Winding Down on Our ‘Feed Our Heroes’ Campaign + What’s Next
Hi all,
We know it’s been some time since we last provided an update. We’ve been spending the last several weeks, like most of you, reflecting, learning and mobilizing in solidarity of Black Lives Matter. Thanks to your generous donations, we have been fortunate to sustain our Feed Our Heroes initiative in the background while using our voice and platform to show our support for the Black community. Today, we wanted to share an update on our latest financial reports — a staple to our commitment to donor transparency — as well as what’s next for Welcome to Chinatown.
The first quarter of our operation has been a learning experience with many things we are proud of. To support the bigger picture of Welcome to Chinatown, which is focused on maintaining the longevity of Chinatown businesses, we have decided to close the chapter on our Feed Our Heroes initiative where our last meal delivery was on June 21. As of June 25, any donations made to our GoFundMe will be redirected as donations to our small business relief to help continue our mission of supporting Chinatown through the significant impact COVID has had on its businesses. Closing the books on our Feed Our Heroes initiative was a hard decision to make, not only because we no longer have the money to continue (which included transferring $11,217 from our general donation funds to cover our last week of meal requests), but we’ve also been working hard on these upcoming projects that will better help our community, especially as the city moves toward reopening businesses:
Small Business Relief Fund
The costs of the COVID pandemic have been hard for all of the small businesses, and although Feed Our Heroes has helped, it is not enough. We also identified that while PPP, small business loans and grants exist, very little makes it back into the hands of Chinatown businesses, so we set out to set up our own grant, exclusively for Manhattan Chinatown’s small businesses. Our goal is to raise a minimum of $200,000 in grant money that can be used for costs such as rent, labor, reopening, etc.. Because this is a huge undertaking, and we’re still a small volunteer-based team, we are focusing most of our fundraising efforts on the relief fund. We will be sharing more details on the grant program soon, and Chinatown businesses are encouraged to apply when applications are open.
COVID-19 Reopening Resources
Small businesses and restaurants in particular will need to adapt their operations to reopen. Welcome to Chinatown volunteers will work with different organizations to see how we can offer marketing and educational resources to help with this change.
Black Lives Matter
The recent and past murders of Black lives have shaken us. The Asian American community can no longer stand by and be silent on the injustices of racial equality. Welcome to Chinatown is still learning how we can be better allies, and we are working to do our part to stand in solidarity with the Black community and other communities of color. As one first step, we created posters that can be used at protests and in storefronts. If you are able to safely protest outdoors, we’ll be sharing updates on our Instagram for free protest posters during upcoming peaceful protests.
Sharing Chinatown’s Stories
Chinatown is a special place, and its story must be heard. Using our branding, design, and marketing platform, we will listen and tell Chinatown’s stories from the lens of business owners, grassroots organizers and supporters of the neighborhood. This will be shared through our social channels, events and through our Made in Chinatown merchandise line. Our team of designers create branded business merchandise free of charge with 100% of the profits returned to those participating businesses.
Care for Chinatown: Murals by Loe Lee
Muralist Loe Lee will work with 8 small businesses on a custom mural to help market Chinatown businesses for reopening. Murals are free for the selected small businesses. We are currently raising funds to meet our donation goal of $10,000 that will cover the supply cost for the murals.
It’s been about four months since Welcome to Chinatown started with the mission of supporting Chinatown’s small businesses. They have shaped the lives of our volunteers and many others that have had the chance to experience Chinatown. Together, we have helped put more than $150,000 back into Chinatown. Your support has been tremendous, and we hope you will continue to follow us on our journey to say Chinatown will always be open for business.
With thanks from Chinatown,
Vic, Jen and the Welcome to Chinatown team
