SAN ANTONIO – The hospitality industry has been crippled by the coronavirus pandemic with hundreds of thousands of workers furloughed around the country after restaurants and bars have been ordered to close or limit orders to pick-up and delivery only.
Unemployment claims in Texas spiked 862% in just one week in March, according to data from the U.S. Department of Labor.
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While many businesses are giving free food and products to health care workers, KSAT started looking into what services and benefits are available for hospitality industry workers.
This list is not all-inclusive. If you have information on where a hospitality worker can find free food, services or products, please let me know by email at mpatton@ksat.com.
Here’s what we found:
- HospitALLity House is providing free meals for hospitality workers, including those in the restaurant industry who are facing financial hardship. Funds donated to the Culinaria Emergency Relief Fund will be “distributed to Hospitality House, Restaurants/Bars and Individuals displaced from the COVID Crisis," according to the Culinaria website.
- Smokey Mo’s BBQ is offering 40 meals per store at the San Antonio, Boerne, Spring Branch and New Braunfels locations for hospitality industry workers. “We are asking for the orders to be placed by Wednesday at 7 p.m. for pick-up on Thursday,” according to Smokey Mo’s regional developer Kim Harris. Currently, the 280 free meal giveaway is a one-time event but “will be re-evaluated after we get through the week," Harris said. Each person is eligible for a single free plate (choose any plate, any meats and sides).
- The Winechester in Alamo Heights is offering a free meal and a produce bag to hospitality workers every week on Tuesday. It’s limited to the first 200 people who sign up by messaging the company directly on Facebook. Items in the produce bags will vary depending on availability.
San Antonio best-selling author and journalist Shea Serrano has made headlines recently for his philanthropic efforts to help those struggling to make ends meet due to COVID-19.
a woman paid me $1300 to do a 30-min Q&A with employees at her company
— Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) March 30, 2020
i greatly love money but my family and i are fine
who’s a fast food employee who needs me to pay their rent this month
send me a pic of you in your work shirt with your cashapp and i’ll give you the $1300
The latest extension of kindness: Serrano sent $1,300 to a waitress at Wing Daddy’s on Monday and even got a shoutout from former President Barak Obama.
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COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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