NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A nonprofit organization is coming to the aid of restaurant workers who are out of a job as businesses sit dark and empty amid the coronavirus outbreak.
John deBary, the former bar director for the Momofuku restaurant empire and author, is the co-founder and president of the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation.
The nonprofit advocacy group works to address quality of life issues in the restaurant industry by raising funds to help low-wage workers in the business.
DeBary said last year they beat their $30,000 fundraising goal by $10,000.
As COVID-19 put restaurants out of business, raising fears that many will not come back, fundraising for those who worked in them went into overdrive and the public responded.
"Funds that we've raised were somewhere around $2.7 million in the past four weeks," deBary told WCBS 880's Mike Sugerman.
He and other board members, also successful veterans of the business, are happy they are able to do something for their colleagues in this awful time.
"When you're the beneficiary of a degree of success and privilege and luck, there is a sort of a moral obligation to work to make life better for people," deBary said.
And they've still got a lot on their plate.