What started out as a seemingly simple, but good, idea to help local people in the service industry who found themselves without incomes because of the coronavirus pandemic has gone national. In a big way. As in, half a million dollars big.
Jen Gregory has worked in and around the food industry for a quarter century. She's waited tables, been a manager and for the last several years has worked with the Chattanooga Beverage Alliance, a group of professionals in the beverage community who share information and experiences about working in the food industry.
Donald Sayers saw a post from Veronica Morgan about the need to help fellow local bartenders and wait staff who found them suddenly out of work because of the coronavirus, and he reached out to some people, including Gregory, about developing a website.
Thanks to her background, she knew a few people willing to help and in a short time, Sayers, Dan Ryan and Galen Riley in Chattanooga, as well as Kelly Kuhn in Monterey, California, had developed a site that let people use Cash App or Venmo to make a donation to help.
What they didn't expect was that the campaign would go national. Since March 17 when serviceindustry.tips launched, more than 270 cities in nearly every state have created similar websites, with 75,000 service industry people registered and more than 106,000 donations made.
"Those are everything from $5 to $50 tips. We don't watch the money, but we have heard from people from all over through anecdotal stories, and most are giving anywhere from $5 minimum to $50. Even on the low end, that's a half million dollars," she said.
Gregory said she was able to spread the word via her many contacts made over the years, and she gives a lot of the credit to the site developers.
"In essence, they were able to do in six weeks what should have taken six months," she said.
The site allows people in the industry who have been laid off to register for financial help. The local administrators in each city, who theoretically know the markets, then confirm the person's background information. Visitors to the site are randomly given a person to tip, but you can hit refresh to keep searching for someone you might know.
You don't have to buy anything to leave a tip, nor are there any fees.
Evelyn Mostrom, 25, got laid off from Public House and then Frothy Monkey in less than 24 hours. She said the serviceindustry.tips site has been as much an emotional boost as it has been a financial one.
"I've gotten about 10 or 15 tips, and none of them have been super huge, but it's always uplifting and comes in handy," she said.
Mostrom said her tips have ranged from $3 to $15.
"My favorite one was $15 and came with a bunch of whiskey emojis on a Sunday morning, so I thought, 'OK, someone is having a good day.' It was nice."
Gregory and the developers manage the site, but have nothing to do with receiving or distributing the money. That goes directly to the person whose name you get. The developers also make nothing off of the site, she said.
In addition to the nationwide campaign, the crew has created the Service Industry Fund to help anyone in the food industry in dire need. To date, organizers say it has raised more than $10,000 and helped 108 local people with stop-gap finances to help pay for food or medicine.
To donate, visit bit.ly/ServiceFund or for more information, contact chattservicefund@gmail.com.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.