Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/1302193
wbjournal.com | October 26, 2020 | Worcester Business Journal 33 Pull out all the stops for the restaurant industry V I E W P O I N T E D I T O R I A L A lively restaurant scene is vital to the economies of Central Massachusetts communities like Worcester, Marlborough and Sturbridge. As shown in WBJ's "No Limits" story on page 8 – our latest collaboration with the Worcester Regional Research Bureau – these communities have helped build this buzzy industry thanks in part to their eschewing of the traditional Massachusetts law capping liquor licenses. Now, as restaurants continue to reel from the coronavirus pandemic, governments throughout the region need to do everything in their power to help them survive the crisis. Restaurants do not produce an economic output even close to sectors like manufacturing, nor do they have the large numbers of highly paid workers like the healthcare and higher education industries, but it's an important sector speaking to the vitality of a region. Worcester wouldn't in the last few years have attracted commercial and residential developers, life science firms, and the Boston Red Sox Triple A affiliate if not for the reputation of its restaurant scene. Restaurants help attract other businesses, and they are vital in keeping workers at those companies out and about past working hours, which is why Marlborough placed such importance on brewpubs and restaurants in its push to be known as an 18-hour destination, rather than a corporate hub with drive-in, drive-out workers. As the restaurant industry flounders under the tough regulations imposed by the state in the effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the answer for restaurants isn't necessarily all Central Mass. communities liing their liquor license caps. at could create more competition, when the focus should be on helping the existing businesses. ese efforts to help should include accommodations restaurants have been asking for. Worcester lied outdoor dining restrictions earlier this year in order to help restaurants reopen their dining rooms. Yet, as Michael Covino, president and CEO of Worcester's Niche Hospitality Group, pointed out at the time, restaurants without previous outdoor dining had to make significant investments to offer the service, which wouldn't pan out unless Worcester eased the restrictions for a couple years. To this end, Worcester needs to make outdoor dining a fixture of its street-use policies well into the future. With the pandemic, the overall focus should remain on safety and reducing contagion, but restrictions on restaurants – including alcoholic beverage sales and takeout rules – should be kept at a minimum until the region returns to more normal conditions. e end of the pandemic is still a ways off. Most restaurants operate on very thin margins to begin with, and most of its workers are on the lower end of the income spectrum. Without additional help, more establishments will close down permanently as the months fall off the calendar. The Worcester Business Journal welcomes letters to the editor and commentary submissions. Please send submissions to Brad Kane, editor, at bkane@wbjournal.com. A T H O U SA N D WO R D S B Y D O N L A N D G R E N W Small nonprofit work is undervalued W ow. e past seven months have been unlike any of us have ever seen. Most of us have been through a range of emotions: scared, confused, and overwhelmed peppered with moments of hopefulness and hopelessness. Honestly, these emotions are like those experienced by nonprofit leadership pretty regularly even without a pandemic. is is why it is so easy for small non- profits to step up and fill critical gaps without hesitation: taking big risks to meet the needs of the community you serve is natural. Scary is normal when you do scary stuff on the daily. e challenges of running a small nonprofit are certainly compounded by the coronavirus. Funding opportuni- ties have been diverted to COVID-19 relief funds, but the needs of our participants remain constant. Unfortunately, the role of small non- profits, particularly population-specific agencies, has been undervalued during the COVID-19 crisis. Nonprofits in general are being asked to take on more work stretching the scope of their missions, to serve more people to ensure vulnerable populations are not suffering harm, while executing all of these tasks with significantly less funding. As a young nonprofit serving women demonized and dis- missed in the best of times, to say our challenges have been exacerbated by COVID is an understatement. Nevertheless, we persisted. We not only continued to provide face-to-face support, we expanded supports for prostituted people, and opened and operated an emergency shelter. Routinely, agencies are asked to open programs, pay staff, and carry operating costs while they await disbursement of promised grants. is is a big ask for small agencies deliver- ing vital services to vulnerable populations. Small nonprof- its are oen overlooked for large funding opportunities as grantors allocate sizable awards to larger, well-established agencies who are less willing or able to fill critical gaps in resources the way small, focused, local nonprofits do. Living in Freedom Together, Inc. is a small survivor-led, women-led nonprofit with an administrative department consisting of five people. We all wear many hats and oen put our families' needs behind those of our organization to build essential programs for women no one else will. is article is not about one organization. Small non- profits do a lot of big work. e funding community must understand small organizations can be naturally nimble and highly effective at delivering targeted outcomes, and they must commit to funding these outcomes, as it is crucial to the survival of the populations they serve. e coronavirus pandemic exacerbated the critical gaps in meeting the needs of our most vulnerable. ankfully, small nonprofits doing the work to fill these gaps were already in place. One thing the pandemic hasn't changed is this commitment to fill crit- ical gaps no matter how hard we must work to get it done. Nicole Bell and Courtney Ross Escobar are CEO and COO of Worcester nonprofit Living In Freedom Together. BY NICOLE BELL AND COURTNEY ROSS ESCOBAR Special to the Worcester Business Journal Nicole Bell W Courtney Ross Escobar