Project Takeout: Order a burrito, save a restaurant
“Order takeout. It’s your civic duty,” said Devra First in The Boston Globe. In our city, we’re promoting the idea that anyone who can afford to should be ordering takeout once or twice a week just until April arrives and struggling restaurants get a boost from the return of outdoor dining. But this isn’t just a Boston thing. “The story is the same everywhere”: Independent restaurants, and the owners and employees who make them go, are fighting to make it to the other side of winter. And you can help guarantee their continued existence by ordering saag paneer this week, maybe a bean burrito next Tuesday, and a pho the week after that. We call the effort Project Takeout.
Don’t assume that ordering delivery through an app will do just as much good, said
Flora Tsapovsky in BonAppetit.com. At a time when restaurants have needed all the help they can get, DoorDash, GrubHub, and similar delivery services “haven’t been looking great.” Some have aggressively squeezed restaurants’ profits—while paying delivery people poorly. Fortunately, new delivery services are arising that prioritize the health of local businesses. Black and Mobile, which promotes black-owned restaurants, started in Philadelphia before 2020 and has now expanded into five cities. Fast-growing Chowbus boosts the reach of Asian restaurants in 30 cities, and in New York City, an app called Traiilo is being launched to support Latino-owned restaurants and groceries. Look for similar operations. “These apps are changing the rules. They’re championing industrywide change, and it couldn’t come at a better or more crucial time.”