Giving Back To Our Community
At the beginning of this pandemic, it only took a few days, for many women in the food industry, to see what was happening in their communities. Restaurant employees laid off, health care workers overworked and exhausted, children in low income communities and health deserts that were hungry, rehabilitation and older adult living facilities
besieged by COVID. All with no food delivery systems in place.
Swiftly, many of us realized the need to help feed and support those around us. You can see some of our efforts below. We set up grocery baskets for our employees to take home, fed emergency personnel who worked around the clock, provided children with replacement meals when they were no longer available from schools.
Many of us continue to do this, and so much more, because the need is still great.
Restaurants let Kids Eat Free while schools are closed
Catherine & Micheline Mendelsohn
Local school districts are providing meals to students while children are home during the coronavirus pandemic, but some worry that children might still go hungry. These local restaurants have stepped up and are offering free meals to children while schools are out of session.
Hook Hall is a pickup point for care packages and meals
Anna Valero
A 13,000-square-foot events space in D.C.’s Park View neighborhood has turned into a relief center helping service industry workers secure essentials while fallout from the coronavirus pandemic grinds restaurant business to a halt.
Pizzeria Paradiso to donate 10,000 pizzas to health care workers and families in need
Ruth Gresser
Pizzeria Paradiso donated 10,000 Pizzas and 10,000 Mandala Coloring Sheets to frontline workers and children and families in need between April and June 2020. In conjunction with Art Works Now, a Prince George's County arts education center, Pizzeria Paradiso is helping the D.C. community during the coronavirus pandemic by feeding body and soul.
The District Fishwife provides relief to dozens of communities
Fiona Lewis
Erik Bruner-Yang collaborated with THe District Fishwife to support service workers and communities across the country. Understanding the importance of local restaurants as “anchors of every great community in America,” the Power of 10 Initiative was launched.
Open Kitchen DC coordinates 2,000 immigrant made meals for health care workers
Mary Johns
Through a partnership with Feed the Fight, Open Kitchen DC coordinated more than 2,000 globally-inspired meals from 10 immigrant-owned restaurants. The restaurant owners were grateful for the opportunity to support those on the front line and benefited by being paid for their work during the slowest months of the pandemic.
Ice Cream Jubilee donates ice cream and sparks message of love and peace in their store.
Victoria Lai
When Covid first hit, Ice Cream Jubilee donated several hundred ice cream scoops to front-line workers and donations to community members who were facing economic insecurity. In addition, they launched an art project to communicate a message of love and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
