas兄弟 .. customers can purchase boxes for donation to local food pantries, many of which have seen surges in demand during the pandemic. The boxes arrive pre-packed and ready to go, enabling the organizations to limit contact between volunteers and guests. Most importantly, they’re packed with food that’s nutritious and fresh, said Stamm.
“I had one person write to us and say ‘My kids got to eat grapes today instead of chips,’”她回忆道. “It feels good to say, ‘We can help you, and we’re giving you produce, not a box of Oreos.’”
作为一个企业主, Stamm draws continuously from her BC experience, in particular the Jesuit philosophy of being a person for others. 虽然她的专业是传播学, 等她毕业的时候, Stamm had amassed nearly enough theology credits for a double-major.
“I feel like I became formed as a person at BC,” she said. “So much of what I learned was about relationship-building and how to help people. The reason we pivoted so fast as a business is because we knew we wanted to be the helpers in this situation.”
自从盒子生产开始, Stamm has been able to rehire many of her employees, and although restaurants have since reopened, she has no plans to abandon the side hustle. In addition to the large and small produce boxes, Stamm recently added an all-fruit box and a trio of Thanksgiving-themed boxes to the mix.
“这是一个非常快乐的过程，”她说. “Half my business right now is something I’ve never done before, but if you’re stuck doing what you did in the past, 这一点都不能让你振作起来. We keep thinking, what else can we do to reinvent ourselves?”
Alix Hacket | University Communications | November 2020