Ohio restaurant workers could soon be getting a little help from Boston-based brewery Samuel Adams. Not in the form of beer, but grants.
What started as a partnership with The Greg Hill Foundation to support restaurant workers in Massachusetts has extended to Ohioans. The Restaurant Strong fund is providing the state’s restaurant workers a free, one-time grant of $1,000. Applications for the grant open today and to be eligible, an individual must meet the following requirements:
- Complete the application form
- Full-time employee (minimum of 30 hours total per week, can be multiple restaurants)
- Employed three months or longer at the same location
- Worked in a restaurant, bar, cafe or nightclub
- Submit the last two pay stubs
More information and a link to the application can be found here. To make a donation to the fund, click here.
Locally, restaurants that have found themselves closed to regular customers due to the pandemic, are instead finding ways to support the industry’s own.
A&R Creative group, owner of concepts like The Crest, Market Italian Village, Alchemy and more, has launched non-profit Refuge Relief Kitchen.
“In response to many individuals and families being affected by COVID-19, Refuge Relief Kitchen, a non-profit, has been created to provide warm, individually boxed meals to those in need,” a press release from A&R states. “Our goal, along with our key partner US Foods, is to provide 300-350 individually boxed meals per day of operation.”
The Refuge Relief Kitchen will roll out its first 300 meals today, Friday April 3, exclusively for restaurant workers. Individuals can bring proof of industry employment to The Crest on Parsons, 621 Parsons Ave., for a meal between 1 – 3 p.m.
“The following weeks we will be providing meals every Thursday and Friday at 621 Parsons Ave. for service industry individuals, low-income families, and elderly folks,” A&R says.
Meals are available while supplies last.
The team behind Ambrose & Eve, Matthew Heaggans and Catie Randazzo, along with Sangeeta Lakhani of The Table, Letha Pugh of Bake Me Happy and Reed Woogerd, are banding together to launch Service!, which will help identify and utilize resources to eliminate hunger among restaurant industry workers and families.
The non-profit organization hopes to provide 2,000 meals a week to displaced service industry workers. Details are still being finalized to get the plan up and running, but individuals can follow the progress and donate at servicerelief.org.
