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Amidst the pandemic's pandemonium, restaurants reach out to help

There is no doubt that the current pandemic will have a riveting effect on all business, including restaurants. Despite that, some brands are still reaching out to their communities with the best help they can provide -- great food.

Some restaurants are providing meals to youngsters who can no longer obtain free school lunches due to pandemic school closures (Photo: iStock).

March 17, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

Despite the coronavirus-related business challenges being faced throughout the restaurant industry, some brands are still looking around at their communities to see how they can help with this global pandemic and the problems it creates for all of us.

For instance, at Washington, D.C.-based &pizza, leadership has instituted a program to dramatically increase the chain's aid to its own employees, as well as hospital workers in areas around its 40 Eastern U.S. restaurants, &pizzaPresident Andy Hopper told Pizza Marketplace Monday.

Late last week, the brand's founder and CEO, Michael Lastoria, announced a plan to not only increase store worker pay by $1 hourly, but also provide the following benefits for employees to help cover their own needs for at least the next 30 days as the pandemic evolves. Lastoria released the details to employees and on a message on the brand's website: 

"I wanted to personally reach out to you — as one of you — to explain as clearly as possible some of the things that we're doing, for at least the next 30 days, to support you all as we face this challenge together," Lastoria told employees.

He then said the benefits below were being offered to employees which &pizza leadership believes will help the brand stay open for customers over the next few weeks while also serving the community around stores and its employees and their loved ones. The list of benefits the brand is offering employees includes: 

• Free pizza for employees and their immediate families at all times, not just on shifts.
• $1-an-hour pay increase for shop-level staff.
• Lyft for late evening $5 one-way trips to all shops for employees and home.
• Paying the cost for mass transit to and from work.
• Expanding sick leave for everyone to use to care for loved ones or provide childcare during pandemic-related school closures.
• Text-line support for all employees regarding brand response and employee assistance.
• Headquarter closures and deployment of corporate employees to shops.
• 14-day health + safety pay for those "diagnosed with or suspected of having COVID-19, as well as those that may have come in contact with someone that has been diagnosed with it," the website said.

The measures will surely take quite an investment, but that is something that &pizza President and COO Andy Hooper said he believes is the right thing to do for the business, its employees and customers and the communities they serve, at large. 

"We are confident that these are investments in the future of our team and our communities, and view them through that lens — as investments that will yield a return," he told Pizza Marketplace Monday. "We pulled forward some decisions we anticipated making later in 2020 and decided to put those resources to work now during a time when it's all hands on deck. 

"Our communities are what makes it possible to be in business today; by investing in our tribe and therefore our communities, we know they'll continue to make it possible for us even in an unprecedented time."

The brand is also supporting area hospital workers around its stores, by providing free pizza to doctors, nurses, administrator, janitorial workers and other directly confronting needs in hospitals with a valid ID, or with delivered pies provided to those who cannot leave their stations on the job. 

Smallest brands show big heart, too  

Likewise, in many states and localities where elementary, junior high and high schools have been closed, some restaurant brands are chipping in to help feed students who may be unable to get the meals they received through free or reduced-cost lunch programs with the closures.

Sign outside Red Rose Jems in Cincinnati, Ohio (photo provided).

For instance, at Red Rose Jems Pizzeria — a small single-store brand in the College Hill area of Cincinnati, Ohio, where the state has closed schools for three weeks — the restaurant is giving a slice of pizza, fruit and a lemonade to students on free or reduced lunch programs for two hours daily, according to Red Rose Jems Manager Sidney Mulford.

"I decided on this last Thursday night when I was just sitting at home and my brain was reeling, just thinking about what the kids are all going to do, because we have a good amount of lower-income kids in our neighborhood," she told PizzaMarketplace, referring to the youngsters not getting enough to eat while staying home, as the states schools have been ordered to do. 

 "So, I just thought, 'Hmm, I could feed some of the kids.' … so we're starting that today."

Much like many small brands we talked with, and even some larger ones, Mulford admitted she was venturing into unknown territory when it comes to the restaurant's response to this pandemic. She said though they were busy over the weekend, they know things are going to begin tapering off.

But she also said that as a single-store, family- and minority-owned and run pizzeria, she knew the restaurant had to do something for the community, even though, as she put it, "We really have no clue what we're getting into and how this will all work out or play out."

How has that changed 'business as usual' for this kind of single-store brand? Well, Mulford said though they've not previously included any form of delivery, the brand will now begin that service, using its servers as delivery drivers, although the logistical work on that was still in progress.

And since the state of Ohio has mandated closure of all restaurants' dine-in operations, she said Jems will make sure that even the free pizza meals they're giving out will be distributed without having any families enter the restaurant building.

"Nobody will come in the building, but they'll walk up, grab a sack lunch and go without entering the business."

So between larger brands with a long record of community commitment, like &pizza, and smaller single-shop restaurants, like Red Rose Jems, it's clear that although this pandemic is creating all kinds of uncertainty and turmoil for restaurant businesses and the communities around them, many business leaders are still heeding that notion that even when times seem most dire, there is strength to be found in community.

Or as &pizza's Hooper told this website:

"We live, serve and benefit from a society that is now under unbelievable stress," Hooper said. "In times of crisis, one of the best weapons we have to wield is true appreciation for others and their contributions."

First inset photo: &pizza

Read other Pizza Marketplace COVID-19-related coverage here. 

Read more QSRweb COVID-19 restaurant coverage here. 

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.