Hospitality Help Fund

The Hospitality Help Fund was established by the Oregon Hospitality Foundation to provide relief from the pandemic’s impact on Oregon’s hospitality industry. Funds are earned via donations, sponsorships, fundraising events, and grants. Examples of how monies will be used by the foundation include creating new industry training tools such as our Providing Service While Supporting Safety, supporting industry-related philanthropic projects such as our Takeout and A Movie event, and providing financial and technical assistance needed by hospitality-related organizations to re-configure, re-hire, re-open, and support hospitality employee and/or employer needs in transition.

Takeout & A Movie
The Foundation's Takeout & A Movie is an event series to support Oregon's hospitality industry. Our second virtual event, held July 26, included an interactive YouTube livestream broadcast of the Adventure Shorts program Filmed by Bike, an Oregon-produced film festival. The beneficiaries are the Cycle Oregon Fund and Oregon tourism. To see more, visit our Takeout & A Movie page.

Helping Restaurants, Frontline Workers, and Those Experiencing Food Insecurity
Our first Takeout & A Movie event, a collaboration in May with the filmmakers of Phoenix Oregon, was a great success. Thanks to ticket sales, a generous contribution from the Grubhub Community Relief Fund, plus money donated by the Oregon Hospitality Foundation we are able provide restaurants funding to help them serve meals to our frontline heroes and to those experiencing food insecurity. TOGETHER we created enough money to provide an estimated 11,500 meals. Thank you for your support!

The beneficiary list continues to grow as awards are made and as eligible applications are received (read press release). Oregon restaurants interested in applying for these funds should complete the Restaurant Fund Application. To be eligible, a restaurant must be operating in Oregon and providing charitable meals to frontline employees or to those experiencing food insecurity.
Takeout & A Movie Sponsors: 
Restaurant Beneficiaries of the First Takeout & A Movie Fundraising Event (read press release)​
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  • 7 Devil’s Public House, Coos Bay ($2,640): Created the Community Meal Program to provide family-sized take-and-bake meals to unemployed service industry workers, as well as comforting soup deliveries to the homeless community.
  • Bird + Rye, Ashland ($2,000 with an additional $2000 to use for matching donations): Owner Neil Clooney created the fundraising model, Chicken with a Cause to provide meals to Ashland’s unsheltered population. Meals include fried chicken, salad, and a roll. 
  • Botanist House, Portland ($8,000): Created a new model to use ongoing donations to hire drivers and deliver 750 meals per day to unemployed service industry professionals.
  • Celilo Restaurant, Hood River ($6,900): Prepared Meal Kits twice a week for foodservice industry workers, essential workers and food-insecure families. To date, Celilo has prepared and delivered over 1,000 meals with the help of donations from local farms and vendors and individual sponsorships.
  • Everybody Eats Portland ($2033 with an additional $2033 to use for matching donations): Owner Johnny Huff pivoted his catering company to provide meals to Don’t Shoot Portland and Portland area shelters.
  • Falafel Republic, Ashland ($2,700): Created the “Pita with a Purpose” program to provide healthy meals for essential workers, food-insecure families, first responders and school food programs.
  • Kee’s Loaded Kitchen, Portland ($3,200 with an additional $3,200 to use for matching donation): Owner and operator Kiauna Nelson provides six-course home-cooked meals for free to low income and homeless Black community residents, BLM protesters and supporters. The award will allow Kee to continue serving approximately 426 free meals to her community.
  • Portland Mercado and Clackamas Women’s Services, Portland and Oregon City ($4,380): The Mercado Meals partnership between the Hacienda’s Mercado Empresarios and Clackamas Women’s Services feeds domestic and sexual violence survivors sheltered in alternative housing during the pandemic. Funding will provide support for over 350 additional meals.
  • Harbor Light Restaurant, Reedsport ($2,000): Prepared over 500 fresh meals and desserts for families at the local food bank, Project Blessing. Funding will support 2 weeks of dinners for this organization.
  • Northwest Pizza, Ashland ($4,520): Provided meals for the homeless community every week, as well as donated over $1,000 worth of gift cards to food-insecure school families. This grant will expand food donations to the homeless community and more local schools.  
  • Restaurant O, Coos Bay ($2,060): Created the Pay it Forward program to provide meals to homeless children, first responders and foster care families.
  • Rudy’s Steakhouse, Salem ($4,140): Created the program Crisis Meals to provide meals to first responders and unemployed workers. To date, Rudy’s has provided over 8,000 meals in the local Salem community.
  • Screamin’ Jays, Eugene ($4,800): Partnered with Food for Lane Country to provide 3,000 meals to the unhoused community and will serve up to 800 ongoing meals with the OHF award.
  • Toro Bravo Restaurant Group, Portland ($3,800): Created the Feed it Forward PDX program to feed the homeless community at P:ear, Rose Haven, and New Avenues for Youth. They also provided free food bags for anyone in need and a sliding scale pay structure for meals to healthcare workers on the frontline.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLKIT:
RESTAURANT HELP FUND
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Please help spread the word about the great work restaurants are doing to serve frontline workers and those experiencing food insecurity. This kit includes sample posts and graphics for you to share on your social media platforms. Thank you!
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#HospitalityHelpFund 
#OregonStrong​

GO TO TOOLKIT
Contact Us
For more information, contact Wendy Popkin, Executive Director, Oregon Hospitality Foundation at 503.682.4422.