A View From The Top

DiBella's CEO discusses serving subs with a side of 'community'

Image: Provided

July 17, 2020

By Peter Fox/DiBella's Subs president and CEO

March 15, 2020. It's a date firmly planted in my memory. It was the day our professional world felt like it started to cave in. But it was also the day DiBella's Subs began to discover who it truly is as a brand.

I sat in my office, surrounded by the rest of our executive team. States were starting to shut down and stay-at-home orders were being instituted. Three questions immediately came to mind that we needed to answer:

How do we keep our team of 800-plus, employed?
How do we survive?
And how do we continue to help serve our communities?

At the time, we didn't realize the answers to those questions were so intertwined. But, what was immediately clear to us was that the only way we would get through this was by working together. Ultimately, the way we would survive — and thrive — would be to help our communities.

So, what could we do? Could we make masks? Not likely. Could we help develop ways to test for or treat COVID-19? No. We could, however, provide comforting meals to support those who were doing the really important work around keeping people safe despite this health threat. We could care for people across the communities we serve. And that's exactly what we did. DiBella's provided food — whether our own or through financial support to food banks to help them feed those in need.

This is how we helped:

Fed more than 314,000 essential and frontline workers with 50% discount.
Offered half-off purchases to any nurse, physician, firefighter, EMT or military member, beginning March 16, regardless of the order's size. Making their day a little easier became our priority.
Donated $365,000 to food banks in five states, providing more than one million meals to those in need

At the same time, we knew our communities were hurting. Some of the same people who loved us were losing their jobs and becoming food insecure. This was unacceptable and we knew we could do something about it. So, from March 16 through March 31, we donated 50% of the proceeds from our regular sales to food banks in our communities. Likewise, Pay it Forward and You Give/We Give campaigns donated 1,100 sub trays and 4,520 boxed lunches to America's frontline heroes.

As those two programs gained traction, another amazing thing happened: DiBella's guests wanted to know how they could help us do even more. Every day guests asked questions like, "Can I leave a $50 or $100 bill with you?" or "Can that go towards the next group of nurses' lunches?"

We loved their thoughtfulness and generous spirit, but we felt we couldn't just accept random cash. Hence, the Pay it Forward program and You Give/We Give boxed lunches began.

Guests could go to our website, dibellas.com/Payitforward, and purchase as many sub trays from DiBella's as they liked for half of their price. Then, we would deliver the trays to the frontline heroes or essential workers of their choice. In addition, while ordering online, guests could add a boxed lunch to their orders that would then be donated to these heroes. If the order didn't already have a discount attached to it, DiBella's would match the boxed lunch donation.

These are just a few of the highlights and reasons why I am so proud of our company. It felt so true to our brand, our culture and our family. So, we looked for other ways to support our communities and on Flag Day in June, we donated more than 4,000 boxed lunches to veterans and VA hospitals in every market we serve to thank them for their service to our country.

These initiatives helped define us as a brand. DiBella's Subs is the restaurant that serves delicious subs, and we're there for our communities when they need us the most. We're there to provide a comforting meal to someone who only has a few minutes to eat. We're there to make their day just a little bit less stressful when it's most needed.

That's how we've helped our communities, and as a result, they've come out strongly in support of us as well. We've been able to keep our restaurants open and provide monthly bonuses to all full-time restaurant employees. In fact, we're growing and actively hiring more people!

Everything we did — and continue to do — through this crisis is for the benefit of our communities. That's what now defines us. What we didn't realize when we decided all this in March, was how much our communities would help us in return.

There's a lot of bad from this current health crisis. But one good thing that came out of it is our collective commitment to togetherness. We're all in this together, and together is the only way we get out to the other side, stronger and better than ever.