How to Help Bay Area Restaurants

Food is one of the best things about the Bay Area. There are so many incredible places to eat that it would probably take multiple lifetimes to try them all. Of course, times are tough right now for restaurants. Fortunately, there are lots of ways to support our local eateries and the people who make them happen. The most direct way to support restaurants, of course, is to continue buying from them -- who’s excited for takeout??! I will admit that I was nervous to order out at first, but then I read these articles from NPR and Serious Eats. My main take-aways: 1. Between all the research being done on this current virus, plus all the decades of research on past Coronaviruses, there is no evidence of the virus being transmitted through eating food. COVID-19 infects cells in the respiratory tract, and all the chemicals in our digestive system – saliva, stomach acid, etc – break down Coronaviruses. So, just don’t actually inhale your food! 2. Cooking food destroys the virus, and uncooked food, like salad greens, is also safe to eat since there is no evidence of the virus being transmitted through food. 3. Restaurants have long been required to follow strict food safety guidelines that are effective at reducing the spread of any disease. 4. Take reasonable safety precautions when ordering takeout, including disposing the packaging that the food comes in, disinfecting the surfaces the packages touched, staying six feet apart from the folks delivering the food (they can set it down on the curb or on a table before you actually pick up the food), AND – everyone’s three favorite words right now: WASH YOUR HANDS. So, with that in mind, what’s for dinner?! Check out these listings from Berkeleyside and the San Francisco Chronicle to find spots across the Bay Area that are open.

Additionally, there are a number of inspiring nonprofits springing up to support local restaurants. Organizations like East Bay FeedER, Feed the Line, and Frontline Foods raise money to pay restaurants to cook meals for healthcare workers. And others such as Double Helping Hands in Berkeley and Oaklanders helping Oaklanders – a program supported by Oakland-based payment processing company Marqueta – gives money to restaurants to cook meals for communities in need. One of the founders of Instagram launched a website called Save Our Faves that helps people buy gift cards from local restaurants. And there are numerous crowdfunding campaigns supporting both individual restaurants as well as entire corridors, such as Save Our Chinatowns which is raising money for Oakland and San Francisco’s Chinatowns. In terms of directly supporting restaurant workers, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to ensure that many food industry workers affected by the quarantine will receive two weeks of paid sick leave. And the non-profit One Fair Wage sends money directly to food service workers who are unable to work due to COVID-19. These are just a few efforts out there that are supporting workers and restaurants across the Bay Area. If you have heard of other inspiring programs out there, please share in the comments. Stay safe and healthy, all!