Round Table Pizza gives back to those working on the front lines

When Round Table’s Corporate offices reached out to Rachel Hobbs about making a donation in the community, her first thought for that donation was the Carson-Tahoe Region Medical Center and the hospital staff working on the front lines to battle the Coronavirus in the Carson City community.

Hobbs serves as the general manager of the North Carson Round Table located at 3325 Retail Drive and said that Carson-Tahoe hospital has placed big orders in the past, even after Round Table was forced to close its dine-in portion of the store due to the virus.

“That’s a huge part of our business,” said Hobbs of the dining room. “They (Carson-Tahoe health) placed giant orders with us each week. It was very supportive and gives my employees hope that we will continue to have business.”

That hope goes both ways as Hobbs’ employees pooled their own money to add on to donations given by the company.

What was originally planned as a five pizza donation turned into 20 pizzas delivered at 11am and 9:30 p.m. Friday for the medical staff at the hospital.

Hobbs’ told Round Table of her employees determination to assist in any way possible.

“When I let Round Table know that, they were really moved by what my team had accomplished, so they really wanted to just pay for the order and wanted me to give all the money back to my employees to keep in their pockets,” said Hobbs.

Even though Round Table covered the money raised by its employees, those same workers still wanted to contribute that money to a worthy cause.

The impact of being able to hand off food to those fighting on the front lines hit even closer to home for Hobbs when she recognized one of the nurses during the 11am delivery.

“It really brought the reality of there are people that I know that are working on the front lines of this,” Hobbs said.

The in-person experience made Hobbs want to do more.

“What can I do to make their lives easier? I think this is probably the most moving thing I’ve done in my whole Round Table career,” Hobbs said. “Probably, in my life, one of the best things I’ve done. I feel so giddy inside.”

Plans for more donations

Even though Round Table wants its Carson employees to put their donations back in their pockets, Hobbs and her staff still want to give that money to a worthy cause.

Hobbs said she’s considered several options such as Nurses Week in May and has also approached other businesses in Carson City to join in their efforts.

In her efforts, Hobbs said that she is talking Hettrick Electric about potentially feeding 150 people with another round of donations.

“I want to make that happen,” Hobbs said. “I do have the employee donations – which they said they wanted us to keep – but we’re going to reach back out and see when we can donate back to them in a week or two, or at the end of this, whatever they want. Whatever we can do to give back to them and make their lives a little bit easier.”