If the last nine months haven’t left your memory a slice of melted Swiss cheese, you may recall Ferndale’s own Guy Fieri has been helping the National Restaurant Association raise cash for hospitality workers who’ve been out of work due to COVID-19. (He also took part in a remote nacho throwdown fundraiser with Bill Murray in May.) According to the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund website, the effort has come up with $21.5 million in aid for some 43,000 workers in the form of one-time $500 grants.
While a representative for the relief fund wasn’t able to track down how many recipients reside in Humboldt County, more than 5,600 were in California. The website states, “Approximately 60 percent of recipients are between the ages of 21 and 35 and nearly 60 percent identify as female. Fifty percent of grants went to racial minorities. Eighty percent of grant recipients reported earning less than $50,000 per year in household income before being impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Nothing but respect for my Mayor of Flavortown.
This article appears in Flash Fiction 2020.
