California resilience

California Resilience Roadmap

Local businesses have slowly begun specific businesses allowed to reopen and home if they have them; to reopen since the issuance of a industry guidelines mandated to help prevent • Implement individual control measures statewide stay-at-home order by the spread of the coronavirus. Before reopenand screenings; Governor Gavin Newsom on March 19 ing, the state is mandating all businesses to: • Implement disinfecting protocols; and due to the coronavirus pandemic. The • Perform a detailed risk assessment and • Implement physical distancing guideGovernor’s Office released a Resilience implement a site-specific protection plan; lines.  Roadmap with four stages of reopening • Train employees on how to limit the Additional mandates apply that are specific the economy: spread of COVID-19, including how to to each industry. Those guidelines can be found — STAGE 1 allowed only essential busiscreen themselves for symptoms and stay at: https://covid19.ca.gov/industry-guidance/ nesses to be open. — STAGE 2 sees the reopening of “lower-risk” workplaces including retail, manufacturing, offices, outdoor museums and limited personal services. — STAGE 3 will allow for “higher-risk” workplaces to open such as personal care businesses and recreational venues. — STAGE 4is the end of restrictions on what businesses can be open and allows for larger gatherings such as nightclubs, concert venues and live audience sports.

California moved into Stage 2 of the roadmap on May 8, with county variances on

Turlock To Go

When the coronavirus pandemic first forced the community into their homes over three months ago, one Turlock resident took it upon herself to help ensure the city’s restaurants would survive. Thanks to the creation of a Facebook page called Turlock To Go, foodies throughout town and surrounding communities have connected with each other while promoting local businesses.

California and states throughout the country were first put under strict shelter-in-place orders in an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19 back in mid-March — measures that also prohibited restaurants from serving customers inside of their establishments, instead requiring the businesses to only offer curbside pickup or delivery of meals. While some eateries closed altogether, many opted to completely modify their businesses into a “to go” operation, switching to smaller menus, offering family-sized meals, featuring daily specials and providing other creative meal ideas, like take-and-make pizzas or cookie decorating packages.

When she thought of the idea for a Facebook page, Turlock resident Kadi Ingram-Porter was having trouble keeping up with customer needs as a sales representative in the wine and spirits industry. Restaurants were no longer just trying to survive a week or two — they now had to find a way to make ends meet for as long as the shelter in place order lasted, which ended up being until the end of May. As for consumers, Ingram-Porter noticed people were tired of cooking and began posting their “to go” meals on social media. Soon enough, the Turlock To Go Facebook group was born.

“With Facebook algorithms, it was difficult to see what posts were current and I kept thinking how nice it would be to have one place with all of the information. I decided to create Turlock To Go to be the place. I wanted it to be a place where restaurants could post their hours, menus and specials and a place where the community could go for all of this information,” Ingram-Porter said. “It is important to me that this page is

By ANGELINA MARTIN

Turlock To Go member Cirenia Valencia shares a photo of her family having fun at home with a pizza kit from Rico’s Pizza in March.

for all to go services in Turlock (and nearby surrounding areas) and supports the community as a whole. It is my first priority that it is a positive page.”

Since the Facebook group was created on March 24, it has amassed nearly 10,000 members — a majority of whom utilize the virtual space to post photos from restaurants that are open, share special deals with each other and discover new places to dine that they didn’t know of before.

“My routine was the same until I was added to this group. I intended on cooking at home more, but have eaten out a little more often to support these small businesses,” Brianna Perez said in April. “I’ve learned of so many small businesses that I wouldn’t have otherwise heard of, so I try a few times to order to go from new places to support these businesses! I also love it because people post photos, which entices me to go try a new place.”

For others, Turlock To Go offered a sense of escape while they were confined to their homes.

“We feel it puts money back into the local businesses, but really it gives us a sense of normalcy. We look forward to getting in the car and making that drive around our town we love so much,” Sandra Avila said. “This group is a great source of info of restaurants we would have never known about. It really is the highlight of our week.”

No matter how Turlockers choose to support their favorite eateries or grocery stores, for those who eat at home, there’s one thing they have in common, Ingram-Porter said — their love of food.

“Food is one of the few things we have left during a time when we can no longer engage in so many of our usual activities. Food has always brought people together, even now, when we can’t really be together,” IngramPorter said.

Thanks to the Turlock To Go group’s success, she’s also started pages for Modesto and Oakdale. She hopes that the pages can help business owners increase their takeout orders and stay afloat during the crisis, as well as learn from each other and cheer each other on.

Michelle Peterson of Dust Bowl Brewing Company offered a heartfelt “thank you” to Ingram-Porter for creating the Facebook group.

“What a wonderful reflection on our caring community!” Peterson said. “It’s a platform that’s not only informative, it’s bringing families and businesses together in a very personal, authentic way.”

Since stay-at-home orders were lifted and restaurants received the go-ahead to offer dine-in services once more, the Turlock To Go page is now called Turlock To Go and Dine In. This allows those whose dining rooms are now open to advertise that they are while still allowing businesses who are still hesitant to open the opportunity to promote their businesses as well.

For Ingram-Porter, seeing the community come together to help local eateries no matter the circumstances has been inspiring.

“I am so happy to hear that Turlock To Go has helped so many businesses during this difficult time. I have enjoyed watching the progression of this group,” she said. “It has been fun to watch more and more restaurants reopen for both to go and dine in, to see the creativity in the specials and meals that they have offered and it’s been very exciting to see brand new businesses open successfully during this time.” 

Stan Buy Me a light for business during dark times

Small businesses and their employees have always been there for their customers — especially in the era of COVID-19 — so Opportunity Stanislaus called on the community to stand by them during tough times through their media campaign Stan Buy Me.

Meant to help shoppers find out what businesses were deemed essential and open during the coronavirus pandemic, the Stan Buy Me campaign has kept the community informed over the past few months as mobility throughout the county was limited by stay-at-home orders. Through their social media accounts and website, Stan Buy Me not only kept locals up-to-date on who was open, but also provided them with information on how to support nonessential businesses during the troubling time.

“We wanted to let people know that all of these businesses have been there for them all these years. We wanted people to continue supporting them and their employees,” Opportunity Stanislaus Director of Marketing and Communication Amber Edwards said. “It was so important because by the time things go back to normal, there’s the chance that they might not exist.”

According to Stan Buy Me, the impact of COVID-19 on the local economy was felt deeply by businesses owners: 99,000 jobs were put at risk, there were 287,000 initial unemployment claims and $4.2 million in total annual estimated wage loss. Despite these staggering numbers, Stan Buy Me was able to help.

In a report presented to the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors in May, the campaign reported 993 likes and nearly 400,000 unique users reached on Facebook. The Stan Buy Me Instagram account and

By ANGELINA MARTIN

Opportunity Stanislaus’ Stan Buy Me campaign delivered balloons to small businesses who were open during the pandemic to help them attract customers.

website received plenty of traffic as well, and the campaign even took their efforts outside of the internet by placing balloon columns in front of open small businesses in order to attract more customers.

“I think it was a very confusing time with a lot of conflicting information. Sometimes it was still evolving and there were some feardriven messages,” Edwards said. “We wanted to create something with just resources and facts to help people understand plain and simple they have to support businesses and here's how to do it safely.”

As businesses have begun to open in Stanislaus County over the last few weeks, Opportunity Stanislaus has stepped away from the Stan Buy Me campaign and focused on Stanislaus County Good 2 Go, pushing out information about businesses opening up safely through their various mediums. The Stan Buy Me campaign achieved what it set out to do, Edwards said, which was to help businesses survive one of the most sudden and devastating economic downturns in recent decades. It remained a positive movement during a time where there seems to be plenty of division, she added.

“Stan Buy Me remained apolitical. Everyone appreciated it because there was something for everybody on both the consumer side and the business side. There wasn’t too much positivity going on for them and there wasn't a lot of hope, so to get $50 in free balloons and get people to say they support you on social media was something cool and a bright light in a dark time,” Edwards said. “This is a good place to do business and a place where there’s a lot of community support for business. This was just proof that we are a community who cares.” 