COVID-19: How to best take care of those on the front lines
In the last weeks, we have heard from so many of you from around the globe who are part of the larger Social Gastronomy family about ways you are affected by the coronavirus pandemic. We want your voices to be heard, to share your experiences in your project, in your city, and tell us what you are doing to adjust to a new way of doing business.
With my colleague Evan Caplan, a food writer, we will be regularly updating this page with stories, interviews, useful information, and actions related to best taking care of those on the front lines. This includes ideas for internal team management, providing food for those on the front lines of the pandemic, whether that’s healthcare workers, food industry staff, or those in quarantine, as well as implementing new hygiene protocols and re-opening safely. We welcome your comments and your contributions.
articles and resources
A really good example of all the initiatives that are in place to help people in the hospitality industry. It is organized by chefs, by the business community, and is full of links to other organizations that are helping people understand resources available and things to do to address this crisis. It is worth a read and also exploring the links. It can provide a template for what can be done in other countries.
Food & Wine has a handy guide for restaurants that are looking for ways to keep their staff and customers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Likewise, the James Beard Foundations is compiling a running list of ways the restaurant industry can protect its workers, as well as other resources and ways to support the industry.
The Museum of Food and Drink put together a long list of ways to help those in the food and beverage industry, broken out by specific categories and methods of support.
The Standard UK has a running list of ways the food industry is helping National Health Service workers in London.
Thrillist has a running list of all the places that U.S. healthcare workers can eat and drink for free during the coronavirus crisis.
In the US, farmworkers have been deemed essential workers - and at least half of them are undocumented. Many fear for their health and safety as their work becomes increasingly important.
Portugal has taken a different tack in how it treats its migrants and asylum-seekers during pandemic response, offering benefits and services that it does to citizens.
An impactful video from the Economic Policy Institute on how the food supply chain could not function today without the work of immigrants.
Stories AND INTERVIEWS
Food writer Jen Lin Liu, owner of the famous Black Sesame Cooking School, wrote this excellent piece about what the shut-down meant to her restaurant and her employees. It is a good example of what people are doing in China, and also how universal food is when it comes to dreaming about what to eat when we leave our quarantine mentality.
COVID-19 needs the food community now more than ever. World Central Kitchen (WCK) that Chef Jose Andres created five years ago, is now supporting the communities of health workers in the United States and Europe by providing free meals near hospitals so that workers can be fed. This link tells the story of what they have been doing during the first week of April.
Ebru Baybara told us that rather than cooking with and for Syrian refugees in Turkey, which is not possible due to the coronavirus outbreak, they are sourcing local ingredients to make and sell soaps, the profits of which will go to their beneficiaries.
In DC, this chef is using crowdfunding campaigns to hire out-of-work chefs to feed communities in need. See how the Power of 10 initiative works.
In Seattle, this restaurant is completely changing its business model to adapt to the coronavirus situation and continue to bring people food without firing its entire staff.
ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE
If you are in France, there is a special website set up by the government where you can volunteer to provide services in four specific categories: emergency food aid, exceptional childcare, liaise with isolated vulnerable people, and local solidarity (running errands for fragile people).
Wash your hands, and practice social distancing as much as possible.
Donate food and/or your time to local food banks, which are desperately in need of resources and volunteers as their usual suppliers and helpers aren’t available.
With the global need to support those we need most – first responders, doctors, nurses, food delivery services, grocery clerks, and the other workers who make it possible to live through this unprecedented period – please share your stories with us. We can interview you and write up your experience. Everyone has something to tell and something to teach others.