Decades ago, Mr. Rogers’ mother used to tell him, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Now, even as restaurants are still trying to find ways to keep their employees paid and from closing for good, the hospitality industry is finding ways to help those in need and those on the frontline. Here are some of the companies who are still helping despite also being affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Restaurants

&Pizza (Select Cities in the Northeast)
&Pizza is offering free, unlimited pizzas to its employees and their immediate families. In addition, the team has started the #heropies campaign to purchase pizzas for hospital workers.

Eleven Madison Park (New York, NY)
Eleven Madison Park has teamed up with Rethink to become a commissary kitchen, turning out thousands of meals a day to be delivered free to clients of Citymeals on Wheels and to hospital workers.

Frank, Lil Frankie’s and Supper Restaurants (New York, NY)
Chef/Restaurateur Frank Prisinzano and team are accepting donations to provide free meals to healthcare workers at New York City hospitals.

Feed the Frontline Workers of NYC (New York, NY)
Peter DiGioia, Brooke Smalley, and Lauren DiGioia have partnered with Ess-a-bagel, OX Verte, Wolf Nights, Pomeroy,  and Sweet Catch Poke to raise money to provide hot meals to the police, firefighters, and hospital workers in New York City.

Front Burner (Dallas, TX)
Front Burner Restaurants with CitySquare created the Furlough Kitchen and have reopened their restaurants to solely to feed furloughed hospitality workers regardless of employer.

Heard Collaborative Café (Winston-Salem, NC)
Heard Collaborative Café partnered with Providence Kitchen BB&T and Second Harvest Food Bank to provide meals to displaced service-industry workers.

Hook Hall (Washington, DC)
Hook Hall is distributing care kits and family meals daily from 6-9 PM EST to industry workers.

The Lee Initiative (Select Cities)
The Lee Initiative has partnered with Makers Mark and Chef Edward Lee to turn restaurants across the country into relief centers and is offering help for any restaurant worker who has been laid off (or has had a significant reduction in hours and/or pay) and is in need of food and supplies. 


One Off Hospitality Group (Chicago, IL)
The team at Big Star sent tacos to the brave, hardworking staff at the University of Chicago Medicine.

Sweetgreen (New York, NY)
Sweetgreen has launched "Impact Outpost" with World Central Kitchen, a program to deliver free meals to hospitals and medical personnel with a goal of donating over 100,000 meals.

Tootsies at the Stanford Barn (Palo Alto, CA) 
Tootsies has chosen to keep its doors open to support the hospital workers with a program that allows the public to “adopt” a doctor or nurse to keep them fed during the pandemic.

Other Companies

Aviation Gin
The #TipYourBartenders campaign is donating 30% of sales to the United States Bartender’s Guild (USBG) Foundation.

Bon Appetit
Bon Appetit partnered with World Central Kitchen to feed the 3,500 quarantined Grand Princess passengers.

Dixie Southern Vodka 
10% of all online sales are being donated to the United States Bartender’s Guild (USBG) Foundation's emergency assistance program. 

Hedley & Bennett
Hedley & Benett has converted their entire factory to soley focus on producing face masks and a 1-for-1 model on their website to be able to donate to frontline workers. With the help of their customers, Hedley and Bennett has already donated over 100,000 masks to those in need, including Children's Hospital LA, Shriners Hospital for Children, Brownsville Hospital, Cedar Sinai Hospital and World Central Kitchen.

Oyster Sunday 
Oyster Sunday, based in New York City and New Orleans, is providing free consultations for independent restaurants, including team communication strategies, pro-bono legal counsel, to thinking through cash flow constraints, etc.

PUNCH 
Tipping is encouraged on PUNCH's daily virtual happy hour at 5PM (ET) on Instagram and goes directly to the featured bar team via Venmo. For every dollar tipped, Bacardi Limited has generously committed to matching it with an equal gift to Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation.

Samuel Adams
Samuel Adams has teamed up with Boston’s Greg Hill Foundation to provide $1,000 grants to restaurants who have been impacted by the COVID-19 closures.

Sazerac/Fireball Whiskey’s
Sazerac/Fireball Whiskey has started the “World’s Biggest Tip Jar” GoFundMe campaign and is donating all of the money raised to organizations serving the hospitality industry.

SevenRooms
SevenRooms started Frontline Foods to support hospitals and other medical facilities workers with healthy meals from local kitchens and feed people working on the frontline.

Stop & Shop
Stop & Shop is donating 5,000 fresh meals each day to healthcare first responders (at hospitals in greater New York City and Boston) who are caring for novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients.

Tilit
While Tilit's team has been working from home to abide by the NYC social distancing rules in place, they have been busy creating masks for their Buy One, Give One campaign. For every mask purchased, Tililt is donating one to a food service worker volunteering or a medical professional in need. 

Celebrities

Guy Fieri 
Food Network star Guy Fieri is partnering with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation to help restaurant workers who have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

José Andrés
The world’s most prominent first responder for food, World Central Kitchen, founded and led by renowned Spanish-American Chef José Andrés, has launched the #ChefsForAmerica campaign. This campaign alone has already served more than 750,000 meals to vulnerable communities facing increasing food insecurity during the COVID-19 crisis.

 

Know a hero? We are cotinuing to grow this list and would love to highlight more! Please email us at [email protected] so share stories of hospitality heroes who are helping the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.