restaurants

Great American Takeout Supports Black-Owned Eateries

Restaurant coalition The Great American Takeout is encouraging people to support the Black Lives Matter movement tomorrow by ordering takeout or delivery from black-owned eateries.

For every photo of a restaurant order from a black-owned restaurant posted with #TheGreatAmericanTakeout on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter, sponsors of The Great American Takeout will donate $5 to Black Lives Matter—with a goal of at least $20,000.  

The Great American Takeout launched in March when COVID-19 prompted restaurant shutdowns nationwide—impacting some 15 million workers. It was started by the High Wide & Handsome advertising agency, which continues to seek donors for tomorrow’s initiative.

As this was written, donors included the McIlhenny tabasco sauce brand, food-service company Bunge Limited and High Wide & Handsome. 

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“We’re hoping to take calls all day today and maybe even tomorrow from corporations that want to become donors,” High Wide & Handsome president John Truscott tells Marketing Daily.

“Tomorrow is a special event in many ways. We wanted to raise awareness of and support for black-owned restaurants. We hope the American public will take advantage and buy a meal from a local restaurant they may not have tried before.”

Hide Wide & Handsome has posted on its website links to thousands of black-owned restaurants nationwide.

The National Restaurant Association has circulated to its members resources to locate black-owned restaurants, including the EatOkra app. 

Developed in 2016 by Anthony and Janique Edwards of Brooklyn, EatOkra has listings for 2,600 restaurants nationwide and more than 60,000 users. EatOkra tries to raise the profile of small, black-owned businesses, many of which don’t have marketing resources and aren’t necessarily located on main thoroughfares.

“So black businesses might be on the side street, where you can’t depend on walk-in traffic,” Anthony Edwards told The Washington Post. “This lets you know that if you take a left instead of a right, you pass three black-owned businesses.”

Style: NY Times lower case

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