An Industry Adapts On March 17, New Hampshire restaurants and hotels were forced to close or pivot to a take-out only model under Governor Sununu's emergency stay-at-home order. NHLRA members share the creative ways they confronted crisis to survive.
The Common Man In almost 50 years of providing hospitality in New Hampshire, we’d never found ourselves facing times like these. This abrupt change forced The Common Man family to make some difficult decisions. The hardest - furloughing more than 650 of our employees statewide. We closed many of our locations, reduced our menu offerings, and operated with a dedicated management team. But with every challenge this pandemic presented, came the opportunity to be innovative, and we have worked every day to be creative while continuing to support our staff, our guests and our communities.
To support our furloughed staff, whom we call STARS, we provided a family meal daily, cooking up a hot and homemade dinner for their household. From March through mid-May, we prepared more than 1,700 meals each week. We also donated $10,000 to our own Employee Emergency Assistance Fund, and donated all gratuities left on take-out orders to that fund. Some of those donations went towards purchasing gift cards to help STARS with emergency needs like groceries, personal care and baby supplies until their unemployment benefits were received. We extended health benefits, created delivery positions to secure hours for staff, and worked hard to bring staff members back as quickly as possible.
In partnership with the New Hampshire Lodging and Restaurant Association, and in support of fellow hospitality workers across the state, we committed $10,000 to the New Hampshire Hospitality Employee Relief Fund. This fund provided one-time grants to employees of the hospitality industry who were impacted by COVID19.
The Common Man family's virtual $1,000 check presentation to the NH Food Bank from its Feed it Forward program, created during the Coronavirus pandemic.
During such a difficult time, we wanted to spread positivity and kindness. We worked with local artist Stacey Lucas to create colorful signs with uplifting messages and posted them near our restaurants. www.nhlra.com | 10
