A locally created Facebook group called "Distance Socially, Eat Locally," has been helping local residents connect to restaurants that are still operating.
Zane Smith got the idea to create the group after the province declared a state of emergency back on March 17 which forced restaurant owners and establishments across Ontario to shut down their dining areas amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
"I supply a lot of these places with their product," said Smith.
"I am a food wholesaler and as soon as I heard the announcement that they were going to close up seating I thought I'd start a Facebook group just to get the word out who will be open who won't be open and the struggle they are going to have going forward and it just kind of ballooned from there."
Smith had created Facebook groups before but nothing like this. On the site, people can ask questions about what restaurants are open, while restaurants themselves can share their hours of delivery or takeout. Smith says it's been a great success as he continues to get 20 to 30 requests a day from people to join the new local network.
"I am amazed, I am still getting requests," he said.
"When I hit 1,000 I got excited and now it is well over 2,000. Even if a small percentage of those people support those restaurants every day supported some of those local restaurants then it helps and at this time anything can help them."
Smith believes it is the least he can do to help the many restaurants that have still had to cut staff during these unprecedented times.
"For some of them, this is not about making a profit, some restaurant owners have told me rather it is about surviving," said Smith.
"There is not one restaurant that is not in survival mode right now."
Smith says restaurants owners have done a tremendous amount of work adapting to the situation.
"There are a lot of restaurants that started out the first week and did okay, but many places are not used to doing just takeout or pickups because 99 per cent of the time they are a dine-in establishment," he said.
Smith does not know whether he will still operate the group after the COVID-19 crisis ends, however his real hope is to continue to use this site as a tool to help create more business for local restaurants so they can continue to operate once the pandemic threat is over.
