Five Biz Owners Giving Back To Their Community

The world may be changing but one thing still remains: kindness. As the world adjusts to a new normal, local business owners are stepping us to make impactful change in their communities. From feeding students to “flower-bombing” neighborhoods, these five businesses reflect the heartbeats of our communities.

Enjoy these five (of many) heartwarming stories of real kindness from around the U.S.:

SUCCOTASH – Washington, D.C. 

Chef Ed Lee has repurposed his popular restaurant into a relief center for restaurant workers impacted by the pandemic. The Restaurant Workers Relief Program offers up to 300 meals per night as well as other essentials like diapers, baby food, toilet paper and more. With beautiful dinners like chicken pot pie with herb biscuits to baked gnocchi, Chef Lee’s official site states, “The most pressing need right now is to take care of our hospitality industry family. We want them to know that they are not alone, we are here for them.” Information to donate the initiative can be found here.

Urban Orchid – Cleveland, OH

To brighten the community, Brandon Sitler Zelmer, owner of Urban Orchid, spent a day randomly “flower-bombing” the Ohio City neighborhood of Cleveland with beautiful surprise bouquets that doubled as a virtual fundraiser for The Greater Cleveland Food Bank, raising over $1,000 for those in need. According to Urban Orchid’s social media, “Hoping to #spreadthelove and brighten peoples day! Thanks to our sponsors for donating florals: Mayesh Wholesale Florist and Kennicott Cleveland.”

Beer Bar – Salt Lake City, UT

Bar-X and Beer Bar co-owner Ty Burrell (television actor from Modern Family) seeded a relief fund to help food and beverage workers displaced by the coronavirus pandemic and March Salt Lake City earthquake. As of May 4, 2020, Project Tip Your Server has raised more than $523,776.00 According to their official video, “We’re hoping that it will be some small bit of relief to this vital but vulnerable part of Salt Lake City’s community.” To donate to Project Tip Your Server click here.

Woodford F&B – Portland, ME 

Owners Fayth Preyer, Birch Shambaugh and Courtney Loreg have committed to making daily deliveries of delicious cheeseburgers to frontline workers in local hospitals, the heartbeat of Portland, Maine. They recently made a delivery to The Baron Center, which also delivers extended nursing care for the elderly, chronically ill and people with disabilities. As they explain on social media, “Their mission can be tough to accomplish even in the best of times. And this is not the best of times. To be able to deliver a raft of cheeseburger relief was amazing.” To donate to Feeding the Frontline, contact Woodford F&B directly.

Bombay Pizza House – Fremont, CA

Bombay Pizza House created the Free Pizza Program to offer meals to children from the Fremont Unified School District. To date, this Fremont local business has served 1,650 free pizzas to students in need who are not able to receive an essential free meal from school during this time. As their social media explains, “We love seeing that smile on students’ faces when they are able to receive their lunch and we love serving them. We would like to continue this program until next month, Friday, May 8th.” 

We’d love to hear stories of how you’ve witnessed business owners giving back to the community during COVID-19, tag us on social media @yelp.