Feeding the front lines of the pandemic: A Q&A with #stcharlesmealmission founder Eric Leadbetter

Local songwriter and guitarist Eric Leadbetter and his wife, Briana, headed to St. Charles Medical Center on April 1 for the birth of their son.

They had attempted a home birth, but needed to transfer to the hospital. Their son was born at St. Charles, but family ended up stuck in the hospital for about four or five days in quarantine due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“I couldn’t leave the hospital, she couldn’t leave, nobody could come in, so we were stuck there,” Eric Leadbetter said. “But the hospital staff, the nurses, the room service, the cooks -- everybody was just so cool to us. We asked the nurses, ‘What’s a good way to give back as like a thank-you?’”

The answer from every hospital staffer the couple asked was the same: food. Leadbetter posted something about this online and ended up contacting Lori Walls at The Blue Rooster food cart in Bend, which already was planning a meal donation to the hospital.

“I was like, ‘Well, instead of just donating some, what if I try and raise some money from some of my live stream shows to pay for a meal that will feed the entire staff on duty that day?’” Leadbetter said. “For the full 24 hours. So that first meal I paired up with Bleu Rooster and raised some money from a live stream.”

He started fundraising for what he’s dubbed the St. Charles Meal Mission, #stcharlesmealmission, with his Worthy Roots Relief Fund streaming show April 15. He played the first official #stcharlesmealmission live stream April 20, and plans to continue live streaming at 6 p.m. every Monday at the Leadbetter Music Facebook page.

Since starting the meal mission, Leadbetter has garnered support from the food business and music communities. Musicians including Jeshua Marshall of Guardian of the Underdog, Jennifer Lande, Bill Powers, Bobby Lindstrom, Greg Botsford, David Miller and Evan Mullins have donated a portion of their tips from live streams to Leadbetter’s fund. Bleu Rooster, Southern Accent and Big Ski’s Pierogis have provided meals so far, and this week Leadbetter teamed with SOPA at River’s Place.



Q: Tell me a little bit about how the St. Charles Meal Mission works.

A: It started with the birthing unit. … There’s pretty much five units, and so every week we’re feeding a different unit. And then once we go through all five, which we only have two more, then we’re going to start back over with the birthing unit and just keep going as long as we’re raising money.

What was cool is after the first couple (of) meals came out, Bobby Lindstrom reached out to me and he was like, “Hey, how do I contribute?” That just took it to the next level, and I was like, if other musicians want to contribute, then it would be less on my back. It would be like the musicians coming together donating a portion of their tips, all going towards this cause.

Q: Tell me more about that. How did you end up garnering support from the local music community?

A: Bobby Lindstrom reached out, and then after that some other musicians showed interest, like Pete Kartsounes, Jeshua (Marshall) from Guardian of the Underdog, Bill Powers, Greg Botsford, Lande, who else? David Miller, and then Evan Mullins is jumping on board too. So it turned into the Central Oregon local musicians all wanting to give back to the hospital staff under the circumstances.

A recent meal delivery at St. Charles.

So for me when I thought about it, I was like, well it’s a triple whammy: If I try and raise some money for the hospital staff, then maybe I’ll get some more views, which might make me get some more tips, which would help out me as a musician, because obviously I’m out of work. But then it would also help out the food carts, because that money is then going to … the restaurants, the food carts, it’s going to pay them, so that’s helping them get business. And then it’s helping them get a little bit of publicity to say, hey, so-and-so is contributing to this; go buy their food, go support them. And then it also supports the hospital staff and shows how appreciative we are for how hard they’re working under the circumstances.And then Ben & Jerry’s reached out and they wanted to be part of it, so they’re donating ice cream every single week with the meal that I’m donating through my virtual tips and through collecting some virtual tips from other musicians.

Q: So every Monday is when you do the streams for this?

A: So for me I do every Monday at 6 o’clock, and I take requests. I’m learning requests people ask me to do and playing a bunch of originals. ... The first one I started raising money for it was the Worthy (Roots Relief Fund live stream) Wednesday that I did (April 15). And a lot of that was me just trying to -- I fronted the money for the first two meals, and then was just trying to make some of it back, and that ended up happening, which I’m so grateful. And at that point is when a bunch of other musicians decided to jump on board and start contributing.

Q: I know you do your live stream once a week, so I’m guessing if you perform Monday, do you bring the meals Tuesday? How does that work?

A: I have my contact at the hospital named Becky (Sahadi), and she’s in charge of all the donations and stuff to the hospital staff. So she gives me the numbers. What we’re shooting for is what day of the week has the most staff on, and that tends to be Tuesday or Wednesday, which has been convenient. So I raise the money on Monday, and then the meal goes out on whatever day has the most people in that unit that we’re on for that specific week. So this week, April 29, it’s going to the medical unit; there’s 30 people on staff that day. SOPA’s doing a bunch of chicken fajitas, and then Ben & Jerry’s is bringing ice cream. So for me it’s every Monday. It’s kind of my mission that I started, and I’m really glad other people have taken it and ran with it. Like John Morris is taking the St. Charles Meal Mission -- we’re doing a hashtag, #stcharlesmealmission -- and John took it and ran with it. He’s getting hired to do it kind of on his own, which is great. That was the idea, was to help out other local businesses -- restaurants and food carts -- who need more income right now. So I’m stoked that he’s taking it and running with it and doing it on his own as well. And he’s donating to the hospital every week now under that #stcharlesmealmission, but he’s spearheading that chapter of it.

Q: How long do you plan to do this?

A: Right now we’re almost through May, and the idea is to keep this going as long as this pandemic is happening, as long as I can afford it. I’ve got to make sure I can pay my rent of course, and if that happens, then I’ll just kind of say, “Well the mission was a success, and thanks for contributing.” Everybody can’t donate every week; that’s a lot.

Q: Can you tell me how much you’ve been able to raise so far for these meals?

A: The pot that we’re at right now is $600; that’s how much we’ve raised from my tips and from the other guys . That’s covered all of April meals, and now it’s going to cover the first week of May. And so from then, we’ll just see if we can keep it rolling.

Q: When and where can people tune in?

A: For my stream, it’s on Facebook at Leadbetter Music. One thing that actually Ian Egan gave me the idea, because he’s the one spearheading the Worthy thing. What he ended up doing was a great idea. He was like, “If you share the live stream, that will enter you into a drawing to get a gift card for Worthy.” And I thought that could be kind of fun to do that for the food cart. So last week I said, “Whoever shares this live stream is entered to win a $20 gift card to Bigski’s Pierogies.” And so I think that’s what I’m going to continue to do with whatever restaurant or food cart. Part of the tip money will go to that as well, to paying for a gift card. It’s pretty amazing, the Worthy Wednesday show I did, I think it’s right about at 5,000 views right now, and it’s because so many shared it because of that gift card thing. And so the Monday one I did had just over 3,000 views. I think people like the requests. I have the luxury of having my wife and baby sitting right there, so she’s helping me telling me, “Oh, so-and-so wants to hear this,” or “So-and-so says hello from here.” So it’s more interactive than some of the other live streams that you’ll see, which is fun; I like that.