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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Coronavirus

The Spoon team is working hard to bring you the latest on the impact of COVID-19. Bookmark this page for our full archive on the pandemic and how the food industry is embracing innovation to fight back.

On April 6th, The Spoon had a full day virtual summit on COVID-19 strategies for food & restaurants. You can watch all the sessions from our virtual strategy summit here.

You can also check out this COVID-19 resource page for food and restaurant industry.

Uber Eats Launches an In-App Donation Button for Restaurants

Uber Eats has added an in-app donation feature to its checkout process in some locations that lets customers contribute extra cash to a restaurant. The company said in a blog post that 100 percent of donations will go directly to the restaurants. 

Once a user proceeds to checkout within the Uber Eats app, they will see an option to give $2 to the restaurant. Uber Eats will match donations dollar-for-dollar up to $3 million to the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund. The company is also contributing an additional $2 million to the fund, which goes towards restaurant workers whose jobs have been impacted by mandatory dining room closures. The National Restaurant Association, which runs the fund, predicts the loss of millions of restaurant jobs over the next few months.

Uber Eats’ donation fund comes on the heels of some donation controversy Yelp found itself at the center of recently, when it launched a fundraiser with GoFundMe for local restaurants without actually getting those restaurants’ permission. There was no opt-in option, and according to some restaurants, the opt-out process was overly complicated. After quite a bit of bad press, Yelp paused the program. 

Uber Eats’ donation program doesn’t have an opt-in option, either. The company says restaurants can opt out easily if they choose, and the decision to bolt donations onto the checkout process may be less intrusive for restaurants than setting up a full-on fundraiser without their consent.

Uber Eats previously announced it was waiving delivery fees for customers of independent restaurants in the wake of the ongoing pandemic that’s disrupted daily lives and business. However, the service is still charging restaurants high commission fees on every order. Small donations from customers aren’t going to offset the financial burden of those commission fees.

Uber is trialing the donation program in NYC and plans to expand the program to other U.S. cities this week.

Watch Live: The Spoon’s COVID-19 Virtual Strategies Summit

We’ve spent the vast majority of our time over the past month covering how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting the food business. Today, our editorial team is setting out to provide strategies that food businesses can implement right now to help navigate these unprecedented times.

We are hosting our first ever Virtual Strategies Summit, this one focusing on the coronavirus outbreak. We’ve brought in a ton of great speakers (see full list below) to talk about everything from legal considerations for restaurants, changes to the grocery store and food waste, and even where to find some hope in these dark times.

Because it’s all online, the whole event is appropriately social distanced. Plus, you’ll be able to ask questions of our experts, and like you, none of the participants have had the chance to cut their hair in the past month. We are definitely all in this boat together.

The event is free, and you can register and watch the sessions by going over to our CrowdCast page. It starts at 9 a.m. Pacific time. Hope to see you there.

powered by Crowdcast

Speakers

Chef Mark Brand – Founder of Save-On Meats 

Sara Roversi– Founder of the Future Food Institute

Dana Gunders – Executive Director of ReFED

Phil Lempert – the Supermarket Guru

Peter Van Stolk – CEO, Spud.ca

Caesaré Assad – CEO, FS6

Paul Freedman – Professor of History at Yale University and author of American Cuisine: And How It Got That Way

Ryan Palmer – Partner at Lathrop GPM, chair of firm’s Restaurant, Food, and Hospitality group

Sterling Douglass – CEO, Chowly

Robert Egger – Founder of LA Kitchen, Fu*kingsh*tup

Michael Wolf –  The Spoon

Chris Albrecht– – The Spoon

Catherine Lamb – The Spoon

Comfort Food & Scratch Cooking: What the Data Tells Us About COVID-19’s Impact on Home Cooking Habits

While it’s hard to see the bright side of things during the dark days of the coronavirus pandemic, one potential silver lining is the fact most consumers are cooking more at home. Research has shown that home cooking not only often can lead to healthier overall lifestyles, but it’s also a good life skill to teach kids.

And whether you’re taking a casual tour of social media or looking at data from any number of sources, signs today definitely point to more of us making our own food. A lot more of us.

But what specifically do the numbers say? First, that a lot of people are learning to make certain types of food for the first time.

Whether it’s something as simple as making rice…

Or something a little more complicated like making bread, interest has spiked to all time highs.

But it’s not just Google searches that are shifting, but actual purchase data of cooking equipment. According to NPD analyst Joe Derochowski, demand for gear to make food at home has jumped significantly.

According to tracking data from NPD for the week ending March 21st, purchases of bread makers were up 800% when compared to the same week a year ago. Electric rotisseries were up nearly 4 times the previous year, while pasta makers were pacing at 3 times their normal sales when compared to a year ago.

While people are learning the basics and scooping up housewares to help them prepare more food at home, they’re also looking for recipes that lets them pinch a penny or two. Chicory, a shoppable recipe app platform used by recipe publishers, has seen a spike in interest for low-cost “bowl food” like soups and stroganoff.

The table below shows a snapshot in time look at the top daily recipe views near the end of March:

What the table data tells us is that people are making comfort food that can stretch a buck, which is not all that surprising since many of us have been thrust into financial uncertainty in relatively short order.

While there are many differences between the great recession and today’s crisis, it is instructive to look at what happened then to get an idea of how behaviors changed during the downturn. Data from NPD shows those categories that saw an increase between February 2007 (pre-crisis) and February 2010 (post-crisis) were pasta dishes, bread and cereal.

In other words, not only did we look to make food that was affordable such as pasta and casseroles then, but we also consumed more carbs, which tend to be cheaper than protein-heavy foods.

And while we are once again cooking more food that will feed us more affordably, unlike the 2008 and 2009 time frame, early indicators show that recent behavior shifts might be driven in part by a desire for food self-sufficiency rather than just saving a buck. Data from Chicory shows in the chart below there’s was a massive spike in mid-March in interest in scratch cooking.

Naturally, part of the interest in making things like corn bread and cookies is due to most of us having more time on our hands, but I also have to wonder if the rapid growth in interest in things like making things like tortillas and basic bread is because some consumers worry they might have to make these staples at home for the foreseeable future.

How permanent these behavior shifts will be depend in large part on how the COVID-19 crisis resolves itself over the course of 2020-2021. My guess is the lingering effects of the Coronavirus crisis will be longer and deeper than that of the great recession and, ultimately, result in more permanent behavior changes than we saw from the last big downturn.

Newsletter: How to Support Restaurants Right Now Without Endangering Everyone’s Health

To do my bit in supporting restaurants right now, I’ve been ordering from them once every few days for the last couple weeks. More times than not, it’s been a logistical circus that winds up costing a lot of money and, especially lately, unnecessarily putting workers’ health at risk.

Case in point: Tuesday night I ordered online from a local burger place. While the system gave me a “curbside pickup” option, there was no curbside at which to actually park once I arrived at the restaurant. Rather, I joined a crowd of other people clustered in front of the restaurant. A lone worker frantically ran in and out of the restaurant calling names as she tried to determine which order belonged to which customer. No one wore gloves and no one was standing six feet apart.

The inconvenience of the experience is the least problematic part of this example. Far more unsettling are the financial and health risks of running an off-premises business when you’re not an off-premises restaurant. Through no fault of its own, that burger place is not equipped to efficiently manage the volume and logistics of a curbside business. It’s never had to until now.

Restaurant owners and industry folks have long argued that the dine-in experience differs greatly from a to-go operation, and that one can’t simply flip a switch and be asked to transition from one to the next without a hitch. And yet that’s exactly what thousands of restaurants across the country are at this moment being forced to do. And what you get is a scene like the other night, where there isn’t enough staff to even pick up the phone, let alone manage the influx of orders going out and customers waiting. Staffers are interacting with way too many people than could possibly be safe, and everyone’s health is at risk. There’s also evidence that an off-premises strategy isn’t even financially fruitful for many restaurants.

Is it really worth it or is there another way to support restaurants that desperately need a lifeline as dining shutdowns and COVID-19 ravage the industry?

The answer, fortunately, is “yes.” Shortly after states began mandating dining room closures, charities and funds began popping up online. Last week I wrote about virtual tip jars for servers and bartenders out of work right now. And some of these funds go directly to restaurants themselves.

The James Beard Foundation has launched a Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund that accepts donations from corporations, foundations, and individuals to provide micro-grants to independent food and beverage businesses.

Dining bonds and gift cards are another route. The Dining Bonds campaign was started by a group of industry professionals to get immediate relief funds to restaurants. It works like a savings bond: guests purchase a bond at today’s value rate and can redeem it for full face value at a later date. Support Local lets you purchase restaurant gift cards from independent businesses in a number of cities. They can be redeemed now or, if you’re not feeling up for off-premises, later on, when dining rooms open again.

Initiatives like these aren’t a magic bullet. But they do provide some other avenues for supporting restaurants, whether you’re trying to avoid other people or just looking for a way to give a little extra help.

Running a Restaurant? We Want to Hear From You

If you’re reading this and also happen to be a restaurant owner, operator, or worker, help The Spoon help you. We’re currently collecting stories, tips, and ideas about what it’s like to actually live and work in the restaurant biz during this strange, unsettling time.

That includes anything from new strategies to make delivery and takeout more efficient to how you’re keeping yourself and your workers safe. And, this being The Spoon, any stories of how you’re using tech to help cope with this situation are most welcome. But before the tech comes the people, which is why your voice is the most important piece of our ongoing coverage and narrative.

Drop us a line a tips@thespoon.tech or DM me via Twitter.

It’s Almost Here: The COVID-19 Virtual Strategy Summit

If you’re a restaurant, food business, or food tech company, join us next week for a virtual summit on how to do business in the age of coronavirus.

On Monday, April 6 The Spoon will host the COVID-19 Virtual Strategy Summit for Food and Restaurants. No travel required to get there and 100 percent socially distant, this online summit will features talks and fireside chats from leading experts including:

  • Chef Mark Brand – Founder of Save-On Meats and creator of the Token Program to feed those in food insecure situations
  • Caesare Assad – CEO of FS6
  • Sara Roversi– Founder of the Future Food Institute
  • Dana Gunders – Executive Director of ReFED
  • Phil Lempert – the SuperMarket Guru
  • Paul Freedman – Professor of History at Yale University and author of American Cuisine: And How It Got That Way
  • Ryan Palmer – Partner at Lathrop GPM and chair of firm’s Restaurant, Food, and Hospitality group

Register today.

Keep on truckin’,

Jenn

Indian Delivery Service Zomato Launches Relief Fund for Restaurants

Zomato, one of the largest third-party food delivery services in India, announced this week it has launched a fund to support restaurants whose business is impacted by COVID-19. All sales of Zomato Gold memberships in April will go into the Zomato Gold Support Fund, according to a blog post from the company. Proceeds from the fund go towards “restaurant housekeepers, cooks and servers in these uncertain times.”

Zomato Gold is the service’s premium membership pass that gives customers “buy one get one free” deals on purchases. For the month of April, customers can purchase a one-year membership to Zomato Gold for ₹1200 (~$16 USD) or extend an existing membership another year for the same price. Those that do, get an additional year of Zomato Gold for free.

The company notes that anyone receiving these funds will not be required to pay them back (something that’s not been the case with every third-party delivery service’s COVID-19-related offers).

India is currently in the midst of a three-week-long lockdown — the world’s largest — with all factories, markets, shops, houses of worship, and other public spaces closed for the country’s 1.3 billion people. Like other countries around the world, restaurants can continue operating for delivery, but that puts many in-house employees out of work for the time being. 

“Restaurant workers face a twofold setback, many have modest backgrounds, and coming from small towns, are stranded away from their homes,” Gaurav Gupta, the cofounder and COO of Zomato, wrote in the company’s blog post. “And a cash-strapped industry is struggling to provide sustenance for them and their families as business comes to an abrupt halt.”

Gupta recently noted that the Zomato Gold fund is currently happening in India and the UAE. 

The Relish Stock Tracker Helps You Locate Hard to Find Grocery Items

The Spoon’s North Star during this time of pandemic has been ‘how can we be of use?’ Well, you’d be hard-pressed to find something more useful for a nation desperately searching for toilet paper and bread flour than the Relish Stock Checker.

Launched today by Relish, an online meal planning and grocery shopping tool owned by Fexy Media, the Relish Stock Checker is a free tool to help you locate 50 of the hardest-to-find grocery staples (think: paper towels, pasta, sugar, canned beans, etc.) at nearby Targets and Walmarts. Just enter your zip code and the Relish Stock Checker will help you see which store locations in your area have these items in stock.

While stores are returning to normal after a bout of pandemic-induced panic shopping, there are still empty shelves for many of the staples people need to stock up on. In a time when actually going to a grocery store can potentially expose you to others with COVID-19, knowing ahead of time if a store has the item you need can help reduce risk by cutting wasted trips.

We don’t know how up-to-date the Relish Stock Checker is (Relish is tied into Walmart and Target’s APIs because of its shoppable recipes). Even Walmart and Target’s websites can be out of date by the time you actually get to the store. But at least Relish is providing some indication of available stock, and lets you aggregate results from both Walmart and Target without having to go to their sites individually.

The other bummer, if we can even call it that in these crazy times, is that Relish Stock Checker only works with Target and Walmart. In the press announcement, the company says that it will be adding more locations and grocery items in the coming weeks. There will even be a module where shoppers can submit suggestions for items they want to find.

Once the company does that, the Relish Stock Checker will be even more useful.

Sweetgreen, Taco Bell Using Their Off-Premises Muscle to Feed Hospital Workers Fighting COVID-19

Sweetgreen today announced the launch of its Sweetgreen Impact Outpost Fund, a partnership with José Andrés’ World Kitchen Center (WCK) that aims to get more food to front-line medical workers in hospitals, according to a company press release. 

The new fund comes just on the heels of Sweetgreen’s Impact Outpost program, which launched two weeks ago to get free Sweetgreen meals to hospital workers and medical personnel. Outpost is Sweetgreen’s delivery-catering hybrid service that operates portable drop-off sites for deliveries. Up to now, Outpost has been seen more commonly in corporate offices.

The Impact Outpost program places these drop-off stations in hospitals. After launching the program, Sweetgreen received a ton of feedback from both large corporations and individual customers wanting to support it through donations. The new partnership with Andrés’ non-profit is a way to provide this as well as increase the number of hospitals receiving meals from Sweetgreen.

From the press release:

“Through the fund, corporations, sponsors and customers are able to join sweetgreen and WCK’s efforts to feed more front-line medical personnel working in hospitals, while also helping fund new Outposts in relief sites, including schools, senior centers and in vulnerable and high-risk communities.”

You can donate directly to on the fund’s website, and even make a donation in memory or honor of someone. The site notes that this fund will remain open “for as long as needed,” and that right now, the goal is to deliver at least 100,000 meals to workers. 

Sweetgreen is one of several notable restaurant brands now using their established off-premises platforms to deliver food to frontline workers. Also this week, Just Salad announced a partnership with Mount Sinai to deliver 10,000 meals per week across seven hospitals in NYC boroughs Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens.

Taco Bell has turned its Taco Trucks, which are food truck versions of the QSR, into mobile commissary kitchens that bring food to frontline workers. “While most of our restaurants are operating only through the drive-thru, this leaves some truck and ambulance drivers unable to quickly order from us,” company CEO Mark King said in a letter. He added that the chain is working with its franchisees to make this service available “where possible.”

Finally, Chipotle, another QSR with a booming digital business, is giving away free burrito boxes to healthcare facilities. The boxes come with 25–50 burritos, depending on how many are needed, and will be delivered between April 6 and April 10. DoorDash, with whom Chipotle has an ongoing delivery partnership, will handle the last-mile fulfillment of the orders.

There are bound to be plenty more restaurant brands using their existing digital and delivery strategies to more easily and efficiently get meals to workers while the pandemic lasts. And judging from the latest news, that could be a while. Stay tuned.

Wow Bao Launches an Off-Premises Platform for Other Restaurants

Chicago-based Wow Bao is expanding its presence across the U.S. by opening ghost kitchens inside other restaurant brands’ stores. The fast-casual chain just launched an off-premises platform that allows other restaurants to make and serve Wow Bao’s products via third-party delivery channels and keep the revenue from those sales, according to a press release sent to The Spoon. In exchange, restaurants pay a product fee to Wow Bao to use the platform. 

While it might at first sound odd to add a sales channel to your business by selling another restaurant’s menu, but Wow Bao President Geoff Alexander thinks this strategy could work for just about anyone. “We believe any restaurant can be a ghost kitchen serving Wow Bao,” he told me this week over the phone.

Once a restaurant is onboarded to Wow Bao’s off-premises platform, they are sent their first food shipment and can start selling the chain’s menu items online via third-party delivery channels like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Postmates. Items are sold via an entirely separate menu Wow Bao provides and manages; the Wow Bao name appears in those delivery apps, and restaurants only have to prep the food in their kitchens and hand it over to a delivery courier.

Using a hypothetical Italian restaurant as an example, Alexander explained that kitchen staff might be cooking their usual pasta fare when a Wow Bao order comes through the ticket system. Without really interrupting the flow of the regular work, a chef or staff person could quickly put the item on the stove to cook or steam and continue going about their usual tasks. 

Nor is it a lengthy, complex process for a restaurant to get set up on the platform. Businesses pay a startup fee of $2,000 to get set up with reference books, a supply chain, digital marketing, and any necessary equipment. Wow Bao will also help restaurants get set up on third-party delivery platforms if they aren’t already, and the flat fee also includes the first order of to-go packaging supplies.

Versions of this concept exist in the restaurant industry. In 2019, Fatburger turned some of its stores into ghost kitchens selling food from the chain’s sister brands. However, that operation remains within the Fat Brands family. Wow Bao, on the other hand, wants to make its off-premises concept available to anyone — chain restaurants and independents alike — in the hopes that it might be able to increase sales.

Restaurants need all the help they can get in terms of improving their bottom lines. Right now, 3 percent of restaurants have already shuttered permanently, according to the National Restaurant Association, and another 11 percent anticipate doing the same within the next 30 days. Those hanging on are struggling to quickly pivot to a delivery/takeout model in the hopes that those off-premises sales will be enough to keep business going during dining room closures and social distancing.

Alexander told me this concept isn’t actually a response to pandemic or subsequent restaurant industry fallout that’s currently happening, it just happens to line up timing-wise with current events. “We think we found a way to grow our brand and more importantly help restaurants at this time,” he said.

There aren’t yet numbers to show if this concept will indeed be profitable for other restaurants, though Alexander told me restaurants could make as much as a 40 percent bottom line profit with little extra labor and almost no disruption to daily operations. “We believe we have created something restaurants can survive with,” he said.

At the moment, Wow Bao is operating one of these ghost kitchens in the San Francisco Bay Area. Miami is next, followed by several other cities over the next few weeks.

Harvie’s Customizeable D2C Farm Sales Platform Could Help Local Growers Survive

Connecticut farm Farmer Joe‘s Gardens announced today it is partnering with Harvie, an online farm share platform, to pivot and serve people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pittsburgh, PA-based Harvie connects people online with local farm shares, also known as Community Supported Agriculture (CSAs). By using its service, Farmer Joe’s Gardens can specialize its CSA boxes based on individuals’ preferences. “For 10 years, we’ve packed a standard box of food for each member regardless of what they like and what they don’t like,” Farmer Joe noted in a press release. “We now have the technology that allows us to customize each box, so we make sure each member gets what they want.”

Going forward, Farmer Joe’s Gardens will go onto Harvie’s platform and enter a list of all its available crops. At its core, Harvie is a D2C sales platform connecting small farmers with local consumers. Harvie’s algorithm will match the crops to each member’s preferences to optimize their order, which can be one-time or a subscription box, like a CSA. It sends the lineup to the customer, who has 24 to 48 hours to make changes and order extras from the farm, like milk or eggs. Harvie then sends the optimized order back to Farmer Joe’s Gardens, which takes care of the fulfillment and delivery.

To be clear, Harvie does not actually grow any crops itself — it just manages farm share subscriptions for agricultural producers. According to Harvie’s CEO Simon Huntley, who spoke with me earlier today, the service’s real value-add is in its personalization feature. “The original CSA box is just farmers throwing whatever they have in a box,” he said. “We’re helping farms provide customization at scale.” Harvie also handles any customer service requests and provides add-ons, like recipe recommendations and storage tips.

Farmer Joe’s is a hyper-regional example, but overall Harvie — or services like it — could be key to help local farms survive through the coronavirus pandemic. In a time when small farmers are struggling to stay afloat with COVID-19 shutting down farmers markets and restaurants who typically purchase farm-grown food, growers are looking for new ways to get their products into the hands of consumers. Optimizing D2C sales, like CSAs, could make the difference between surviving the growing season and having to fold completely.

Thankfully for farmers, the popularity of CSAs is actually on the rise. According to Yelp, sales of farm shares have risen a whopping 405 percent since the beginning of March. But in order to make it through this crisis, farmers will have to make sure that folks who sign up for CSA continue their membership. Having a customized produce offering could go a long way in maintaining customer loyalty. As a bonus, personalized CSAs could help cut down on food waste, since people aren’t stuck with a basket of produce they don’t like or know how to prepare.

Thus far Harvie works with 150 small farms in the U.S. and Canada. According to their website, Harvie member farms see an average increase in retention rates of 15-20 percent. According to Huntley, the coronavirus pandemic has actually helped sales for their growers — Harvie farmer’s sales are up almost 200 percent. He also noted that they’re seeing an increase in farmers signing up for the platform. “We’re in the right place at the right time.”

To work with Harvie, farms pay a $500 setup fee and a 7 percent transaction fee on all farm share purchases. Harvie also takes a small percentage of credit card sales.

That cost is not insignificant, especially if you’re a local farmer struggling to stay operational. But with markets and restaurants closed, or at least drastically reduced, CSAs are the only way forward for many farmers. If services like Harvie can help them gain a larger swath of loyal customers, even just to get through the pandemic, it’s likely worth the fee.

When It Comes to Food, What Compromises Will We Make in the Age of COVID-19?

This weekend I went to my favorite neighborhood coffee shop and, just like always, reflexively brought along my takeaway mug. But when I got there I saw the signs that — duh — coffee shops aren’t using takeaway mugs anymore in an attempt to cut down on potential contamination. So I got my coffee in a paper cup and, once outside, poured it into my own mug so that it would be easier for travel.

That interaction got me thinking: with restaurants shifting from dine-in to all takeout and delivery, what will the toll be on packaging? Americans already throw out a staggering amount of food and beverage to-go containers, most of which ends up in a landfill. It’s too early to see any new data from the past few weeks, but I’m willing to bet that that number is increasing.

Really, we’re between a rock and a hard place: on one hand I want to support my local restaurants and cafés however I can, which, right now, means ordering takeout. At the same time I feel guilty when I end up throwing away a clamshell container, cutlery, napkins, and a cup and plastic straw every time I get a veggie taco meal with a drink to go.

This quandary brings up a bigger question that will only grow as we continue into the great unknown of post-COVID-19 life: what are we willing to sacrifice? The question applies to several sectors of the food world.

Grocery. Ordering groceries for delivery has the benefit of convenience and brings less risk of contamination. However, if you’re ordering from Instacart or Amazon, you’re supporting an enterprise that doesn’t necessarily take care of its workers the way it should.

On top of that, you might not be able to get exactly what you want, when you want it. Our own Chris Albrecht wrote about his not-entirely-pleasant experience with online grocery delivery, which was both “misleading” and “confusing.”

Food delivery. If you want to support local restaurants/eat delicious food that you don’t have to cook yourself but aren’t leaving the house, food delivery is an easy option. But as our resident restaurant expert Jenn Marston wrote, delivery is not without its fair share of compromise. Third-party delivery services often take large percentages of each sale from restaurants, despite deals that they’re implementing in the face of COVID-19. They’re also notorious for treating drivers poorly.

However, if you’re trying to really do the social distancing thing or are in quarantine, delivery might be one of your few viable options for feeding yourself.

Health. If you’re working from home right now, like most of us are, staying healthy might be a real struggle. Snacking is all too easy when your pantry is right there all the time and filled with dark chocolate peanut butter cups.

Admittedly, eating healthy is likely not the highest priority for a lot of folks right now. And there are tools that you can use to help stick to a balanced diet, if that’s a goal for you right now. But if this crisis lasts significantly longer and people are stuck eating canned foods and takeout with nary a fresh vegetable in sight, we could start having another health crisis on our hands.

Image via Blue Bottle.

Packaging. As I mentioned at the beginning of this piece, single-use packaging for food is a humongous issue plaguing our planet. Before ish hit the fan with coronavirus, a crop of companies were stepping up to reduce their waste. Sweetgreen and Chipotle were rolling out fully compostable to-go containers with no “forever” chemicals. Pre-prepped meal delivery services like Daily Harvest were also transitioning to compostable packaging. These companies are hopefully still moving forward, but other initiatives, like Blue Bottle’s drive to transition to all-reusable cups by 2020, are likely put on pause.

What’s next?

For now, people are going to prioritize feeding themselves and their families — packaging and ethics are not necessarily the highest concern. Nor they should they be. But I have to wonder: will these questions start to factor in again once things go back to normal?

The truth is we don’t know when things will return to the way they were — or what parts of the meal journey will be permanently altered. Will we go back to our old balance of dining in and takeaway? Will we continue to order out more since many folks have struggled with unemployment and thus have less spending power? How many restaurants will even survive to reopen?

The scary answer is, we don’t know. But you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll be here to report on the shifting food space throughout the coronavirus pandemic — with a cup of to-go coffee in our hands.

New York Court Rules That Postmates Couriers Are Employees — and Eligible for Unemployment

The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that Postmates couriers are employees and therefore eligible for unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The ruling is actually a reinstatement of a 2015 decision, which found that former Postmates courier Luis A. Vega was eligible for unemployment benefits after he was terminated from the service. Postmates had appealed the decision. The New York Court of Appeals this month reversed it, stating, “Because there was record support for the Board’s finding that the couriers were employees, we reverse the Appellate Division order and reinstate the Board’s decision.”

The ruling states there is “substantial evidence” that Postmates “exercised control over its couriers sufficient to render them employees rather than independent contractors operating their own businesses.” 

The document goes on to explain that the third-party delivery service “could not operate” without couriers, that Postmates “controls the assignment of deliveries,” and that if the courier is unavailable, Postmates, not the courier, is responsible for finding a replacement. Technology-wise, Postmates tracks deliveries in real time. However, “That the couriers retain some independence to choose their work schedule and delivery route does not mean that they have actual control over their work or the service Postmates provides its customers . . .”

All of these elements — which largely focus on how much control Postmates has over its workers — factored into the decision findings that Postmates couriers can be treated as employees, rather than contractors. 

How third-party delivery companies classifies their workers is a major issue up for debate right now, and this isn’t the first time Postmates has wound up with a ruling favorable to its workers. In December, the service, along with Uber, filed a lawsuit claiming California’s Assembly Bill 5, which classifies gig workers as employees, was unconstitutional. A U.S. District Judge rejected that bid last month.

The current COVID-19 pandemic intensifies the flame under this debate, as these workers are more at risk of infection by virtue of the fact that they are out and about delivering food when the huge swaths of country are being told to stay at home. Classifying gig workers as employees, rather than contractors, means couriers would have access to paid health benefits and sick leave. At the same time, the restaurant industry is experiencing a meltdown of epic proportions, with the National Restaurant Association predicting the loss of millions of restaurant-related jobs over the next few months. With no guarantee that there will be enough demand for delivery to ensure all couriers keep their jobs, those folks driving and biking food to customers need something of their own guarantee that they’ll have access to assistance if they lose their gigs. 

That, of course, means that services like Postmates would have to pony up and pay into unemployment insurance funds. In the case of this ruling, Postmates will have to contribute to New York’s Unemployment Insurance Fund. It’s entirely possible this decision will have a ripple effect, and Postmates along with other delivery services will wind up having to make similar moves in other states, too.

“Today’s decision is a huge victory for thousands of gig workers across New York,” New York Attorney Letitia General James said in a statement. “The courts have solidified what we all have known for a while — delivery drivers are employees and are entitled to the same unemployment benefits other employees can obtain.” 

Frontline Foods is a Grassroots Org. Delivering Food from Local Restaurants to Hospital Workers

Many of us are wondering what we can do to help during the coronavirus pandemic. We can order takeout from our favorite local restaurants and applaud hospital workers, but, at least for me, it feels like I should be doing more.

At least one initiative has sprung up to help both restaurants and medical professionals. Frontline Foods is a donation-based platform that purchases and delivers food from local restaurants to hospital workers fighting COVID-19. One of the organizers, Joel Wishkovsky, came up with the idea just a few weeks ago (it feels like eons ago!) and started a GoFundMe page to raise money to buy food from local restaurants with which to feed hospital workers.

Pretty soon, he started to see folks in other cities working on similar initiatives. So he founded FrontlineFoods.org as a platform to centralize the grassroots efforts. “We provide tools, processes, and national funding for all of these local chapters,” Wishkovsky told me over the phone yesterday.

Less than two weeks in and Frontline Foods has already raised over $700,000 and delivered over 7,000 meals to healthcare workers. So far Frontline Foods is currently available in nine urban areas, from Austin, TX to Silicon Valley. You can donate to your local city or choose to donate nationally, in which case the organization itself will decide where to allocate the funds. Local restaurants apply to become part of Frontline Foods’ network, and all food is delivered either by the restaurant itself or by volunteers.

Today Frontline Foods announced its partnership with the NGO World Central Kitchen (WCK), helmed by celebrity chef José Andres. WCK typically drops chefs in to feed hungry people in disaster-stricken areas. But in this crisis, Wishkovsky said that WCK was looking for a way to help the disaster that is supporting a restaurant during COVID-19. WCK will provide 501C3 backing for Frontline Foods and help them vet restaurant partners.

No Frontline Foods branch in your city? Don’t fret. You can also take initiative and petition to start your own chapter locally as long as you’re comfortable with putting together a team and leading fundraising (admittedly no small task).

If you want to do something a little less involved but still help out, you can also donate to Frontline Foods here.