The Williamsburg restaurant Gertie (357 Grand St.) will offer free meals for laid off hospitality workers as a result of mass closures from the coronavirus crisis.
Starting on Thursday at 4 p.m., Gertie will become a “relief center” for anyone who has recently lost their job in the hospitality industry, as the announcement posted to Instagram on Tuesday states: “Each night, we will pack hundreds of to go dinners that people can come to pick up and take home,”
Meals will be available Tuesday – Friday from 4 p.m. – 7 p.m. on a first come first served basis. The pop-up relief center will continue indefinitely until the restaurant can no longer financially support the program.
Along with the Gertie team, partners include the Prospect Heights restaurant Olmsted (which is also operating a food bank) the Lee Initiative and Makers Mark:
Due to the closure of restaurants in NYC we have an urgent need for assistance for the thousands of restaurant workers who find themselves suddenly without work, without a paycheck and without a support system. Independent restaurants are at the center of the vibrant growth in America. For the past decade, we have relied on the stellar hospitality and positive PR of the independent restaurant scene to make this a city we are incredibly proud of. But now restaurant workers need your help more than ever. If we don’t take a stand and do something now, there will not be an independent restaurant industry to speak of when the corona-virus crisis is over.