I’ve been blown away with the outpouring of support from the restaurant community, with many individual businesses rallying and raising funds to feed healthcare workers right now, like: -Escape from New York Pizza -Le Marais -Square Pie Guys -Esposto’s -Andytown (you can buy coffee, pastries, wellness shots from Happy Moose, and Nana Joe’s granola bars for local hospitals and senior care facilities)
Want to help? There’s the newly launched Feed The Line, where people can donate to pay restaurants to make food for overworked healthcare professionals. It’s a win-win: 100 percent of proceeds go to local restaurants, and the food they prepare goes to doctors and nurses. Contribute or sign up!
There’s also Frontline Foods—click here to help them in their SF efforts, although they are operating in other cities too.
There’s also Feed the Frontlines, which includes charities.
SF New Deal has been doing an amazing job working with restaurants to feed San Francisco’s most vulnerable residents.
Restaurants have also been signing up for the SF Clinicians Meal Support Restaurant Program to feed hospital staff
I was happy to read this article about authors Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon donating and privately raising money to feed healthcare workers with food from East Bay restaurants. It’s now known as FeedER and making great strides. Keep it up!
If you’re a hospital worker, these places will feed you if you show your badge. Please click the links to learn how to support these businesses in their efforts! -The Melt -Augie’s Montreal Deli in Berkeley
There are also many programs and generous restaurants doing all they can to feed the community: -support Bistro SF in their affordable meal plan -Horn Barbecue is raising money to feed the community (they launched their first free meal today outside of their Oakland restaurant) -Tacos El Patrón is offering food and grocery boxes to anyone in need -Toma in the Marina is offering to feed people in need (you can pay a meal forward here) -sister companies Mixt and Split have pay-what-you-can and pay-it-forward meals
Up in Sonoma, Single Thread is offering a daily menu for pickup, and working in partnership with @sonomafamilymeal and Corazon Healdsburg to produce 200 meals a day from their kitchen for local families in need. Order and contribute on their Tock page.
Che Fico keeps chugging along with their awesome family meal, now feeding up to 250 people for free nightly (you can donate, or order a meal and pay for it in support of their efforts).
Feeding the Industry is an initiative to feed members of the industry who have lost their jobs.
I’ve been posting about all these programs on @tablehopper on Instagram in my Stories as I hear about them, and archiving them in my Highlights. Please follow along to keep up and support these businesses, as well as the restaurants fighting to stay open by offering takeout, delivery, and now cocktails.
I also want to point you to the many ideas in this James Beard Foundation newsletter on how you can help save restaurants.
Speaking of, here’s a petition for you to sign called Save Restaurants, thank you.
And if you’re a restaurant/bar/service industry worker experiencing hardship, here’s a list of many resources to help you.
And last but definitely not least, if there is any way you can please help La Cocina support their many businesses, it would help more people than you can imagine (starting with their families). First, here’s a list of all their restaurants that have pivoted to takeout/delivery, linking to their GoFundMe pages, gift certificates, and more. La Cocina has also established the La Cocina Emergency Relief Fund to provide much-needed and most immediate financial support to their entrepreneurs.
Launching Friday March 27th, is the La Cocina Community Food Box, with prepared foods from ten La Cocina restaurants in one box (each restaurant is providing an item that is about 2-4 servings). 100 percent of total sales go directly to the businesses. They’re planning for a twice-weekly pick-up. The first box has sold out (awesome!), but please subscribe to La Cocina for updates on the next sale (scroll to the bottom of the web page) and keep an eye on their shop.
If you can find a moment to read this op-ed by José Andrés, you’ll be inspired and ready to support this man in any way you can.
The Summer Elote Corn pizza at Square Pie Guys. Photo: © tablehopper.com.
