Finally I’ve found a moment to shake the dust out of my hair and do a little writing. I have quite a backlog of topics I want to cover, but before anything else, I want to give you an update on the results of the fundraising campaign that I started back in May.
For those of you who missed the announcements at the time, the fundraising idea formed when all the bars and restaurants in Rio were forced to close at the beginning of the Covid outbreak. I thought about all the restaurant and bar staff who had become friends over the years and it occurred to me that they’re not exactly well-paid at the best of times. I wondered how they were coping during the lock-down. Similarly, most restaurants are on a financial knife-edge even when times are good – how many would survive a shutdown that would last months?
You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone
As time passed, it became clear that the answer to that last question was pretty dire. It’s been announced that around 1,000 establishments in Rio have closed permanently since the lock-down began – some of these are places I had grown to love over the years. Many restaurants with a rich history, such as Esquimó (almost 60 years old), sadly won’t be coming back. Other closures that pulled at my heartstrings were Puro in Jardim Botânico, Comuna in Botafogo, Hipódromo in Gávea – it’s a long, sad list, each place with a group of hardworking staff who are now looking for a job (14,500 have lost their jobs so far).
Esquimó no more. A classic of the Centro lunch scene gone forever.
That feeling of “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” hits hard. How I wish I’d popped in for one last lunch at Esquimó last time I passed back in March. As one old waiter from Hipódromo put it recently, Os bons momentos agora vão ficar só na nossa memória mesmo. [The good times will now only live in our memory].
Aw, just one more Esquimó meatball/burger, topped with a mountain of onions and garlic, followed by a sweet, squishy pudim!
The JustGiving Crowdfunding campaign
Well, there’s not much anyone can do about the harsh realities of an economy crippled by the Corona-related restrictions. But we can at least try to help those who are out of work. I had originally set a fundraising target of £750 and I honestly had no idea whether I’d get close. In the end we absolutely smashed that target (latest count is £1,690 – with the exchange rate the way it is, that goes a long way).
Buying 30-something cestas básicas from the supermarket and packing them into the transport.
Since then, I’ve done two rounds of purchases of cestas básicas (boxes of store cupboard essentials such as rice, beans, cooking oil, detergent, etc) which have been delivered to over 30 restaurant workers. It’s the first time I’ve done anything like this and I have to say it’s been a wonderful experience. I know I’m not fixing the whole world, but I’m at least making a small difference to the lives of the restaurant and bar workers who were an integral part of the food tour business that I built back in 2013. And more importantly, these people have been integral to one of the aspects of life in Rio that makes me most happy – eating and drinking, watching the world go by and soaking up the rich culture of Rio’s bars, botecos and restaurants.
The first delivery! They don’t look like much in the photo, but these boxes are massive and seriously heavy.
Although many places have started to reopen here, most are not running at full capacity and clearly a lot of clients are still not venturing out. It seems like everyone is crossing their fingers, but from a business point of view, the situation does not look rosy. Sadly, I think the negative effects on the bar/restaurant industry, rather than coming to an end, may be just beginning. With that in mind, I’m continuing with the purchases of cestas básicas, but also glad to have funds in reserve for the months to come.
The second delivery!
Just yesterday, an old waiter from one of the restaurants we used to visit on our food tours called me sounding pretty desperate – he had not been invited back to work yet and was now 3 months behind on his water and electricity bills. He wasn’t actually asking for anything, but as there were sufficient funds to take care of it, that’s what I did. He’s a lovely old boy who’s spent his life perfecting the art of being an old-school waiter – I do hope he slept better last night.
Thank you!
I’m keeping an eye on the situation and also keeping in touch with restaurant staff and managers as it may be necessary to restart the fundraising efforts later in the year. But the main point for this post is to say a massive thank you to everyone who contributed to the campaign. It has already had a real, positive impact on the lives of people who have been suffering due to this nightmare crisis. For those who haven’t been able to help, seriously don’t sweat it – I know a lot of us are in difficult situations right now.
The gratitude from the recipients has been really touching. Paulo, one of the chefs at Severyna, sent a series of thank you illustrations – as most of them were plastered with my name, I won’t include them here as that feels a bit wrong – after all it’s not my money, I’m just coordinating the effort. Instead I’ll leave you with one of his illustrations from back in 2015. He did a whole series of these without me knowing but gave them to a waitress to give to me as he was too shy to hand them over himself – a lovely gesture! And that Tom and Jerry joke never gets old…
I think Paulo did this in response to the fact that I was bringing film crews in quite a bit at the time (the pre-Olympics buzz of 2015). The two women are based on staff who worked there at the time. I can’t tell you how many times people ask me “Where’s Jerry?”, then wait expectantly for the laughter that they feel sure is coming… (by the way, feel free to call my ‘Tom Cute Cat’ from now on!).
التعليقات