north, big king, and The Dean Bar staff fund
Donation protected
For seven years, we strived to provide a workplace that didn’t rely on the exploitation that is rampant (and frankly necessary to turn any sort of real profit) in this industry. We’ve done that by keeping our business on a knife’s edge - risking everything, every week, to take care of our staff best we can without putting up the financial barriers that would keep everyone out of our place beyond the most wealthy in our country. Covid-19 was a disaster of unfathomable proportions - a natural disaster of scope and duration that there is no playbook for. It has stripped the restaurant of all of its savings, and we moved our staff to unemployment this past week. We are currently in the process of moving them to state health insurance, as the company health insurance premium of $7000/mo is no longer sustainable for me.
We shut down because we thought it was the best move to save lives and keep our community safe. The community that has supported us all these years. But as we have spent time at home, we’ve also had to go to supermarkets in the area. And what we see bothers us - while they haven’t been mobbed, they have been busy - and there are no additional protections in place. No additional sanitation at checkouts. No social distancing. In seeing this, we realized that if we can offer a safe, contact-free takeaway experience, we can help spread the sourcing of people's food, and help continue to curb the virus.
As a part of our takeaway program, the two initial staff, myself, the chef of big king, and Andrew, the chef of north, are taking no salary, and instead putting the money usually devoted to labor into a fund to support the staff of north, big king, and the dean bar who are currently on unemployment. This fund will be administered by Jenn Wittlin, our general manager, who is also currently not taking a salary. While I have no expectation that the public also supports this fund, if anyone would like to, they are also welcome to contribute. All funds will be dispersed equally amongst staff that elects to remain in it.
heart you pvd,
james
We shut down because we thought it was the best move to save lives and keep our community safe. The community that has supported us all these years. But as we have spent time at home, we’ve also had to go to supermarkets in the area. And what we see bothers us - while they haven’t been mobbed, they have been busy - and there are no additional protections in place. No additional sanitation at checkouts. No social distancing. In seeing this, we realized that if we can offer a safe, contact-free takeaway experience, we can help spread the sourcing of people's food, and help continue to curb the virus.
As a part of our takeaway program, the two initial staff, myself, the chef of big king, and Andrew, the chef of north, are taking no salary, and instead putting the money usually devoted to labor into a fund to support the staff of north, big king, and the dean bar who are currently on unemployment. This fund will be administered by Jenn Wittlin, our general manager, who is also currently not taking a salary. While I have no expectation that the public also supports this fund, if anyone would like to, they are also welcome to contribute. All funds will be dispersed equally amongst staff that elects to remain in it.
heart you pvd,
james
Organizer and beneficiary
Jennifer Wittlin
Organizer
Providence, RI
James Mark
Beneficiary
