The Restaurant Workers Community Foundation, a nonprofit created by and for restaurant workers, has formed a COVID-19 Crisis Relief Fund specifically to help restaurant employees as more businesses decide or are mandated by cities and states to close their doors.
And the list of those closures is growing by the hour. Ohio, Illinois, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, and Maryland are among the states that have officially banned restaurants from serving food in the dining room right now in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. Entire cities — NYC and Seattle among them — are mandating the same, while other places, such as Washington, D.C., are requiring restaurants to reduce occupancy and get rid of bar seating.
All of these moves are necessary to help flatten the curve of the coronavirus spread. The unfortunate side effect here is the financial strain it will impose on businesses and in particular the workers who rely on their shifts to make ends meet, in most cases do not get paid sick leave, and live paycheck even in the best of times.
To that end, RWCF’s website left the following statement about the COVID-19 Relief Fund.
“Our fund will:
- Immediately direct money to organizations leading on-the-ground efforts in the restaurant community.
- To bolster our impact investing budget to provide zero-interest loans to businesses to maintain payroll during closure or re-open once this crisis has passed.
- To establish a relief fund for individual workers facing economic hardships or health crises as a direct result of COVID-19″
Individuals and companies can donate money, either as a one-time transaction or on an ongoing basis.
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