How You Can Help Support Workers in Virus-Stricken Restaurant Industry
How You Can Help Support Workers in Virus-Stricken Restaurant Industry
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It’s been said before, but let’s repeat it: The restaurant industry is in an unprecedented crisis because of the Covid-19 coronavirus. An estimated two-thirds of the country’s eateries are independently owned, which means that a vast number of the industry’s 15 million workers have lost their jobs or are about to. Look no further than Union Square Hospitality Group, which had to lay off 80% of its staff—2,000 people—when it closed the group’s restaurants. It’s an unthinkable change from mere weeks ago, when the unemployment rate was 3.6%.
This is a time when support for vulnerable restaurant workers—many of whom work, not just paycheck-to-paycheck but hour-to-hour—is crucial. Countless efforts are underway, both big and small. José Andrés and his World Central Kitchen, for example, are here for this emergency, distributing meals to impacted people in such places as New York’s Bronx and Los Angeles. He is turning several of his restaurants into community kitchens, with flexible pricing.
Meanwhile, it’s worth checking to see if your favorite local restaurant has a GoFundMe page going for its staff. If you can and it's safe, get takeout or delivery from as many local eateries as your refrigerator can hold. Those places need every penny they can get right now.
Here is a handful of programs that are doing great work on a larger scale to take care of vulnerable people in the industry.
To solve the twin urgent issues of feeding San Francisco hospital workers and supporting local restaurants, venture capitalist Ryan Sarver has come up with a unique plan: Donors can “buy” chef-made meals for hospital staff. He’s created a system that matches people to restaurants set up with payment platforms (Venmo, the Cash app, for example; the minimum pledge is $1,000). Participating chefs include Chris Cosentino and Kim Alter. In the space of three days, Sarver’s initiative has guaranteed meals for 200 Bay Area hospital workers nightly for two months. Sarver says he’s hearing from people who wish to replicate it around the country, including New York, Seattle, and Los Angeles.
Chef Chris Shepherd’s Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Fund ramped up after Hurricane Harvey, providing funds and care for Houston food-and-beverage employees in crisis. In five years, it has raised $1.6 million. In the face of the coronavirus crisis, Southern Smoke is expanding efforts to help people who have applied from out of state; in just 24 hours it received more than 900 requests.
This capital-based nonprofit has created Hook Hall Helps, a site to aid in-need employees in the industry by providing everything from meals to such supplies as peanut butter, trail mix, coffee, tea, and toilet paper, which it distributes nightly. They also keep the industry abreast of job resources, such as news that Costco is hiring.
New York-based RWCF, co-founded by Bloomberg Pursuits contributor John deBary, is prioritizing assistance to workers facing immediate financial crisis. It has raised $106,000 from individual donors—60% of donations came in units of less than $50—and is distributing money granted from corporations, including a $500,000 contribution from Beam Suntory. RWCF also has an excellent resource page for workers in need of assistance.
The organization that gives out annual awards to outstanding chefs and restaurants (disclosure: I am on the Restaurant Awards committee) has a new fund to help support people in the industry. The fund, started with donations from Patron Spirits Co. and San Pellegrino, is working to help restaurants and bars maintain payrolls while they’re closed and also to provide COBRA and severance to their laid-off workers.
New York’s City Harvest is stepping up to rescue and deliver food to the families of impacted workers, an especially important mission now that the city’s schools are closed, and children have lost access to the meals ordinarily provided. Through April 17, City Harvest’s board of directors is matching every $1 donated with $2 of its own.
The city’s top hunger-relief organization has become an especially important resource for out-of-work restaurant employees. The Food Bank estimates it now needs resources to provide 15 million meals to New Yorkers impacted by the economic downturn, as well as restrained in quarantine.
As USHG was announcing the layoffs, Chief Executive Officer Danny Meyer said was creating a 501(c)(3) employee relief fund and would indefinitely contribute his entire salary to it, as well as money accrued from executive pay cuts. The fund is also powered by gift card sales: A full 100% of the money raised from cards sold through March 24 will be contributed to the fund. In less than 24 hours, gift card sales alone generated more than $275,000 for the fund.
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