Kevin Coppins saw the devastation first-hand after Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans in 2005, taking with it lives, homes and local businesses in its wake.
When the novel coronavirus hit, Coppins sprung into action to help downtown St. Petersburg avoid a similar fate.
"I worked in New Orleans and after Katrina, I saw what it did to the restaurant world — every place I loved was gone," he said. "I didn’t want the same thing that happened to New Orleans and Katrina to happen to St. Pete. I was thinking as this was going on, 'The biggest thing restaurants have are people.' I saw a lot of effort for health care, first responders, but if (cities) lose restaurants, a lot of what makes St. Pete, St. Pete will be lost."
Coppins is the CEO of Spirion, a St. Pete-based cybersecurity and compliance company that employs over 100 people. Its office is nestled right in the heart of downtown.
"Half of our employees walk to work or eat downtown during lunch — downtown St. Pete is who we are," he said.
He has teamed up with the St. Pete Area Chamber of Commerce to launch the 'This One's On Us' initiative. The goal is to raise funds to provide meals for restaurant employees, either to take home to their families or feed others in need.
"People want to work and need to work," Coppins said. "A lot of restaurants have food inventory they stocked before this, too. It's a way to keep people working and feed their colleagues. A lot of programs give checks, but they only go so far. It doesn't allow restaurants to do what they do best."
Since April 15, Spirion employees have donated a percentage of their paycheck to the program and to date has raised over $9,000, helping feed over 800 restaurant employees.
Spirion and the Chamber hope over the next three months to provide 5,000 meals.
"These restaurants form the very fabric of our local community, economy and culture," Ryan Griffin, chair of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement. "It is in challenging times like this that we must not only come together, but we must show how special our community is here in St. Petersburg. An exemplary example of this sense of community is what Spirion is doing.”
In addition to wanting to help restaurants survive, Coppins acknowledges the culture of downtown St. Pete helps his business in the end.
"St. Pete is a great place to recruit talent to; if we lost restaurants and the music scene and people, it will set downtown St. Pete back a long time," he said. "People go to St. Pete for restaurants, music, walking around, all that great stuff. If we lose it, we won’t be a great place to work and live and will be a lot more difficult to recruit to."
Coppins is hopeful more companies will join in the program to further raise funds and give restaurants not only the funding, but the much needed morale boost during this time.
"I don't think our little efforts alone will save them, but how can we help them get a fighting chance?" he said. "How can we keep the back of the house and front of the house running? They're all trying to stay afloat. If they knew they had a backlog of business it will give them that much more certainty."
