Good Friday Fun Food Facts
People Doing Good
This is what it is all about. People doing good. People helping people. And there is no more generous group than those in the hospitality industry – and ironically, these are some of the hardest hit in today’s current environment. Yet, they keep giving. Here are some people/groups facing adversity and tackling it head-on with some incredible creativity. If you know of others, please email me at [email protected] so that we can highlight them next week.
NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund
The North Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association (NCRLA) just launched the NC Restaurant Workers Relief Fund, a state-wide resource to provide fast access to cash grants for North Carolina restaurant and hotel workers immediately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This effort will consolidate funds collected through the Triangle Restaurant Workers Relief Fund. Tens of thousands of restaurant and hotel employees are now facing significant financial hardships as businesses curtail services in efforts to encourage social distancing and slow the spread of the novel coronavirus. Donate here if you can!
Healthcare Hero Response Fund
The North Carolina Healthcare Association is partnering with locally owned restaurants in communities across the state to provide meals to healthcare heroes who are on the front lines of caring for patients and communities in this pandemic. This effort will both nourish the bodies and souls of physicians, nurses and other healthcare heroes and boost local economies during a time of acute need. They will initially focus on communities where the virus is hitting hardest, activating the program in other communities across the state as community interest and resources allow. Donate here.
Hope For Hospitality
This is an initiative spearheaded by G. Patel and other friends in the hospitality industry to provide free meals for Raleigh area hospitality workers during the tough times brought by COVID-19. Each weekday, workers in the industry will be able to receive a free meal from one of the participating partners. If you’d like to donate to this initiative, click here. If you are a hospitality worker, follow this link to get a free meal each week day.
Feed The Fight
Feed The Fight in Chapel Hill and Feed The Fight in Durham are community fundraisers providing fresh meals from local restaurants to healthcare workers fighting COVID-19 on the front lines. Their goal is to raise money to pay restaurants to provide 50 $10-$15 meals at a time to be delivered to a healthcare facility in their community. Visit their Go Fund Me pages to donate to Chapel Hill here and Durham here.
Love & Nourish
Love and Nourish 2020: buy a Family Pack (feeds 4 + leftovers!) for $60, and $10 goes back to help provide meals to families in need identified by Families Moving Forward, Durham Public School Foundation, Sunday Supper Durham and End Hunger Durham. Visit the Love and Nourish website here.
Feed Raleigh Healthcare Workers on Easter
Neomonde Mediterranean is coordinating with Rex Hospital and Wake Med to provide an Easter Meal for front line healthcare workers. Their goal is to serve 300 “Superstar Workers” an Easter Sunday Meal. Every $10 donation feeds one worker a delicious healthy meal. Donate here.
Carrboro United Local Food Hub
The first Carrboro United initiative, the Local Food Hub, launched on March 21st with Acme Food & Beverage and the local business community. It is a central food hub created to efficiently and safely feed Carrboro/Chapel Hill’s citizens for the duration of the pandemic. The Carrboro United Local Food Hub has hired more than 20 employees at a living wage and served over 11,200 family meals in its first four Hub Days. This has resulted in a direct injection of $102,000 to local restaurants and $47,000 to local farmers. Participating vendors include GlassHalfull, Acme, Carrboro Coffee Roasters, Firsthand Foods, Sweet Little Patissiere and many more. Get more information here.
Restaurants Doing Good
Rocky Top Catering and Overflowing Hands are partnering together with a goal to distribute meal packs every Monday and Thursday while kids are not in school. Rocky Top is donating their talent, trucks and supplies so the cost of each meal is just $2. Overflowing Hands is coordinating food distribution, volunteers, prayers and fundraising. They need $10,000 per week to provide 2,500+ meals to hungry kids every Monday and Thursday. 100% of your donation will buy the food to prepare these meals, with NO fees or administration costs. Support them here.
The good people at Relish in Raleigh are accepting and matching donations for family meals and macs that they are delivering to the Interfaith Food Shuttle, Rex Hospital healthcare workers and to anyone who asks us personally for a free meal. $11 will donate a medium mac (serves 4-5) and $25 will donate a medium family meal (includes mac, salad, and bread). They are matching each donation-so technically each donates two. Visit Relish ToGo here and their family meals to go here.
A huge shout out to Travinia Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar, Morrisville for providing hundreds of meals each day to people in need and to local meal drop off/pickup sites and for families being served at the Arbors in Cary. Check them out here.
Kudos to David Sadeghi and his restaurant group – Town Hall Burger & Beer, People’s Coffee, Town Hall Grill, and the recently opened O’Ya Cantina. Thanks to an anonymous donor and their significant contribution, they have donated countless meals to UNC Hospitals, local fire departments, sheriff departments and police departments. They will continue to donate 10% of the proceeds from the opening of O’Ya to continue this program. Visit O’Ya here or his other restaurants here, here and here.
The folks over at The Simple Greek in Raleigh have an option to add the Gyro Hero Bowl(s) to your cart and proceed to checkout. You can add it with a meal for yourself or donate only. They then deliver donated bowls to coordinated food drops to local medical care centers. Additionally, they have donated meals to Wake Med, Duke Raleigh, the Covid 19 Testing Department at Wake Med and the Cardiology Department at Duke Raleigh. Order your Gyro Hero Bowl today.
Big thank you to Lawrence BBQ for providing the staff at Duke Raleigh with 100 meals! See them on Facebook here.
A big thank you to the folks at Singas Famous Pizza & Grill for providing lunch for Morrisville’s first responders. Singas is located at Lower Shiloh Way in Morrisville. Visit them here.
Kudos to the folks over at Venable Carrboro Bistro and their NCFEEDER project that began with generous donations amounting to $2,000 from Venable customers and friends of UNC hospital. They are now providing meals to UNC Hospital employees. Get all the details here.
The folks over at Living Fit have been delivering brown bag lunches to a local shelter in need and they have added “Food Bank Donations” tab that you can add to your orders and they will match up to 100% of those total donations each week to send to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Every $1 donated can feed five people! Visit Living Fit here.
Kudos to McClean’s Ole Time Cafe in Zebulon – they decided to close a couple of weeks ago, but before they did they gave food to a local church that prepared meals for school children, cooked meals one day for the church to serve and pulled out all their food and shared it amongst their employees! Visit them when they reopen here.
And down in Beaufort (we know everyone will be looking for a little vacation once this all clears) The folks at Inn on Turner are adding “gift cards” from area restaurants and watering holes for reservations made and they are extending that to existing reservations too! When guests purchase a gift certificate they in turn purchase gift cards that their guests can use and enjoy when they arrive later in the season. Complimentary! Plan now, play later!
Keep Ordering From Our Restaurants!
Order takeout! You love their food (and you are tired of cooking) – just swing by and pick it up! Here are some handy links with restaurants and caterers that are offering no-contact curbside pick-up and/or delivery:
WRAL has a tremendous Triangle-wide list going. Check it out here.
In Chapel Hill/Carrboro, the most comprehensive list is offered here and compiled by the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau.
In Durham, Discover Durham has a fantastic list here.
The Downtown Raleigh Alliance has a great downtown Raleigh list here.
Over in Hillsborough, here is a great list compiled by the Town of Hillsborough.
And if you are down in Chatham County, the Pittsboro-Siler City Convention & Visitors Bureau has an updated list here.
And finally, because this is such a fast moving and changing environment, please follow your favorite local restaurants on their social media platforms.
Don’t forget to buy gift cards that you can use later! Help them over the short-term hump. This is not the perfect solution, but cash (flow) is king right now. Even better, go ahead and get ALL your holiday shopping done NOW! Who doesn’t love a restaurant gift card as a gift? That’s a win, win, win! For many restaurants, you can do this online – even better!
Oh, and beer! Triangle on the Cheap has compiled a list of 32+ breweries that are offering curbside pick-up or delivery options across the Triangle. Check that list out here.
Food Bank Corner
In addition to all they are doing to serve our communities, here are a couple of initiatives with a direct impact on the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina.
The folks at Firsthand Foods set up the Firsthand Foods Community Fund, a donation program that provides pasture-raised local meat to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. For every dollar donated, they deliver an equivalent amount of meat to the Food Bank, which serves food pantries, soup kitchens and after school programs throughout 34 counties. More details can be found on their website and this Facebook event here.
The folks over at Living Fit have been delivering brown bag lunches to a local shelter in need and they have added “Food Bank Donations” tab that you can add to your orders and they will match up to 100% of those total donations each week to send to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Every $1 donated can feed five people! Visit Living Fit here.
