Guy Fieri Helps Raise over $20 Million for Restaurant Workers Affected by Pandemic

Renowned Chef Guy Fieri is helping restaurant industry workers get back on their feet during the coronavirus pandemic.

When Fieri realized how much out of work restaurant employees were hurting due to the health crisis, he decided to do something about it, according to TMZ.

“Boy, I started thinking about my brothers and sisters in the restaurant business and a bunch of the restaurants that I was closing,” he said Thursday.

Fieri explained:

So we partnered up with the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation, ’cause they’re folks that know how to take in donations and get money out. And we started raising money. I started sending out personal video invitations to all the heavy hitter CEOs that are involved in the restaurant business and said, “Listen, Pepsi, Coke, Uber Eats, all of you, we need to raise some money.”

Not long after, Fieri and the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation (NRAEF) created the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund and raised over $20 million in less than two months for workers in the industry.

“Through this Fund, grants will be made to restaurant industry employees who have been impacted by COVID-19, including a decrease in wages or loss of employment,” its website read.

Fieri continued:

And to date, gentlemen, we’ve raised $21.5 million, and we’ve been giving out $500 grants to restaurant employees all over the country. We’ve given out 40,000 grants so far, approved 40,000 grants so far. So you can do the math and we’re up to 20 million. We’re gonna continue, as long as the money comes in, we’re gonna continue to give these grants.

Friday on Instagram,  the NRAEF announced it would send out over 10,000 email notifications to grant recipients:

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Update for Applicants on 5/8: We are sending out 10,000 new award notifications today. Please be sure to check your email inboxes over the weekend for an update from RERF@nraef.org or admin@communityforce.com. We thank you for your continued patience.

A post shared by NRAEF (@nraefoundation) on May 8, 2020 at 10:19am PDT

Consumers will be even more excited to support restaurant employees once the pandemic ends and everything goes back to normal, Fieri said Thursday.

“Just looking and listening and hearing what’s going on, I think people are gonna be fired up, gung ho, and ready to get out there and visit their restaurants a lot more than they were prior to the pandemic,” he concluded.