Aid For Bartenders During Bar Closures for COVID-19

In light of the COVID-19 outbreak leading to service industry closures across the country, Chilled will keep the bartending community up-to-date on information about financial and medical assistance being made available.

We will list emergency funding and relief offered to bartenders and bar owners during these trying times, as soon as the information is presented.

The United States Bartenders Guild has set up a National Charity to offer emergency relief to help bartenders. To qualify for relief from the USBG National Charity Foundation, applicants do not have to be a USBG member to apply for the grants, but they do need to be a bartender experiencing emergency hardship. The USBG is also currently collecting donations. To donate, click here, and if you are a bartender seeking assistance, click here.

For those affected in the foodservice industry, the Restaurant Workers Community Foundation is also creating a Restaurant Workers’ COVID19 Crisis Relief Fund as well as a Resource Page to provide information on how to receive assistance or to find ways to assist.

Chilled has been working over the past two years to provide affordable health insurance coverage to our Chilled 100 members. To help bartenders facing hardship during this crisis, at this time, we will be opening this assistance to all bartenders. Stay tuned for additional information.

In the state of California, “If your employer has reduced your hours or shut down operations due to COVID-19, you can file an Unemployment Insurance (UI) claim,” the EDD says on its website. “UI provides partial wage replacement benefit payments to workers who lose their job or have their hours reduced, through no fault of their own. Workers who are temporarily unemployed due to COVID-19 and expected to return to work with their employer within a few weeks are not required to seek work each week.”

For New York Industry Workers,, IGC Hospitality has launched a program to ensure that out-of-work hospitality workers don’t go hungry. Family Meal iwill provide FREE meals to anyone in the industry. The request is simple. IGC has set up a gofundme page where they will be collecting donations to cover the cost of these meals. IGC will be posting the available meal on their Instagram page (@igchospitality) daily at 10:30 am and collecting orders for same-day meal pickup until 12pm. Anyone interested in a FREE family meal can submit their order through this form and orders will be available for pickup at Parker & Quinn (64 West 39th Street) from 12:30-7pm daily.

Shopify has put together a list of government relief programs for small businesses around the world.

Facebook has launched a $100 million grant program for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Click here for more information.

Another Round Another Rally  is distributing $500 relief grants to hospitality workers in need. Anyone in the hospitality industry—dishwasher, bartender, server busser, chef, cook, sommelier, manager, host, or barback—can apply for funds. Click here to apply for funds and here to donate to their fund.

The National Restaurant Association Educational Fund as launched liftyourspirits.org to raise money for food service workers who have been impacted by COVID-19. Proceeds from this fundraising campaign will support the restaurant worker relief efforts at the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation. Click here for information on their grants.

Yelp is announcing a $25 million relief effort to support local businesses impacted by COVID-19. Details about the relief effort are available here.

The James Beard Foundation has launched a Food and Beverage Industry Relief Fund that will be pooling support from corporate, foundation, and individual donors to provide grants to independent food and beverage businesses in need. They will be posting information on how to apply for assistance soon, but if you’d like to donate, click here.

The Independent Restaurant Coalition was created by chefs and organizations including Food Policy Action and the James Beard Foundation to the save restaurants affected by COVID-19 by working to affect legislative change. Click here to see how you can get involved and for more information on their work.

GoFundMe campaigns have been created by bars and individuals across the country to support members of the hospitality community. Click here to search through the campaigns.

Please also check with your state and city government websites for announcements related to the COVID-19 crisis.

Here is a list of other resources for bartenders at this time:

Children of Restaurant Employees (C.O.R.E.)

Southern Smoke

The Giving Kitchen

CA Restaurant Association Foundation

CO Restaurant Association Foundation

TX Restaurant Association Foundation

Hook Hall

Big Table

We remain hopeful that this health situation will come under control and that bartenders will be able to return to work, and we can all gather once again as a community and find a new normal.  We will continue to update this post as information becomes available.