On Oct. 14, Mule Kick announced on their Facebook page that they would be temporarily closing due to an employee testing positive for COVID 19. It was the business’s third post of the day, only two and a half hours after the page posted a congratulatory photo celebrating owner Christy Ouei’s birthday.
“We wanted to be upfront with everybody and let them know what we were doing,” said Ouei about the Facebook post. “The Health Department has not shut Mule Kick down. We chose that as a precaution on our end so that when people come back, they know we are doing everything we can to keep our staff and customers safe.”
Ouie sat at a bench swing under the Mule Kick pavilion, a mask over her face Friday afternoon. She mentioned that most of her employees are students from Southern Arkansas University and that she maintains a staff of almost 30 people, an effort that she said helps to maintain cleaning protocols and to ensure she has a full staff to keep the customer experience up. Only seven of her staff members have not been in contact with someone with COVID 19, which Ouei said would not be enough employees to offer the same level of experience Mule Kick was giving the community before.
Inside the building, three of her employees were prepping pizzas that would be making their way to the community.
“We did a partnership today with Columbia Christian School PTA and I have three employees inside right now that have cooked 50 - 75 pizzas as part of Columbia Christian’s Spread the Light Campaign,” Ouei said. “We were really thrilled the Christian School partnered with us and purchased that food. Otherwise, that would be food we would have to throw away.”
Ouei said that Farmer’s Bank had partnered with them as well to deliver the pizzas from Mule Kick. The pizzas went to the Magnolia Fire Department, Police Department, Sheriff’s Department, Magnolia Regional Medical Center, Compassion Foundation’s Women’s shelter, the homeless shelter and to Premier Urgent Care.
On Oct. 19 and 22, Mule Kick will take 100 to 125 pizzas to the Stew Pot, a food insecurity program that is run by the First United Methodist Church in Magnolia which feeds those in need. Ouie said that the Magnolia Dairy Queen owner also joined in and that she would be purchasing food from Mule Kick to give to the elderly.
Once their self-imposed quarantine is over, Ouei said that they will continue on with the events they had planned, but this did not mean that Mule Kick would be going back to the “same old, same old”.
“Our slogan is ‘never business as usual’,” said Ouei, “The constant with Mule Kick will be change and adapting to situations. Those places that cannot and will not adapt will not be here in 2021.”