Amid the national coronavirus outbreak and economic loss, one North Texas restaurant is stepping in to provide for numerous needs in their local community.

Duncanville’s Mudhook Bar and Kitchen, which just opened in November, has responded swiftly to the hard times by giving away hundreds of free burger-and-fries specials to area school district students, donating 2,000 vinyl gloves to the local police department, and setting up a makeshift market at their storefront to offer all kinds of groceries and household supplies for pickup or delivery.

“Why not do it?” said owner Bryan Kaeser. “The community needs help, so we’re here to help.”

Kaeser opened a small market by ordering extra supplies from his distributors that are often hard to get at local grocery stores—things like toilet paper, bleach, and hand soap. Shoppers can also get a slew of groceries at Mudhook: eggs, ground beef, peanut butter, fresh produce, rice, and pinto beans, just to name a few.

“Produce is ready to go, fresh bananas/onions/limes/lemons just showed up!” Mudhook tweeted Sunday.

Mudhook’s school lunch program, which relies on community donations to keep it running, has already provided over 675 meals to Duncanville ISD students.

“Just seeing all the kids that are coming in, getting a hot meal where maybe it’s their one meal a day, it’s just been very gratifying,” Kaeser said.

“I’m happy that someone is taking the initiative to help out because we do have several students that do need the help—or just families in general,” said Javier Canales, who has worked for the school district for 10 years. He went to the restaurant to donate and help on his day off.

The Duncanville Police Department also got some help from Mudhook last week, when the restaurant donated protective gloves.

“Today we were able to donate 2000 gloves to the @DuncanvillePD to help protect their officers and staff while they selflessly serve our community,” the restaurant tweeted.

“@MudHookBar rocks. Thank you,” the department replied.

“I fully believe that this is a ‘what did you do’ moment in our history,” Kaeser tweeted. “We’ve got to take care of one another and make our way through this together.”

Jacob Asmussen

Jacob Asmussen is a Senior Journalist for Texas Scorecard. He attended the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and in 2017 earned a double major in public relations and piano performance.

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