With #SaveRVARestaurants, a Richmond couple strives to help both struggling restaurants and families in need.
The YMCA of Greater Richmond connected #SaveRVARestaurants with Perch restaurant to provide meals for 50 families at the Sedgefield mobile home park in Ashland.
When Alexandra and Brock Saunders moved back to their native Richmond about five years ago after a decade-long stint in New York City, they found a radically changed city that had become a new hub in the nation’s dining scene. But now, with the spread of COVID-19, local restaurant operators are more than a month into an unplanned experiment in dining room-free dining. Even a robust takeout business doesn’t fill the void, and restaurants face dwindling bottom lines as more customers cook at home to avoid the risk of infection. Some restauranteurs are helping feed those in need by donating food to charities, but the efforts do little to keep the businesses afloat.
“The beloved restaurants that transformed our city are now fighting for their lives,” says Brock, who works in venture capital while Alexandra stays at home, raising their three-year-old daughter and one-year-old-son.
Last month, after Gov. Ralph Northam issued an executive order prohibiting restaurants from allowing patrons to dine in, the Saunders decided to step up and help. “We are worried about the vibrant restaurants that have molded Richmond into a city on the rise and want to see them come through this crisis,” Alexandra says. The couple launched their #SaveRVARestaurants initiative with the goal of purchasing $100,000 worth of food from local restaurants within 30 days and donating these meals to people in need, including kids once reliant on schools for food, displaced workers, or anyone who needs a bit of extra help.
“We wanted to make sure the restaurants did not have to donate the food—they need cash, and they need it now. And we also wanted to help nourish those in the community who are out of work or in a hard place given the current environment.”
The couple was inspired by efforts in their former home of New York City, a hot spot of the pandemic, where a lot of restaurants began donating food to healthcare workers in early March. “We wanted to do something similar here,” says Alexandra. “But we wanted to make sure the restaurants did not have to donate the food—they need cash, and they need it now. And we also wanted to help nourish those in the community who are out of work or in a hard place given the current environment.”
#SaveRVARestaurants started with donations from friends and family, but quickly picked up momentum. As of this week, they have raised more than $60,000 from more than 150 individual donations, used the money to purchase food, and partnered with local organizations to distribute it.
The YMCA of Greater Richmond is one of the partner organizations. “We were contacted by friends of the YMCA who were close to the #SaveRVARestaurants, because they know of the Y’s longstanding engagement in communities throughout the Richmond region, and they knew we could be a trusted organization to get food to people who need it right now,” says Tricia Puryear, vice president of social responsibility and strategic partnerships. “So far, we’ve worked together to get food to 1,852 people living in Chesterfield and Hanover counties. These are people who have lost income, are furloughed, and are experiencing food insecurity due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Puryear says.
Salt & Forge made meals for Richmond Public Schools.
The Saunders have also worked with gourmet sandwich shop Salt & Forge to provide 100 meals to some of the highest need parents of Richmond Public school students. “Many of these parents have been displaced from their permanent homes and are caring for and home-schooling their children in motels and other temporary housing,” Alexandra says. “Thanks to donations from the community, they were able to enjoy a fresh, home-cooked meal for the first time in a while.”
The couple purchased chicken tikka masala and biryani, Bombay potatoes, rice, and naan from Lehja for 17 families via the St. James Children’s Center, an early childhood education facility in Richmond. They had Shagbark and Carytown Cupcakes serve up enough meals and treats for 60 at the nonprofit Virginia Home for Boys and Girls. River City Roll made 50 chicken fried rice bowls for families of students at Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School, and Richmond’s soul food staple Mama J’s prepared their signature fried chicken sandwiches to feed the entire Richmond Fire Department. The list goes on and on.
In total, as of this week, #SaveRVARestaurants has fed over 1,500 people with quality, delicious meals from more than 20 independent local restaurants, even including a 25-percent gratuity with each order. “Industry workers have no way to access income through tips with all the restaurants closed. We are thinking about all of these folks and want them to have restaurants to come back to for income,” Alexandra says.
For Donnie Glass, who opened the French bouchon-inspired restaurant Grisette with his wife Megan in Richmond’s Church Hill neighborhood less than a year ago, the Saunders’ effort was a lifeline after he sent all his employees home in March to comply with social distancing measures. “I thought better of just putting the brakes on for a few weeks, allowing the curve to flatten, and then reassessing our position and operations,” he says.
Currently, Glass opens Grisette on Fridays for takeout only, but his collaboration with #SaveRVARestaurants has been a welcome addition to his workload. “They blew us away with their mission, paying for food that was then donated to people that needed it by fundraising cash,” he says. “I know a lot of people are on that wave at this point, but a month ago it felt revolutionary. What really felt karmically right was that a lot of our food went to Hispanic families that were hurting from loss of jobs due to COVID-19. The restaurant industry relies so much on that community to make the wheels turn, it felt great to be able to give back to them.”
For those who want to donate, #SaveRVARestaurants has partnered with the Little Hands Virginia charity in an effort to save time and get the ball rolling. “We were not able to create a 501(c)(3) in 24 hours, so luckily (Little Hands founder) Taylor Keeney was willing to let us use her website and platform for donations,” Alexandra says.
For now, #SaveRVARestaurants is determined to keep going past their initial April 30 goal. “This is our attempt to buy a little bit of time, bridge the gap, whatever it may be,” Brock says. “Who knows, maybe the difference in sticking around a few extra days or weeks is the key to coming out the other side of this with the fabric of our city intact. This industry has served us so well, let’s do our best to now serve them.” LittleHandsVa.org/SaveRVARestaurants
