Columbus Restaurant Owners Launch Project to Feed Unemployed Service Workers
Video Transcript:
Now they have no income. And people are hungry. So what do we do? What costs are going to come to them? We're going to feed these people.
Tonight there are 100,000 restaurant and bar workers without jobs in Ohio because of the state shutdown. That's according to the Ohio Restaurant Association. Two Columbus restaurant owners say even if they can't give those workers a paycheck, they can make sure their families eat.
Ten TV's Glenn McIntyre shows us how Samantha Geyser has been a server for 21 years. It's a real love of the public. I really love interacting with people that start off as strangers. The job she loved and the income it provided evaporated. With the state ordered shutdown of much of the service industry inside of three days. I would say almost all of my friends lost their jobs.
The last income she had was March 12th. I think it is at a crisis point because, there is no foreseeable change. It was three weeks ago that ten TV spoke with her boss about the obligations she felt to her staff. It's heartbreaking, you know. I don't know how to help them, you know, and I don't know if there's an answer.
Sangeeta Lakhani owns the table. She has had to lay off nearly her entire staff whenever loans, grants, unemployed man to bartender grant. Like whatever people are applying for. They're not going to see for weeks. People are hungry right now. Matthew Higgins co-owns Ambrose and Eve. He had to let go his entire staff of 60 people. The human toll is this is the the biggest impact on me.
A toll being felt by service families all over our community. The situation is becoming more dire for people. You know, like day by day. I think over the next couple of weeks, we're going to see, real increase in the amount of people that, you know, pretty, desperately need access to, to food. After the initial shock of the shutdown, he and Lakhani decided there had to be something they could do to help.
We got to feed our people. It's the thing that we know how to do. That's when service was born. It's service. It's a relief project for hospitality industry workers. Our very simple goal is to feed 2 to 400 service industry people and their families a day, seven days a week. We're going to, assemble a staff, that we're going to pay so we can, like, actually do some employment.
And that was really important to us. But we have to raise money to, to make food. We're shooting for a food cost of less than $5, meal. They are accepting donations and selling t shirts. Each will allow them to feed three people and plan to start making and distributing meals next week. It is our job right now to take care of them and this is what we know how to do best.
They're hungry, and we're going to make sure that one healthy meal a day. We didn't want to get hung up on feeling sorry about the things that are going on. We just knew that something needed to be done. Glenn McIntyre ten TV news. And you will find more information on service, including how you can help right now under this story at ten tv.com.