Food Network star Guy Fieri explains why he decided to join Barstool’s ‘brilliant idea’ to help small businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Chef Guy Fieri said he decided to adhere to Barstool’s “brilliant idea” to help small businesses struggling in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, because these companies “keep everyone up and running.”
The Food Network star pointed out that “when you start looking at them [small businesses] falling, they have no money to survive for a month or two months and if they did, that’s gone. “
BARSTOOL FUND HELPS ‘A MIRACLE’, SAYS THE OWNER OF THE NEW YORK RESTAURANT
Fieri, who helped raise about $ 22 million for restaurant workers through the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, which he launched in March with the help of the National Restaurant Association Education Foundation, made comments on “Fox & Friends” on Tuesday -market.
Fieri noted that the Barstool team and Dave Portnoy, who founded the media company Barstool Sports, are “just killing it” and “taking care of a lot of people”.
“What we did in the beginning was to hand money directly to employees, they needed it at that time,” said Fieri of his fundraising efforts.
“Dave is seeing the next level of this, those small businesses that have been successful in doing good, operating and looking after their community, when that [pandemic] reached, the second, third round of COVID, they need some support. ”
He stressed that Portnoy’s effort is “not just a one-off payment”, but “a program in which, once the Barstool Fund gets involved, they continue to support this business and help them get back up.”
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As of Tuesday morning, “The Barstool Fund” raised more than $ 18.3 million from almost 144,000 supporters to 75 small business owners struggling during the pandemic.
Portnoy started the fundraising effort last month, together with the nonprofit 30 Day Fund, with the goal of helping small businesses impacted by COVID-19. He contributed $ 500,000 of his own money to the effort.
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Portnoy presented the fund in a December 17 tweet, saying that companies could send stories to [email protected] to be considered for the fund.
Fieri pointed out that the response has been “incredible” with some “big names”, including Tom Brady, Dana White and Kid Rock, donating to the cause.
“You have a lot of people participating in this and recognizing that small businesses are the structure of our community,” said Fieri.