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Uber has announced that Uber Eats users located in New York will be able to contribute to their local restaurants during checkout in order to help them during the on-going COVID-19 outbreak and subsequent economic hardship. Every donation that is made will be matched by Uber who will pay into the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund up to a total of $5 million.
Uber's contributions will help the Relief Fund provide $500 grants to eligible restaurant workers including couriers working on apps like Uber Eats, who have been squeezed financially. Uber has confirmed that once it has experimented with the program in New York, it will expand it to cover the whole of the U.S., possibly as early as next week. Additionally, it wants to roll out the program to other countries where it serves customers.
Commenting on the news, Paul Barker, owner of Pauli’s North End in Boston, MA, and Uber Eats partner, said:
“The restaurant industry is being decimated by this virus, and it’s going to take people helping people to get through it. As business owners, my wife and I are focused on helping our staff put food on their tables. Efforts like Uber Eats’ and Guy Fieri’s with the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund are rising to the occasion—helping people to help the people in their communities when they need it most.”
Earlier in the month, the firm revealed that it was scrapping the Delivery Fee for more than 100,000 independent restaurants across the U.S. and Canada on its Uber Eats platform. As a result, it has seen a significant increase in orders to independent restaurants since mid-March. It also revealed that restaurants looking to keep delivery orders coming have been signing up to the platform at ten times previous rates.
