How to Help Restaurants and Restaurant Workers During Covid-19

Let’s be real. We New Yorkers deal with sky-high rents and cramped apartments and a shitty MTA system and streets that perpetually smell like piss because it means we get to LIVE in NYC. We can go to a wine bar that specializes in orange wine and drink obscure bottles from Slovenia if we so please. We can hop on a train to Brighton Beach to down some Uyghur hand-pulled noodles. We can visit Jackson Heights to eat juicy Tibetan momos doused in fiery hot sauce. We have access to the absolute best bagels, pizza, pasta, curries, dumplings, noodles, and barbecue imaginable.

New York isn’t actually beautiful (in my opinion - I’m more of a palm trees and nature gal). The city is beautiful because of what it has come to represent: for so many of us and our parents and grandparents, NYC represents the American dream. It represents hard work, grit, and determination. It represents diversity and culture. And there’s no better way to experience New York’s diversity and history than through its amazing restaurants.

Without these restaurants, New York isn’t the city we love. And right now they need our help.

If you’re anything like me, it’s helpful to have a consolidated list of resources at your disposal: petitions, relief funds, etc. - in order to figure out how to help. So that’s what I tried to do below! This list isn’t perfect and by no means is it exhaustive but it’s a start and I’ll update as I learn more about ways we can help.

I also highly recommend signing up for the weekly BeccaPR newsletter: you can do so here. BeccaPR is one of the top food/beverage/travel PR firms in the country (and just so happens to be my old place of employment). Their weekly newsletter is an easily digestible, consolidated list of resources and is far more organized and comprehensive than this one.

Cheers,

Emily

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WAYS YOU CAN HELP RESTAURANTS + WORKERS RIGHT NOW:

Sign a petition

Signing a petition is easy and simple. These are the 2 main petitions I’ve seen circulating the web:

• Roar Petition: Relief Opportunity for All Restaurants
• 8 main points:
• Double the state unemployment benefit immediately for all furloughed or laid off workers
• Provide rent abatement for the duration of the administrative closure followed by percentage rent through 2020 for tenants.  This must be coupled with mortgage forgiveness for landlords.
• Suspend state sales and payroll tax through end of year.  Permit deferral of utility payments until reopening.
• Maintain current State Liquor Authority payment extensions and on premise sales allowances.
• Require business loss insurance to cover COVID-19 closures for hospitality businesses. The Governor must declare that the pandemic has caused physical loss and damage.
• Declare that the pandemic falls under exemption for state obligations under the Warn Act.
• Place a moratorium on state unemployment insurance premiums so rates are not increased.
• Add flexibility to the definition of small business to allow small to mid-size restaurants to apply for aid.
• Save America’s Restaurants
• Quoting CNN: this petition argues that restaurants and bars “are a critical community pillar, as well as an essential industry that employs millions of people.”  The petition demands “‘swift action’ to help establishments survive through these unprecedented times” which includes:
• Emergency employment benefits to be granted to workers laid off or otherwise affected by the COVID-19 outbreak
• Waiving payroll tax
• Endorsing rent and loan abatement for employees
• Coordination with state liquor officials to allow restaurants offering delivery and take-out to also sell or deliver alcohol by the bottle
• Waiving zoning restrictions to allow eateries to use their space for alternative purposes to continue paying staff and supporting purveyors

Purchase a dining bond and/or gift card

• Support Restaurants - Dining Bonds
• Dining bonds are like regular bonds in that you purchase a “bond” from a restaurant for price lower than face value (for instance, you spend $75 on a gift card worth $100) and can redeem this “bond” at a specified point in the future (usually in around 3—60 days). This is essentially a small loan for restaurants to give them liquid income during this time
• This is a global initiative and the site linked above has more details + info on which restaurants are participating
• Gift Cards
• Another great option is purchasing a gift card from your favorite restaurant to be redeemed at a future date. I don’t have a list of restaurants offering gift cards but many restaurants do - check in with your faves! I just bought a gift card from one of my go-to spots in Greenpoint, Forma Pasta Factory

Participate in restaurant crowdfunding campaigns + restaurant worker relief funds

• The LEE Initiative
• When it was founded in 2015 the goal of the LEE Initiative (Let’s Empower Employment) was to promote diversity and equality in the restaurant industry. Today, you can donate to their Restaurant Worker Relief Fund here.
• James Beard Foundation Relief Fund
• Per their website, this fund will be “gathering support from corporate, foundation, and individual donors to provide micro-grants to independent food and beverage businesses in need”
• Grub Street has a great running list of all the restaurants running their own crowdfunding campaigns and Eater also has a comprehensive list of restaurant + worker relief funds here - highly recommend taking a look and donating where you can

Order Takeout and Delivery

• Eater has a list, updated through 3/18, of restaurants offering takeout + delivery. It’s hard to keep running tabs on this because it’s ever-changing but several of my friends/”colleagues” (is that what I’m supposed to call other food Instagram people??) have also made their own lists. Here are a few:
• @nom_life: https://www.lifeofnoms.com/blog/nycdeliverytakeout
• @befatbehappy: http://befatbehappy.com/2020/03/nyc-restaurants-open-for-delivery-and-takeout-during-covid-19/
• @tooomuchfood: https://www.tooomuchfoood.com/eat/2020/3/17/nyc-restaurants-offering-delivery-during-covid-19-crisis
• And countless other people are sharing helpful information about takeout/delivery on their Instagram stories, like @brunchboys .
• Side note: for the love of god, TIP WELL!!! Delivery people are risking their own health bringing you your food.

Other places to donate:

• No Kid Hungry
• City Harvest
• Food Bank for New York City

Call your senator:

• The capital switchboard number is 202-224-3121. Call, ask for your local senators and representatives, and insist that relief/help be granted to small business and restaurants as part of the federal stimulus bill.

LASTLY

Please read the beautiful caption of this post by @niloumotamed - the former editor-in-chief of Food & Wine magazine. Copied in below in case you’re lazy:

“Remember your favorite restaurants?  Remember that server who cheerfully re-recited the specials when your 6-top was too busy catching up to pay attention? The somm who understood when you pointed to “something in this range,” then brought you a spectacular bottle for $10 less?  The chef who whipped up off-menu buttered noods for your fussy toddler?  The bartender who listened to stories about your “week from hell,” then poured you a sip of something special from the upper shelves? The kitchen crews whose names you might never know, but whose food sustained you through good times and bad?  The restaurant dishes you remember as vividly as your own mother’s cooking—and maybe crave even more?  Let’s not forget them now.  Restaurant workers are suffering more than most right now—and getting little to no government help to stay solvent and stay afloat. This isn’t just about your favorite burger joint going under. The effect will ripple across our communities and economy. Workers in the food industry don’t only feed us; we also put food on their plates. Without our support, they simply won’t survive.  Please, please spare a few minutes today to help…”

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