Update: After a one-week trial run, Wiltshire Pantry Bakery & Cafe will no longer be offering COVID testing on Mondays due to issues with test results.
Wiltshire Pantry Bakery & Cafe in The Highlands (901 Barret Ave.) is usually a destination for coffee, pastries, and breakfast foods.
This afternoon, though, it’s a COVID testing site.
View this post on Instagram
From 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Mondays starting today (when the bakery is usually closed), the cafe will be open –– but not serving food or drinks –– so that Louisvillians can get tested for COVID-19. Local health startup Communities in Health will provide the PCR testing, which is open to any community member at no cost, regardless of whether or not they have insurance.
Susan Hershberg, who owns all of the Wiltshire Pantry locations in Louisville, told LEO that the impetus for setting up Wiltshire as a test site came when her staff members were exposed to COVID.
Hershberg said that her catering staff are particularly vulnerable to COVID exposures because they’re often around customers who eat or drink with no masks on. Still, her searches for at-home COVID tests and in-person testing appointments for her staff turned up fruitless.
Eventually, though, she learned that Communities in Health was operating a testing site at a nightclub on River Road on New Year’s Eve, where she and her staff were able to get tested.
“They were so amazingly helpful,” said Hershberg. “They asked me how many team members we had, and when I told them, [the Communities in Health employee] said, ‘We'd be happy to come and set up a testing site at your location to have all of your team members tested on a regular basis.’”
She agreed to set up Wiltshire’s Highlands location as a testing site for her employees and the community.
You can register for a COVID test at this link. To choose Wiltshire as your testing site, first select “Any Location,” then choose Wiltshire on the “Schedule Appointment” page.
Keep Louisville interesting and support LEO Weekly by subscribing to our newsletter here. In return, you’ll receive news with an edge and the latest on where to eat, drink and hang out in Derby City.
