Area campaign — Share The Love Not The Virus — grows quickly

Knickole Barger, co-owner of Knick’s Tavern & Grill in the Southside Village neighborhood, just outside downtown Sarasota, first reacted to the coronavirus pandemic business shutdown like everyone else. Her initial thought: “How are we going to stay in business?”

Or, in Barger’s case, “How,” she wondered, “are we going to keep the 14 families who work for us on the payroll?”

A Sarasota native, Barger soon went from feeling sorry to forging a plan: With Knick’s Tavern & Grill down the street from Sarasota Memorial Hospital, she reached out to SMH officials about an idea, to make and deliver meals to the health care personnel on the coronavirus frontlines. That was the beginning of Share The Love Not the Virus — a campaign that does three things: It helps keep restaurants in business, pumping out meals; it feeds SMH employees for free; and it provides a way for Sarasota area residents to donate to local cause.