With eateries about to reopen, we look back at local initiatives to help the restaurant industry

It has undoubtedly been a tough couple of months for anyone in the restaurant industry. And there also has no doubt been something missing for those of us whose lives are made better by sitting down in a restaurant to a plate made and served by people who’ve become like our second families.

Luckily, in what may be the darkest days for restaurants in modern history, there have also been moments that are truly heartwarming. You’ve seen it on the faces of people when picking up takeout at your favorite spot (hello there, Boia De!), or bringing home a trouble-easing bottle of pre-batched cocktails (cheers, Phuc Yea!).

But there has also been something truly astounding that has happened since restaurants were forced to close back in March. Millions of dollars have been raised -- that’s right, millions -- to help those in the industry get through these tough times. We’ve also seen restaurants donate their food and supplies and time to help others. And we’ve seen a city that sometimes takes criticism for not having a community spirit come together and find a way to help.

Now that restaurants are slated to reopen as early as next week, let’s take a look back at a few of our favorites initiative to help the restaurant industry -- including ways that you can still help.

Just a Few Friends, Organizing 20,000 Meals

Not long after restaurants were forced to close, Shana Kaufman got a call with an ambitious idea. They roped in a few more friends and ended up with six women who founded a Miami chapter of a volunteer organization called Frontline Foods.

As it has done in 49 other cities, Frontline Foods works with Chef José Andrés’ nonprofit, World Central Kitchen, to raise funds that they then use to buy meals from local restaurants. Since they began in early April, they’ve raised $500,000, worked with 28 restaurants, and donated more than 35,000 meals to staff at 13 medical facilities across Miami-Dade.

Kaufman, a marketing and events executive, says the goal was in part to give a good meal to people doing dangerous work in the medical profession these days. But it also assured that restaurants had a source of revenue to help keep them going. Frontline Foods has worked with 25 restaurants in Miami-Dade. The money allowed restaurants to hire back 55 employees who otherwise would be out of work.

“This initiative is very much about helping the restaurant industry,” Kaufman says. But it’s also to say thanks and give gratitude to the healthcare workers who are working tirelessly every day to treat people with Covid-19.”

A Relief for Restaurants

The South Beach Wine and Food Festival just might be the biggest dining event anywhere, so it makes sense that the brains behind it would launch an equally massive effort for the industry.

In March, festival organizers, including FIU, came together to create a $1 million fund to help local restaurants and bars, with the slogan: “Serving Those Who Have Served Us.” A month later, that number grew to $1.45 million, and $1.2 million has already been distributed to independently owned and operated restaurants and bars impacted by the pandemic in South Florida.

Donors to the fund include some of the biggest names in F&B: Bacardi USA, Badia Spices, Luxco, Mast-Jägermeister US, Shaw-Ross International, Importers and Voli 305 Vodka.

As recently as two weeks ago, festival founder Lee Brian Schrager hosted a drive-by bake sale on the front lawn of his Coral Gables “House on Hardee,” something that quickly became a weekly event. Celebrities such as Belkys Nerey, Ana Navarro-Cardenas, Kelly Blanco and Enrique Santos helped to hand customers freshly made treats from Night Owl Cookies, Cindy Lou’s Cookies, Dos Croquetas and other local spots, with all proceeds going to SOBEWFF® & FIU Chaplin School Hospitality Industry Relief Fund.

Restaurants can still apply for relief, and anyone else can donate to the fund, by visiting sobewff.org/industry-relief.

Your Favorite Restaurant Just Might Be Doing Something Great

At the beginning, when restaurants first had to close, chef and restaurateur Michael Beltran had little choice. He had to lay off 94 of his 125 employees.

It took about three weeks, but Beltran finally figured out a way to run his restaurants during the lockdown. Ariete and Navé combined into one mash-up takeout menu. Chug’s became essentially a neighborhood grocery store. He created meal kits, churned ice cream, and baked bread. And Beltran brought on his own delivery driver to keep the whole thing simple.

Slowly, he’s added back four or five employees every week. But for those he hasn’t been able to bring back, he’s been donating 15 percent of his sales and all of the tips to them. He also created care packages with everything from toilet paper to kitchen staples.

For frontline hospital workers, Beltran has also been donating 120 to 200 meals a week. It’s in part to say thanks but also simply because it helps keep his restaurants working.

“It seems great but it’s a drop in the bucket, because we had to lay off 100 people,” Beltran says. “We’re a Miami company and we want to make sure we’re there for Miami.”

Beltran is one of many local restaurant owners and chefs who’ve also figured out a way to give to first-responders and industry employees now out of work.

Discounts and free meals have been offered at many restaurants for first-responders and healthcare workers through the shutdown. To help find them, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau created a program called Miami Salutes, which lists hotels with discount accommodations, cash back on cars, and dozens of restaurants.

Chef Richard Hales and his wife Jenny, owners of Sakaya Kitchen and Blackbrick Chinese, pledged to raise $42,000 to provide 6,000 meals. For Hales, it was especially meaningful considering the fight he’s had with cancer.

“You know it’s really rewarding, because when I was in the hospital for all the surgeries I had, bringing in food for everyone on the floor was always a great moment,” Hales said. “They can kind of snap out of this terrible reality they’re in and enjoy a meal for five minutes before going back to work. You know, food makes people happy.”

During a recent call, Hales said he had just brought in two extra employees simply to help prep 300 plates of veggie noodles and orange chicken headed the next day to local hospitals. He’s losing money doing takeout and delivery only, but he wants to continue donating meals so that he can keep some employees at his restaurants. “The ripple effect,” he said, “is putting money into our local economy.”

Even as business owners eagerly await the May 18th re-openings, there are dozens, maybe hundreds more, local restaurants continuing working on these efforts. If you’d like to contribute, there are plenty of options to help the industry that in many ways has become the beating heart of Miami.

Among them:

* The Miami Restaurant Employee Relief Fund started by several restaurants coming together raised $100,000.

* Miami’s Will Osbourne formed Meals for Heroes Miami, which has delivered 5,000 plates of food from 14 local restaurants, saving an estimated 50 industry jobs.

* Fooq’s partnered with Wellness In The Schools and raised $4,100 at last count to help feed local families.

* F + B Hospitality Brokerage, along with Chefs Brad Kilgore, Michael Schwartz, Michael Beltran, and Michelle Bernstein, put together a fund for out-of-work restaurant employees that raised $107,000.

This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 8:00 AM.