Help Pond Farm Hourly Employees

Hi all. It's me, Stephanie - co-owner of Pond Farm Brewing Co. in San Rafael, CA.

Like many other small businesses in our community, Pond Farm is struggling with the impacts of COVID-19. However, I'm not here to tell you about all the reasons the business is suffering - I am making this appeal entirely on behalf of our employees who rely on their jobs at Pond Farm for survival.

100% of the funds raised through this campaign will go to our 11 regularly scheduled beertenders to help them in this difficult time.

If you've ever been into the taproom, you know we have an incredible staff and Trevor and I consider them extended family. There's no way Pond Farm could have gotten this far without our team. Heck, only two months into being open we had to take several days off when we had our 2nd child and the team held down the fort. I'll never forget checking my phone from my hospital bed and seeing a 5-star review come through and thinking "Phew, I can relax. Our beertenders have got this." It was a major relief.

That's why it's been so hard for us in the past few weeks to have to cut hours down to practically nothing.

We are of course helping our team explore emergency assistance through the California Economic Development Department and there have been new federal laws signed to offer employees paid leave, but only employees' hourly wages are considered - not tips - which, anyone who has ever worked in the service industry can tell you, is where they really make money. 

We're fortunate that we can still at least partially operate offering to-go beer, but this only brings in a fraction of the business we'd normally see and we've had to significantly reduce employee hours. When they are able to get some hours, tips are lower, too, due to lower sales.

Please, if you have enjoyed your time at Pond Farm in the past, consider donating to the crew that makes it run. We REALLY want them to be around when the time comes to open up fully again.

Be well,
Stephanie

UPDATE: We are overwhelmed by the support for our employees! Thank you! We will keep the campaign live for a while longer, but plan to make a withdrawal soon so that we may distribute the money to our employees. We'll be splitting up the funds raised proportionally based on the number of hours each employee works on average.