Local Restauranteur Gives Back to Community in Need
With a growing population of students at the University of Nevada, Reno needing food and other basic necessities, organizations that help meet these needs are increasingly important.
As UNR’s Pack Provisions program provides daily resources for students, there are also other efforts around Reno that provide community support. Tim Healion, an experienced local restauranteur, provides his perspective over the phone on how restaurants like the one he runs can provide for those in need.
Q: How long have you been in the Reno restaurant industry?
A: About 35 years… A long time.
Q: Focusing on food accessibility, how has Laughing Planet provided food for those in need?
A: Food accessibility is a big problem on the globe, and in the US, and in Reno, and on our block. At Laughing Planet, we’ve used a little phrase — we do good so we can be good. We work hard so that we’re a good place. Currently, we contribute to the Reno Burrito Project. We’re able to budget a couple times a month so many beans and tortillas to donate to the RBP, which rolls burritos and hands them out to people in need downtown.
Q: What do you think it says about the company culture of Laughing Planet or similar restaurants that make food accessible? Why is it important?
A: Without the community spending money, you don’t get to be in business, right? The community takes care of us by patronizing our establishment, so how can we give back to them for doing so? Where is the community in most need? Food is such a basic necessity in life. We’re giving back to the community taking care of us. What goes around comes around.
Q: Would you describe it almost as an obligation to give back?
A: It’s not an obligation, no. You make money, and what do you do with it? You go buy and five houses? Or, you have a nice life and make sure that — if you can — people around you get help. It’s one of the opportunities in life, I think. The way the world’s going, there are just more and more people who don’t have a place to live and don’t have access food, let alone good food.
Q: Do you think local restaurants do a good job of making food accessible?
A: Well, Louis, right now it’s hard for anybody to do anything. Every restaurant in town is struggling to stay open. People aren’t going out, spending money, or making money. With that said, I think… current restaurant culture is to give back and let people know about it. You’re not only making money, but you’re trying to help people.
Q: Can you touch on the free kids’ meals that Laughing Planet provides?
A: Yes, we’re still doing that. Some families count on their kid getting meals at school. When schools were closed, they can’t get those meals. When people found out we were providing food for school kids that weren’t getting fed, they wanted to donate money, volunteer, whatever. It’s good for business to be good out there. You give back to the community and they give back to you.
Q: Do you see one way of helping out better than the other — whether it is volunteering, giving food, or providing funds?
A: We’re dealing with really small groups and small contributions, which are super efficient. When you get to bigger organizations, people are getting paid to work there. The Food Bank of Northern Nevada, for example, has a facility with a mortgage and insurance. When we give beans to the RBP, every single one of those beans goes to a person who doesn’t have a house and needs food. The RBP is awesome, as are the small farms around Reno. There are a few things here that are really great, and I hope other restaurants participate in them.
Q: Do you have any ideas about how restaurants can provide food going forward in the near future, looking at the rest of the pandemic and beyond?
A: The trick is to do a really good job at your business of the restaurant. Take really good care of people, make really good food, make sure you don’t waste a lot of food. You have to do a really good job of all that to stay in business and to have something left over to contribute. Make sure you’re doing a good job of being a restaurant that people continually want to go to, and one that will be profitable. Again, we work really hard to do good so we can be good.
Note: Quotes have been edited for clarity and brevity.