Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March, Guy Fieri has been busy helping out restaurant workers who have been unable to work.
The restaurateur helped raise $21.5 million for 43,000 unemployed workers thanks to his Restaurant Employee Relief Fund.
Since then, he's being praised online for doing more than Congress and local governments for helping out those in need.
"Can not believe that flavortown has a better mayor than most major American cities," on Twitter user wrote.
Through help from donors and businesses like Pepsi Co. & Uber Eats, the fund helped deliver grants of $500 each to tens of thousands of workers who have suffered financial hardships due to the ongoing pandemic.
80% of those workers made less than $50k a year prior to the pandemic.
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The celebrity chef has also spoken out against California's ban on outdoor dining as part of the latest stay-at-home order.
"Here’s hopin’ everyone is following the California Restaurant Association’s lawsuit challenging LA’s outdoor dining ban. We gotta keep Flavortown open for biz," he wrote on Twitter.
Newsweek reports that 3.4 million Americans who worked in leisure & hospitality have lost their jobs this year and that 17,000 restaurant workers were laid off in November alone.
Fieri is even producing a documentary on the COVID-stricken restaurant industry.
“Restaurant Hustle 2020: All On The Line,” features four well-known restaurateurs struggling to stay afloat amid government-mandated shutdowns, capacity limits on both indoor and outdoor dining, and more.
“I’ve traveled coast to coast visiting thousands of restaurants across the country on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,’ and after all the time on the road, it’s clear that restaurants are the heart and soul of their communities,” Fieri told the Food Network. “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the impact on the restaurant industry was immediate.”
The documentary will air on the Food Network on December 27 at 9 p.m.
Fieri's efforts extended past the pandemic. In August and October, he also showed up in northern California twice this year to cook meals for firefighters battling wildfires.
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