SC restaurant that laid off 400 workers sets up online fundraiser to help its staff
Some 400 people lost their jobs last week when a single South Carolina restaurant company, Home Team BBQ, closed indefinitely as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Now the restaurant is taking a new step to try to help those laid-off workers as the coronavirus crisis worsens nationwide and unprecedented numbers of people are seeking unemployment aid.
Home Team BBQ launched an online fundraiser at GoFundMe.com to raise money for its former employees. In its first two days, the “Home Team BBQ - Employee Fund” page had raised more than $8,000.
The money raised will be given to people who worked at Home Team’s five restaurants — one in Columbia, three in Charleston and one in Aspen, Colorado — “in the form of gift certificates to grocery stores and pharmacies,” the fundraising page says.
“We want this money to go toward food for our employees,” Home Team owner Aaron Siegel said in a video posted on social media this week. “We are trying to bridge the gap between now and the time that they can realize benefits from the government, and putting food in their refrigerators is going to be huge.”
The spread of COVID-19 and widespread efforts to keep people at home has led to astounding numbers of business closures, particularly in the hospitality sector, leaving thousands of people across South Carolina suddenly without paychecks.
More than 31,000 South Carolinians filed unemployment claims last week — roughly 30,000 more than the number of people who filed claims a week earlier, highlighting the impact of vast and sudden business closures across the state. A record 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, shattering the previous record by nearly five times.
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