Don and Marcus Samuelsson Pen Op-Ed on How Businesses Can Help Restaurants Survive

Don and Marcus Samuelsson co-wrote an opinion piece in Fortune urging large companies to take action to support local restaurants in dire need of financial support during the COVID-19 crisis, as Audible has done through Newark Working Kitchens. They wrote:

Audible moved its global headquarters to Newark in 2007 to be part of the city’s renaissance. A decade later, Marcus B&P began serving comfort food and cocktails in a long-vacant Newark department store. Newark’s comeback from decades of disinvestment had gained significant momentum before the pandemic, with nearly $6 billion of development in the pipeline. Our businesses will be in Newark after the pandemic, but we fear other businesses and our most vulnerable residents will not be as lucky.

This is why we joined forces last April to launch Newark Working Kitchens (NWK), a nonprofit designed to help keep restaurants open and their cooks, servers, and staff working to prepare and deliver meals to Newark’s low-income seniors, families, and homeless. NWK is a model that can work in any city with a committed base of corporate anchors willing to invest in smaller businesses.