The Millstadt Commercial Club recently found a way to help both restaurants in the town and vulnerable members of the village. 

It did that by purchasing $2,800 worth of gift cards to local businesses and donating them to the Millstadt Food Pantry and Millstadt Senior Center. 

“We thought it would be good during these times to help restaurant businesses out because they’re slower during the stay at home order,” Millstadt Mayor Michael Todd explained. “We just wanted to help the community out.” 

The club, which hosts events like the annual Millstadt Homecoming, used money it had raised from its events to buy gift cards to establishments including Reinhardt’s Restaurant & Lounge, Smokin’ K’s, Millpond Brewing & Incubator, Coffee Mill Café, Mariachi’s Mexican Restaurant, Breadeaux Pizza, Ott’s Tavern and Papa Vito’s. 

Some of the businesses even donated extra gift cards.

“The restaurants were very thankful for it,” Todd, who is also on the club’s board of directors, said. 

The same was true of the senior center and, especially, the food pantry. 

“Every client they had at the food pantry was able to get a gift card from one of the restaurants,” Todd said. “A lot of the clients at the food pantry don’t ever get to go to the restaurants. It’s a real treat for them. They were very, very thankful.”