Unique partnership maximizes relief Driven by need, ROAR and Robin Hood deploy $1.5 million to restaurant employees.
We can’t do what we do without our partners that make it all possible. They expand our reach, carry out the vision, and continually inspire us to do more. Throughout COVID, we forged many new partnerships to help speed relief to those in need. Chef, restaurateur, entrepreneur, and advocate Camilla Marcus, recently named one of Fast Company’s Most Creative People in Business, is committed to rethinking what it means to be a good neighbor through the lens of hospitality. In the height of the pandemic, Marcus and her organization, Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants (ROAR), partnered with Robin Hood to create an employee relief fund. Here’s what she said on a recent Funders’ Call about the restaurant industry, how Robin Hood helped, and more. “Our industry is still very much in the dire position we were in March. “One in four people unemployed right now come from the restaurant industry. “We jumped on the phone with Robin Hood very quickly. I remember saying to Wes,
‘What I’m scared of is, people are not going to be able to pay for their groceries tomorrow. How do we get cash in their hands?’ “We worked pretty much around the clock for 14 full days and could not have done it without Robin Hood. “This is an unusual situation unlike any other. Our industry cannot work from home. Two-thirds of restaurants across the country are independently owned. Eleven million people are employed in restaurants across the country, and almost 1 million in New York State. We employ more people in our industry in New York than airlines do nationwide. “As part of our restaurant relief fund, anyone who works in a restaurant in NYC can fill out a very simple application through our website and get a $500 check mailed to them immediately. To date, we’ve deployed over $1.5 million raised through Robin Hood and ROAR. We’ll keep the fund open until this crisis is over, which unfortunately looks more like 12 to 18 more months. “Our industry is a big boat without many paddles; at least we have one very strongly in the Robin Hood community, and we’re immensely grateful.”
NYC Healthcare Heroes
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, health care workers have been working overtime — literally — to save New Yorkers’ lives. They were exhausted from long shifts, hungry after going home to empty fridges, and scared of contracting and spreading the virus after intense exposure. In early April, one of New York City’s most generous family foundations wanted to help. So we joined them. In partnership with the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, the American Red Cross, and Robin Hood, the Debra and Leon Black Family and Aramark launched a massive effort to get brave, relentless hospital workers the food and supplies they needed. Initially aimed at serving over 100,000 health care professionals across the five boroughs, the program expanded in May to include more than 5,000 EMS and disaster services workers. Through June, NYC Healthcare Heroes launched more than 400,000 care packages filled with 15 million products, including shelf-stable food,
household cleaning and toiletry supplies, as well as over-the-counter medicine to staffers at hospitals in all five boroughs. Lines at supermarkets and pharmacies were long, if the stores were even open once workers got off their shifts. The Black Family donated $10 million and another $10 million match to the effort, which provided more than 100,000 workers with mac and cheese, disinfectant, lotion, vitamins, Tylenol, and more to make the peak of the crisis a little less stressful. Most importantly, we were all able to express our gratitude. “Our city is forever indebted to our health care heroes for the tireless work and painful sacrifices they have made over the past few months,” said Debra and Leon Black. “Like all New Yorkers, our family has been humbled and inspired by their courage and resilience, and it has been an honor to support their heroic efforts through NYC Healthcare Heroes.”
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