By Charles Whiting
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Jeffery Carter Jr. is paying it forward. After receiving donations from the Barstool Fund that helped prevent his business, Dough Boy Fresh Pretzel Company, from closing up shop for good, he’s hoping to help the local food truck community.
Carter, 28, allows one food truck to park on his lot and serve its food for an entire day. There’s also a donation page where the donations go straight to the food truck on site that day. They’ve raised about $2,000 so far.
“From the day that we got the Barstool Fund, until then we kind of knew we had the eyes on us,” Carter said. “Now we need to take care of one another, we got to support the ones that support you. And we know how tough the food truck industry is. We’re a food truck or were a food truck. So, we know how tough those winters are not in COVID, let alone with COVID.”
The Barstool Fund was founded after Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, grew frustrated with the lack of support the government was giving small businesses throughout the pandemic.
“What started as a rant turned into a ‘put your money where your mouth is’ challenge from Marcus Lemonis who said he would donate $500k if Dave started a fund and donated $500k himself,” said Liz Gonzalez, a Barstool Fund volunteer and Barstool employee. “Dave did what most people would only talk about doing: he started a fund.”
Boy Instagram account. Used with permission.
To date the Barstool Fund has raised over $36 million and has provided 300 businesses with ongoing monthly sums to get them through these uncertain and unstable times. The fund sends Dough Boy a check for $15,000 every month, which goes straight to Carter’s staff.
One of the beneficiaries of Carter’s urge to other small businesses in the community is Crossroads Bistro, a local food truck which specializes in fusion cuisine.
“We’ve been on their lot several times,” said Nicole Youse, co-owner of Crossroads Bistro. “There was a donor that all of a sudden was going to match a certain amount and before we knew it, we had a ton of donations. We have a staff of 20 and we had enough for every single person to get an extra $60 that week.”
“COVID has been terrible,” Carter said. “I had to sell my food truck in order to keep us going.”
It wasn’t until Carter heard of the Barstool Fund that things began to turn around for him.
On December 25, 2020, he submitted a video to the Dough Boy Instagram account explaining why they needed to receive help from the fund and pleaded with friends and “loyal customers” to help spread the video so that Portnoy might see it.
Portnoy saw the video and reached out to him the same day to tell him that Dough Boy had been selected to receive funding from the Barstool Fund. Receiving the message on Christmas day was an omen for Carter.
“Every Christmas was when I was making ravioli with her,” Carter said. “We just want to make the most of the opportunity we got. We have the opportunity now. This isn’t where the story ends.”