Hello, friends. How are you doing? I’m sure each of you has a different answer. Sending love and best wishes and I hope you’re getting support from your community. Now is the time to ask for any help—there are a lot of people offering time, support, services, money, food, resources, and even just listening (since we can’t hug right now). And if you have anything to give, it’s all so appreciated. Keep on looking out for each other.
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). Plus, if you’re a hospital worker, places like The Melt and Augie’s Montreal Deli in Berkeley will feed you if you show your badge. Please click the links to learn how to support these businesses in their efforts!
Restaurants have been signing up for the SF Clinicians Meal Support Restaurant Program to feed hospital staff, and there are also resources like 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! Same goes for Feed the Frontlines, which includes charities. I was also 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. Keep it up!
There are also many programs and generous restaurants doing all they can to feed the community. You can 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, and 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).
And if you’re a restaurant/bar/service industry worker experiencing hardship, here’s a list of many resources to help you.
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 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.
And now, I have a request. I’m really running out of bandwidth over here, and some of you kindly offered to help me last week, which I really appreciate, so very much! (Huge thanks again to Sean Timberlake for proofreading my column today!)
I’m now looking for someone to help me write and launch a petition on behalf of the restaurant industry. If you have experience in this realm (marketing, PR, outreach, policy) and some spare time to help, I’d love to hear from you. I’m also going to need someone to help create some graphics. Thank you, angels!
Sending love and support and remote hugs. Be well, be kind, and try to rest well and get some good sleep. We need you healthy and strong—this is a marathon.
Love, ~Marcia
The extraordinarily delicious miso ramen I had delivered from Kirimachi. Read more about their ramen kits in my post on Instagram. Four servings for $40! #supportsmallbusiness Photo: © tablehopper.com.View tablehopper Newsletter from Wednesday, Mar 25 2020
