COVID-19 Outlook
  • Global
  • By US State
    • A-F
      • Coronavirus Alabama
      • Coronavirus Alaska
      • Coronavirus Arizona
      • Coronavirus Arkansas
      • Coronavirus California
      • Coronavirus Colorado
      • Coronavirus Connecticut
      • Coronavirus Delaware
      • Coronavirus Dist. of Columbia
      • Coronavirus Florida
    • G-L
      • Coronavirus Georgia
      • Coronavirus Guam
      • Coronavirus Hawaii
      • Coronavirus Idaho
      • Coronavirus Illinois
      • Coronavirus Indiana
      • Coronavirus Iowa
      • Coronavirus Kansas
      • Coronavirus Kentucky
      • Coronavirus Louisiana
    • M-R
      • Coronavirus Maryland
      • Coronavirus Maine
      • Coronavirus Massachusetts
      • Coronavirus Michigan
      • Coronavirus Minnesota
      • Coronavirus Mississippi
      • Coronavirus Missouri
      • Coronavirus Montana
      • Coronavirus Nebraska
      • Coronavirus Nevada
      • Coronavirus New Hampshire
      • Coronavirus New Jersey
      • Coronavirus New Mexico
      • Coronavirus New York
      • Coronavirus North Carolina
      • Coronavirus North Dakota
      • Coronavirus Ohio
      • Coronavirus Oklahoma
      • Coronavirus Oregon
      • Coronavirus Pennsylvania
      • Coronavirus Puerto Rico
      • Coronavirus Rhode Island
    • S-Z
      • Coronavirus South Carolina
      • Coronavirus South Dakota
      • Coronavirus Tennessee
      • Coronavirus Texas
      • Coronavirus Utah
      • Coronavirus Vermont
      • Coronavirus Virgin Islands and the Caribbean
      • Coronavirus Virginia
      • Coronavirus Washington
      • Coronavirus West Virginia
      • Coronavirus Wisconsin
      • Coronavirus Wyoming
  • Symptoms
    • Quarantine
  • Celebrities
  • News
    • Coronavirus Strange and Conspiracy
    • Supplies and Shortages
    • White House Updates
    • Travel and Tourism
  • Shopping Online
    • Poshmark
    • Ebay
    • Mercari Coming Soon
    • AliExpress Coming Soon
    • Amazon Coming Soon
  • Pets
COVID-19 Outlook
  • Global
  • By US State
    • A-F
      • Coronavirus Alabama
      • Coronavirus Alaska
      • Coronavirus Arizona
      • Coronavirus Arkansas
      • Coronavirus California
      • Coronavirus Colorado
      • Coronavirus Connecticut
      • Coronavirus Delaware
      • Coronavirus Dist. of Columbia
      • Coronavirus Florida
    • G-L
      • Coronavirus Georgia
      • Coronavirus Guam
      • Coronavirus Hawaii
      • Coronavirus Idaho
      • Coronavirus Illinois
      • Coronavirus Indiana
      • Coronavirus Iowa
      • Coronavirus Kansas
      • Coronavirus Kentucky
      • Coronavirus Louisiana
    • M-R
      • Coronavirus Maryland
      • Coronavirus Maine
      • Coronavirus Massachusetts
      • Coronavirus Michigan
      • Coronavirus Minnesota
      • Coronavirus Mississippi
      • Coronavirus Missouri
      • Coronavirus Montana
      • Coronavirus Nebraska
      • Coronavirus Nevada
      • Coronavirus New Hampshire
      • Coronavirus New Jersey
      • Coronavirus New Mexico
      • Coronavirus New York
      • Coronavirus North Carolina
      • Coronavirus North Dakota
      • Coronavirus Ohio
      • Coronavirus Oklahoma
      • Coronavirus Oregon
      • Coronavirus Pennsylvania
      • Coronavirus Puerto Rico
      • Coronavirus Rhode Island
    • S-Z
      • Coronavirus South Carolina
      • Coronavirus South Dakota
      • Coronavirus Tennessee
      • Coronavirus Texas
      • Coronavirus Utah
      • Coronavirus Vermont
      • Coronavirus Virgin Islands and the Caribbean
      • Coronavirus Virginia
      • Coronavirus Washington
      • Coronavirus West Virginia
      • Coronavirus Wisconsin
      • Coronavirus Wyoming
  • Symptoms
    • Quarantine
  • Celebrities
  • News
    • Coronavirus Strange and Conspiracy
    • Supplies and Shortages
    • White House Updates
    • Travel and Tourism
  • Shopping Online
    • Poshmark
    • Ebay
    • Mercari Coming Soon
    • AliExpress Coming Soon
    • Amazon Coming Soon
  • Pets
  • Coronavirus Louisiana

New Orleans’s Mass Feeding Initiative Presents Barriers to Local Restaurants

  • June 12, 2020
  • Publisher
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0

The City of New Orleans’s aim to partner with local restaurants on an upcoming $18 million “COVID Mass Feeding Initiative” has been met with skepticism from those in the industry, due to requirements for potential partners that would seem to make it impossible for independent restaurants to participate.

The program, funded in large part by FEMA, aims to feed 30,000 food insecure New Orleans residents this summer. Announced last week along with a call to “all New Orleans restaurants” to apply to participate, it was presented as a way to employ local restaurants to prepare and deliver up to 60,000 meals to vulnerable residents per week for at least a month (after which the program will be extended on a week-by-week basis).

FEMA is covering 75 percent of the cost of the meals, and the city will pay for the remaining 25 percent. Restaurants, kitchens, and caterers had ten days (until June 10), to apply to be a partner in the program, dubbed the COVID-19 Mass Feeding Initiative, with the city planning to award contracts by June 14.

The subsequent Request for Proposals aimed at potential restaurant participants outlined details that included a plan for the city to pay partners for services rendered 30 days after completion. That means those restaurants would have to front the money for the ingredients needed to create a month’s worth of meals, a requirement that may ultimately end up excluding local restaurants in favor of corporate kitchens, because restaurant owners won’t be able to make the late reimbursements work. A restaurant owner who spoke to Eater on background said that in addition to needing funding upfront, the ten day turnaround for the application made it prohibitive for a smaller, independent restaurant.

“It’s such a wasted opportunity,” says Devin De Wulf, organizer of effort Feed the Frontline NOLA, a different initiative with similar goals, which delivered more than 100,000 free meals from local restaurants to New Orleans-area frontline workers from mid March through early May. De Wulf wrote a letter to the editor outlining his concerns to The Lens. The initiative, which raised more than $1 million in donations in six weeks, was nationally–recognized for its efficiency in serving the community: It paid local restaurants to make meals that were then donated, employing out-of-work local musicians and gig workers for the deliveries. (De Wulf says close to $250,000 was spent with minority-owned businesses, including local black-owned restaurants Neyow’s, Fritai, Heard Dat Kitchen, Queen Trini Lisa, Backatown Coffee Parlour, Addis Nola, and more).

De Wulf told Eater that when he heard about the Mass Feeding Initiative, he thought it had the potential to help make a model like Feed the Frontline NOLA’s sustainable with government funding. Upon further reading of the RFP, however, he felt its stipulations — particularly paying partners for services 30 days after completion — could likely only be pulled off by bigger entities such as corporate restaurants or commercial kitchens. Based on his time partnering with 49 local restaurants for Feed the Frontline NOLA, De Wulf thinks few, if any of them, could front the amount of money required by the city’s proposal. Eater reached out to the city about these concerns Thursday, but has not yet received a response.

The FEMA-backed program is an opportunity to feed New Orleans’s vulnerable residents while reviving the local economy, says De Wulf. “We as a city need to look to our small, neighborhood restaurants that people care about. The restaurants based on tourism — those places are doomed and not necessarily salvageable. What is salvageable are neighborhood restaurants,” De Wulf said. “That’s how we should feed our community.”

“Now is the time to invest in our city, in our people. Do you care about local restaurants? Yes or no? Do you care about local people? Yes or no?”

The city has said it will announce the selected partners on June 14.

Eater is tracking the impact of the novel coronavirus on the city’s restaurant industry. Have a story to share? Reach out at nola@eater.com.



Sign up for the

newsletter


Eater NOLA

Sign up for our newsletter.




Source link

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Related Topics
  • barriers
  • feeding
  • Initiative
  • Local
  • Louisiana coronavirus
  • mass
  • Orleanss
  • Presents
  • restaurants
Previous Article
  • Coronavirus Louisiana

Coronavirus claims 268,797 hotel-supported jobs in Texas

  • June 6, 2020
  • Publisher
View Post
Next Article
  • Coronavirus Louisiana

$24M in virus refunds planned to Louisiana college students

  • June 20, 2020
  • Publisher
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post

Baton Rouge mayor Sharon Weston Broome says 30% of major roadwork plan will be done in second term | News

  • January 13, 2021
View Post

US stocks rise in morning trading as 2020 winds down

  • December 30, 2020
View Post

Member of White House’s COVID Task Force announces resignation plans amid controversy

  • December 23, 2020
View Post

Uptown Taco and Margarita Stand Barracuda Will Open in Algiers Point

  • December 15, 2020
View Post

Friends react to unexpected death of Ruffino’s founder, 53: ‘There’s no way you couldn’t love him’ | Entertainment/Life

  • November 25, 2020
View Post

Dolly Parton adds pandemic hero to list of accomplishments

  • November 18, 2020
View Post

Official says vaccine expected in January, countering Trump

  • October 9, 2020
View Post

Black Restaurant Week Kicks Off Today in New Orleans

  • October 2, 2020

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Recent Posts
  • Biden promised to get tough on Putin. Start now by saving Alexei Navalny: Garry Kasparov
    • January 27, 2021
  • COVID-19 outbreak at Indiana religious order kills 2 sisters
    • January 27, 2021
  • Biden’s New Executive Orders Take Aim At Climate Change
    • January 27, 2021
Sponsored
  • Digital Agency
  • Xpurity
  • Tech Music and Gaming News
  • Industrial News and Resources
  • Headline & Celebrity News
  • Celebrity News & Gossip
  • Adult social media
  • Chicago escorts
  • Breaking News
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Travel News
  • Trending Celebrities
  • Adult SEO
  • Fashion and Celebrity Style
  • Music and Entertainement News
  • California Escorts
  • Chicago escorts
  • Best Chicago Escorts
Categories
Featured Posts
  • Biden promised to get tough on Putin. Start now by saving Alexei Navalny: Garry Kasparov

    • January 27, 2021
    View Post
  • COVID-19 outbreak at Indiana religious order kills 2 sisters

    • January 27, 2021
    View Post
  • Biden’s New Executive Orders Take Aim At Climate Change

    • January 27, 2021
    View Post
  • COVID-19: Vaccines ‘can’t fail’ to reduce spread of virus, says Professor Jonathan Van-Tam | Politics News

    • January 27, 2021
    View Post
  • FDA import alert hand sanitizers from Mexico test for toxic ingredient

    • January 27, 2021
    View Post

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

Covid-19 Outlook
  • Contact
  • Advertising
Your trusted Coronavirus Covid-19 source.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.