When the Bay Area’s shelter-in-place order came down on March 16, Luka’s Taproom & Lounge owner Rick Mitchell watched his business drop 90% overnight, with a small boost when they created a takeout menu.

But the Uptown Oakland restaurant and pub was bustling again Monday with a second name — Luka’s Community Kitchen — and a new mission, working under the umbrella of a nonprofit to feed the unsheltered and vulnerable.

The move is a trend in Oakland and beyond, as restaurant owners have quickly pivoted to a different method of survival, while serving a spiking demand for meals in the community. Organizers have raised more than $20,000 for the project, which means Luka’s could hire back three workers who had been left jobless and the restaurant now has plans to serve more than 1,000 meals per week for at least the next month, while talking to more donors and inviting new restaurants to join the cause.

“It dawned on us that there’s a huge need for meals for people outside the social safety net right now. People like the unhoused,” said Mitchell, who is keeping Luka’s Taproom open to the public for takeout orders. “Our goal is to ramp this up to as many as two dozen restaurants quickly. … That’ll depend on our ability to continue raising money. But there’s a lot of interest so I feel good about that.”

This synergy — helping ailing restaurants, while contributing to a good cause — is catching on.

East Bay FeedER, founded by Berkeley authors Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon, has raised more than $200,000 to purchase meals at full price (with tip) from East Bay restaurants and deliver them to local hospitals. They partnered with the non-profit World Central Kitchen, founded by Jose Andres, a celebrity chef with restaurants across the nation, who has delivered thousands of meals to health care workers and others during the pandemic.

Mitchell says the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce acts as a “fiscal sponsor” for the project, under a 503c nonprofit that the Chamber has used for homeless support and other services for more than 15 years. Meals are going to the East Oakland Collective, Berkeley Free Clinic and other services.

East Oakland Collective Executive Director Candice Elder said the meals filled an enormous need. The organization suddenly lost its primary food supply, from the kitchens of big Silicon Valley tech companies, whose employees are working remotely and no longer donating large amounts of unused food.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit’s needs ballooned from 400 unhoused clients requiring meals to more than 1,000, including elderly and homebound residents with compromised immunity.

“Because of shelter in place, they closed down until further notice, so that left us with no food,” Elder said. “So these restaurants in Oakland stepped up to help.”

In addition to Luka’s, Elder said the collective has received meals from Town Kitchen, Aburaya Oakland Japanese fried chicken, the catering company Nybll, vegan food restaurant Oak Harvest Kitchen and more.

Mitchell said he was a miserable tax attorney when he started Luka’s in 2004; named after a beloved dog. He remembers his first job at Denny’s as a student, making $4.09 an hour on the overnight shift. Mitchell said he wants to stay open and thrive not just for his employees, but all the cleaners, food providers and other outside contractors who are suffering because of the economic impact from the effects of the pandemic.

“We didn’t want to close up and leave all these people we worked with all these years to fend for themselves,” Mitchell said. “We really wanted to find a way to keep some money flowing that made sense for us and made sense for the community.”

Oakland Chamber of Commerce CEO Barbara Leslie said that community spirit has been strong since the coronavirus started to impact Oakland, and she’s been impressed at the response of local businesses, which have quickly changed to online business models, takeout deliveries and other inventive rebrands.

“I think Luka’s is a really important example of that ability to focus locally and pivot in times of great need,” Leslie said. “Where they’re taking their traditional business model, which is food delivery, and pivoting in a way that supports their community, not only their employees but the greater community that is most at risk and vulnerable.”

Mitchell said the response has been strong, with funding from a combination of outside donors (one gave $10,000) and loyal patrons contributing to a GoFundMe online campaign. He said second and third restaurants are expected to join the Community Kitchen project soon, with hopes of a much larger group by the end of the month.

One thing that won’t change: the meals themselves. Elder said Luka’s, and all the restaurants contributing to East Oakland Collective, have been delivering full healthy meals — and the reviews from clients have been fantastic.

“(Mitchell) always checks in for feedback. He wants to know if people are liking the food, and (he asks about) requests,” Elder said. “He expressed to us that he’s treating the unhoused population just like any other customer of the restaurant.”

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub