Over the past week WindsorEats has been asked by many what steps can be taken to help food, drink and tourism businesses.

Small businesses are struggling. Many of us operate on small margins and while we can sustain short term losses, something like what is happening now can and will have disastrous effects for many of us.

Many have been reaching out and asking what they can do to help small businesses in our region cope until things get better. We’ve compiled this post to help answer some of those questions. We will do our best to keep this list up to date as things progress.

UPDATE: As of MARCH 17, 2020 the Windsor Essex County Health Unit has reported 0 confirmed cases in Windsor and Essex County. As of this moment, health officials have officially said the risk of infection in our region remains LOW.

Today it was announced all travellers entering Canada, including Canadian citizens, must self-isolate for 14 days and that Canada had closed the border to all non-Canadian citizens or permanent residents. It was also announced that the all bars and the dining rooms of restaurants will be closed in Windsor effective 12:01am on March 17, 2020.




All this means it is more important than ever to support and shop local. Most importantly, let’s all remember to stay safe, keep calm and carry on. We are stronger together and together we will get through this and come up better than we were before.

If you have a suggestion for the list, send it to us! We will try to update as much as we can when we get new information.

 

CHECK WHAT’S OPEN

Many small businesses are still open and have outlined measures they are taking to ensure their place of business is taking precautionary measures. There are too many to list so we recommend checking their Facebook pages for recent information.

UPDATE: As of March 17, 2020 the Province has issued a state of emergency and mandated that all bars, restaurants close. Many have switched to delivery mode to continue operating. Please check in with your favourite establishment to determine their protocol.

 

GIFT CARDS AND MERCHANDISE

Consider buying gift cards or merchandise from restaurants, coffee shops, etc. It helps with cash flow. To say thanks for anyone who wants to support WindsorEats this way, we’re offering 20% off the purchase of a gift card and a month free of online fitness training.

 

CONSIDER CREDIT, NOT REFUND

There’s a huge crunch on cash flow already for a lot of businesses. If you’ve purchased tickets for an event, consider taking a credit instead of a refund while businesses work to put a solid plan in place.

 

DELIVERY OR CARRYOUT

The City of Windsor has mandated all restaurants and bars closed for dining in, but, you can still have it delivered or ask for carry out. Along with restaurants, here are a few other options that you may not have thought about for delivery:

BREWERIES

If you’re having a craft beer craving, Brew, Walkerville Brewery, Craft Heads Brewing Company and The Grove Brew House deliver beer to your door.

WINERIES

Erie Shore Vineyard, Wagner Farms & Orchards, Colchester Ridge Estate Winery, Paglione Estate Winery, North 42 Degrees Estate Winery and Sprucewood Shores Estate Winery will all make local deliveries of their wines. Wagner will even deliver their hard ciders. Each of the wineries have different restrictions on amounts to purchase and delivery fees.

FOOD

Obviously the majority of restaurants will be able to do carry out and/or delivery, but, if you’re looking for more than that there are a few options. Wagner Farms & Orchards delivers not only their beverages, as stated above, but they also delivery anything they do in house. This means pies, pork, apples, and more.

Not many people know Little Foot Foods also has delivery for their pierogies. If you’re looking to strike through a more complete grocery list, La Stella Supermarket offers home delivery.

WindsorEats is currently working on a weekly Community Food Box program. Contact us if you’re interested.

 

PREPARED MEALS

Many small businesses are offering frozen meals, preserves, etc. that can be stored in your freezer. This includes packaged perogies and cabbage rolls from Little Foot Foods and frozen sausages from Robbie’s Gourmet Sausage Co, which also sells frozen vegan burger patties from Atmosphere Fine Foods.

Thyme To Go and Carrots n’ Dates in Windsor, The Butcher of Kingsville in Kingsville, and Bradt’s Butcher Block and Carmen’s Catering in Leamington are offering take-home prepared meals.

 

SMALL GROCERS

Grocery shop at local establishments. So many people are rushing to these huge shopping centres. Not only is it causing mass panic, you’re also putting yourself within large groups of over 50 people. If you haven’t heard, the province of Ontario has banned gatherings of over 50 people to reduce risk of spreading the virus. Here are a few options that we’ve seen/heard haven’t been overloaded with customers:

 

OFFER SUPPORT

Check in on your favourite small businesses. Many of them are still open. SUPPORT THEM! Ask them how you can  help, lend a helping hand if they need it and if you’re able to do so. Check in on their mental health too. This is a very stressful time for many people. A lot of us are trying to figure out what our next steps are and making difficult decisions to ensure our businesses survive past this pandemic.

BE PATIENT

Many small businesses are having to make the very difficult decision to reduce staff hours. We appreciate your patience and support as we try to do the best we can to keep the lights on.

 

MASTERS OF THE BREWNIVERSE

As of right now, we are 5 weeks out for Masters of the Brewniverse. As with everything else, we are taking a moment to moment approach and will keep you notified if things change. We are thinking positively and hoping that things progress well and that by April 18 we could all use a good event to lift our spirits.

 

STAY INFORMED

Please refer to trusted sources for your information.

 

NEED TO BURN ENERGY?

You may have previously seen Adriano and his workouts on our Instagram stories. His trainer, Joe, operates Stay Fit Anywhere which provides online fitness training. With the announcement of gym closures and recommendations to stay at home, routines will be changing. Joe wants to do his part to help you stay fit during these challenging times. He’s offering a free month of his online training to the friends of WindsorEats. There’s no gimmick or obligation after. It’s just him doing something for you guys to help keep you healthy during this time.

If you want to participate, send him an email, Joe.cheng@stayfitanywhere.com with the subject, “Want My Free Month” and in the email include the code: sfawindsoreats 

DON’T PLAY THE SHAME GAME

We are all dealing with this together and we are all making difficult decisions. Don’t shame a small business for the difficult decision to close, change hours, etc. They need your positivity now more than ever. Let’s support each other and help each other get through this, whether you have a small business or not.

Lastly, we would like to say thank you to all of those that continued to support us by buying tickets this week to our upcoming events. That means more to us than you will ever know.  Thank you.

you can also show even the smallest bit of support by clicking the advertisement within this article above. If everybody who reads this does that small little thing it can be a big help to WindsorEats.

Stay healthy, stay calm and carry on!

Adriano and Pina