The popular Guelaguetza restaurant specializing in Oaxacan food in Los Angeles, opened an account to collect funds, on the GoFundme site to cover their employees' wages during the coronavirus crisis. Due to this pandemic, restaurants throughout California and most of the country have been forced not to serve food at their tables, and only sell takeout or home delivery. However, people are not buying takeaways, in numbers that allow restaurateurs to avoid staff cuts.
"This money goes to pay the payroll for cooks, butchers, bakers, waiters, dishwashers, hosts, and janitors”Said Fernando López, who together with his sisters own the Guelaguetza restaurant.
“There are people who have criticized us for this collection, but they do not know all the expenses that the restaurants face, payroll, rent, insurance. Many owners who had asked for loans to expand their premises are now in a critical situation. ”
He added that they decided to start this collection because from one day to the next, they had to cut staff due to the given order not to serve food inside the facilities. Of approximately 100 workers, they were left with only six or seven.
The goal of the Guelaguetza restaurant is to collect $ 116,000 on GoFundme. They have collected $ 4,462.
The National Restaurant Association said last week in a letter to President Trump and congressional leaders that they projected sales would decline by $ 225 billion over the next three months, meaning a job loss of between five and Seven million.
The Anderson of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) forecast revealed that the recession will hit restaurants hardest, as it is the largest industry of any other state in the country, with more than 70 billion revenues per year.
Concern
"We are very concerned about our team. They are families from our community who need to pay their rent and eat. It hurts a lot. Everyone wants to work even for an hour or two, ”said Fernando, one of the owners of the Guelaguetza restaurant.
He commented that they have tried to adapt to selling food to take away or send home, but People have not responded to take-out sales, in the large numbers seen in supermarkets.
The blow has been very hard, and from one day to the next. “We are a restaurant that makes everything from scratch like the chorizo that we prepare. That implies much more work because we also have a very large menu of almost 50 dishes. To offer takeaways, we had to limit the menu to 15 dishes. ”
Nevertheless, the number of sales of the last week and a half, does not come out to support the families who depend on the Guelaguetza restaurant.
"We are going to do our best to stay open as long as we can," said the restaurateur.
What governments must do, he said, is to stop rent and mortgage payments. "That would help a lot. More than half of the workers' wages go towards paying the rent for their home; and the rest, in food ”.
In 26 years they have been open, they have never been forced to close the business. “In the 2008 recession, the situation got very bad. One or two clients came, but at least we could do promotions to attract more. Right now we are with our arms tied. We cannot and are not winning anything, ”he said.
Edgar Santiago, in charge of the kitchen in the Guelaguetza, called on the Angelenos not to leave them alone, and ordered takeout.
"We are very sad, and we feel very bad for all our colleagues that we had to let go," she said.
Before the coronavirus, they were open from 9 in the morning to 10 at night; after the coronavirus, opening hours have been reduced from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Relief proposals
Among the main measures that the National Restaurant Association has requested from the federal government is financial relief to face the crisis, such as the creation of an industry recovery fund for 145 billion dollars with subsidies to be delivered over a period of 15 days after approval.
They have requested $ 35 billion in disaster relief assistance so that restaurants can prepare to return to normal operations. During the 9-11 terrorist attacks, they turned themselves into businesses with fewer than 500 employees.
They are also requesting assistance to allow businesses to defer mortgage, rent and loan payments.
