HALLOWELL — As city restaurant and bar workers are in employment limbo due to the coronavirus, dozens of area residents have pledged money to “tip” restaurant and bar workers who may be out of work through an online fundraiser.
As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, the online fundraiser, titled “Tip Your Hallowell Bar and Restaurant Workers,” had raised $6,340 of its $10,000 goal on 97 donations since it began March 17. State Rep. Charlotte Warren, a Hallowell resident who has also served as the city’s mayor, is overseeing the fundraising effort.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported Wednesday that the state has 344 total cases of coronavirus and seven people have died. Last month, restaurants were ordered to close for sit-down service by Gov. Janet Mills, forcing many sit-down eateries to quickly transition to takeout and curbside pickup.
Warren said she was “psyched” about the amount of support on the fundraiser. She said she started it as a response to many of the city’s restaurants deciding to close their doors for sit-down service.
“I just felt … how scared and uncertain they must feel,” Warren said. “I know all of those people and they’re not just my constituents, they’re my friends. They don’t live having a check every two weeks getting deposited into their bank accounts.”
She moved to Hallowell 25 years ago, she said, and as a single person, restaurant service workers have been there for her on a number of nights downtown.
“So many nights of my life, the servers … take care of (me),” Warren said. “These people are a huge part of a lot of people’s lives.”
Twelve businesses in Hallowell have liquor licenses and 25 have victualer’s licenses. Not all of those businesses are restaurants and bars, and some have both licenses, leaving 13 businesses that would be considered restaurants or bars. There are two other downtown stores, Boynton’s Market and Hallowell Seafood and Produce, that offer pickup and takeout meals.
Joyce’s Restaurant, which still holds victualer’s and liquor licenses, and Dairy Queen, which holds a victualer’s license, are both permanently closed.
Warren said she plans to collect the money from the fundraiser, immediately dispersing it to downtown bars and restaurants after meeting with owners and discussing how many employees they have.
“We’ll sit down and we’ll do it all together,” she said. “It’ll be a very transparent process.”
Jamie Houghton, co-owner of the Liberal Cup, said she has spoken to Warren about the fundraiser but has not followed up with her recently.
“Charlotte messaged me about the program and I asked her the implementation question,” she said. “At the time, she was mostly focused on getting the funding set up.
“She had some ideas about distribution, but I am not sure where she is in the process,” Houghton added. “I have not made the time to follow up with her since every day unfolds differently here.”
Houghton said the community has been supportive of her business’s changes during the outbreak, including the change to pickup and offering family-style meals.
“To-go orders were a small fraction of our business before this happened,” she said. “Now, it is allowing us to keep some of our staff employed, particularly those who do not qualify for, or are having a hard time navigating, the unemployment insurance program.”
One of the fundraiser’s donors was Rosemary Presnar, who said her $100 donation would likely cover what she and her partner would leave for tips after a month of going out downtown. She said she also donated to a fundraiser started by Chris Vallee to support local musicians, for which Warren said she will help raise funds after her $10,000 goal for bar and restaurant workers is met.
Presnar said she was reducing trips to bigger stores and frequenting farmer’s markets and Hallowell Seafood and Produce during the outbreak. She said she also donated to Vignettes, a downtown crafts and gift store, in an effort “to pay it forward.”
To benefit Warren’s fundraising effort, Hallowell artist Chris Cart is raffling one of his paintings, selling tickets for $1. The painting, he said, would fetch about $1,200 if placed in his gallery.
Cart said it was important to support the fundraiser because Hallowell has great restaurants and “most of the people that work” at the restaurants are his friends.
The raffle ends Sunday and has already sold more than 900 tickets.
For more information on the fund raiser, go to gofundme.com/f/tipyourhallowell.
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