Local businesses create GoFundMe pages to support employees

Many restaurants are not bringing in enough income to fully pay their employees due to Gov. Roy Cooper’s ban on dine-in service at restaurants and bars. 

These establishments have been forced to reduce the hours of their staff, lay off the majority of their employees or shut down completely. Employees of local businesses have created GoFundMe campaigns to raise money and support their co-workers in an economically uncertain time.

One of these people is UNC senior Jason Satterfield, who has worked as a barista at the Gray Squirrel Coffee Company for the last three years.

Satterfield said he created the GoFundMe page after most of the company's employees were temporarily let go. 

He said he wanted to find a way to help his fellow employees, who would be losing their main source of income. 

“I thought it would be cool to create a page for employees who had been let go," Satterfield said. "I’m a student, so I feel more optimistic that I’ll be fine, but for some of the people, their main job was at Gray Squirrel."

Satterfield said he has been distributing the money evenly between the staff members who were laid off.

UNC senior Alessandro Uribe-Rheinbolt, who created a GoFundMe page for Cosmic Cantina, said he felt a similar need to help his coworkers.

Uribe-Rheinbolt said the first thing he thought about when he heard that N.C. restaurants were mandated to move to only takeout and delivery options was the people he worked with and how they would be affected by working reduced hours. 

He thought creating a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for the kitchen staff was the best way he could help the people who had become like family to him. 

“I’ve become super super close with the staff and I know a lot of them have families that depend on them, and I was trying to think of different ways that they could prepare for the uncertainty,” he said. 

Linda’s Bar and Grill also has a GoFundMe campaign as a way to help give its employees some financial stability. 

Linda’s owner Chris Carini said he made the difficult decision to close Linda’s last week because he wanted to do what was best for his employees. 

“I decided to close on Thursday because sometime on Thursday the governor said that people would be able to start to apply for unemployment, and I tried to close as soon as possible because the faster I close the faster my people can get unemployment," he said. 

Carini also said he didn't want to put his employees at risk of contracting COVID-19 by staying open. 

“We’re going to be closed eventually, and if I stayed open I would only have three or four people that could do some work, and they would also be exposed to a bunch of people and possibly put in danger," he said. 

Carini said he plans to take the money and divide it evenly between those of his staff members who want and need financial assistance. He said the money will not be used for running Linda’s, and Carini will not be taking any of the money himself. 

“I thought we could be an example for people for shutting down and getting ready to be open whenever that is possible because the sooner everyone stays home, the sooner things get better,” Carini said. 

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