Chefs across the United States are repurposing their restaurants as support hubs for unemployed restaurant staff

Top chefs nationwide are rallying to assist their peers during the coronavirus pandemic.

As the number of coronavirus cases surged, many states, including California, Kentucky, Connecticut, and New York, mandated restaurant and bar closures, forcing them to switch to takeout and delivery only. This left millions of restaurant workers without jobs.

For Chef Edward Lee, the layoffs hit close to home. With restaurants nationwide, he understood how challenging the situation would be for his colleagues and friends.

In response, Lee acted quickly, leveraging his nonprofit, the LEE Initiative, to establish a Restaurant Workers Relief Program. By Wednesday, his Louisville, Kentucky restaurant, 610 Magnolia, had become a temporary relief center.

“People are starving, without paychecks, and uncertain about the future,” Lee shared with Dinogo. “We recognized the urgent need to open our kitchen and support the millions of restaurant workers left jobless, many of whom rely on their paychecks to survive.”

Using the restaurant’s catering kitchen, volunteers distributed hundreds of essential items, including toiletries, cleaning supplies, diapers, and meals, to the displaced restaurant workers in the area.

His initiative quickly gained the attention of other chefs across the country.

Thanks to financial backing from Maker’s Mark whiskey, the program has now extended to Cincinnati with chef Jose Salazar, Los Angeles through chef Nancy Silverton’s Pizzeria Mozza, and Washington DC with Lee’s restaurant Succotash.

Plans are underway to bring the program to Seattle and New York, according to Collis Hillebrand, executive director of Wagstaff Worldwide, a public relations and marketing firm specializing in hospitality and partnering with the LEE Initiative.

“In many cities worldwide, service workers are vital to our cultural identity, but often lack a safety net,” said Rob Samuels, managing director of Maker’s Mark Distillery. “We are committed to doing everything we can to support those in the restaurant industry.”

The program has secured enough donations to operate in five cities for two weeks, according to Lee’s representative. To continue providing food and supplies to restaurant workers, additional donations are being sought.

Chefs in New York pledge to prepare 1 million gallons of soup

In New York, a separate group of chefs led by Eric Korn and restaurateur Louie Lanza have committed to producing 1 million gallons of soup for restaurant workers.

The aim of the initiative, named Million Gallons, is to rally New York’s local chefs to use ingredients from their own restaurants to make soup for restaurant workers who have been laid off due to the coronavirus outbreak.

“Our walk-in refrigerators are packed with produce that’s going to waste,” Korn stated in a message to fellow chefs on the Million Gallons website. “In two weeks, our city and possibly our country will face a food crisis. This is one of those rare moments when we truly have the chance to step up.”

Why soup? Because, as Korn explained to Dinogo affiliate WABC, “it makes sense for so many reasons.”

“It’s safe, we cook the soup, then freeze and store it in quart containers. Logistically, it’s efficient, easy to store, and simple to transport. It’s also health-conscious, as it can be reheated to ensure it’s safe for consumption.”

Feeding America during a crisis

Restaurant workers are not the only ones severely impacted by this crisis. The US Labor Department reported that over 280,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week.

From hairstylists to babysitters, nearly 80 million jobs in the US were at significant or moderate risk as of Monday, according to Moody’s Analytics.

As food is a basic necessity for survival, numerous organizations are stepping up to prevent Americans from going hungry.

Celebrity chef José Andrés, who has mobilized his nonprofit World Central Kitchen to provide food during numerous crises, is repurposing some of his restaurants in Washington DC, New York, and Maryland into community kitchens to serve meals to anyone in need.

The meals will be offered at discounted prices or even for free to those who cannot afford them, according to Andrés.

“They can pay us back later,” Andrés told Dinogo’s Chris Cuomo. “Right now, we need to support the American people. This is just one of many ways we should be thinking in the coming weeks as the situation worsens — how we can come together and feed America.”