At Chop House Burger in downtown Dallas, there are no area workers coming in for the normal lunch crowd because of COVID-19 Shelter at Home ordinances.
"We've lost 90% of our lunch business if not more,” Chop House Burger Director of Operations Demetrius Anagnostis said. “We thrive in a central business district that no longer has employees coming in and out of it on a daily basis."
They still have a few take out and online delivery orders coming through. But they are serving a bigger mission, that's bringing a bigger order through its door.
"There's income,” Anagnostis said. “We are able to employ a few of our staff members that we would have furloughed had we not been able to do this."
That help is coming by way of 7740 Dallas. It's a collaboration of corporate sponsors and donors. The money is paying seven restaurants to provide meals for front line healthcare workers in seven hospital COVID-19 units.
"It's the hospitals and these front line workers that are risking their lives and the things they are doing so that we can rest at night,” organizer Jacob Tindall said. “So that we can feel confident that if it happens to us we are going to get taken care of."
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Tindall organized this project. He is a partner in 5G Studio Collaborative and design architect for the Omni Dallas Hotel.
Right now, 7740 Dallas is providing 1,000 meals a week.
He hopes it continues to grow to feed more healthcare workers and to help restaurants keep employees going.
"It's filling a need,” Tindall said. “It's filling an economic need to the restaurants that are hurting right now because people can't come in and dine like they used to."
He added, “The community needs to step up, the business community needs to step up and support these restaurants and support these healthcare workers that are on the front lines risking their lives."
The participating restaurants are Babe’s Chicken Dinner House, Chop House Burger, Commissary Dallas, HG Sply, Lockwood Distilling Co., Red Stix Asian Street Food and Wild Salsa.
The COVID-19 hospital teams receiving the meals are Baylor Scott & White Dallas, Baylor Scott & White Plano, Children’s Medical Center Dallas, Methodist Dallas, Parkland, Texas Health Dallas and UT Southwestern.
To learn more about how you can help click here.
