OpenMeal: Backing Local Businesses and Individuals Affected by COVID-19

Hey Reddit,

I’m from
OpenMeal, a volunteer grassroots organization that was built to support financially impacted businesses and individuals during COVID-19. Our goal is to aid those who are financially affected by providing meals for people in need of food and bringing back business to restaurants in need of customers through funds from a general pool of donations.

Anyone can be part of this movement, whether you want to contribute money, provide food, or receive a free meal!

OpenMeal.org operates as follows:

1. As a donor, your contribution goes towards a pool of donations stored on our platform.

2. Every day, we divide this pool evenly among the restaurants and prepay restaurants for meals. The amount we pay to each restaurant is then displayed on our website as prepaid credit to be used at the restaurants by requesters.

3. Users who are in need of food can then sign up as requesters and claim this credit to order prepaid meals from our participating restaurants.

Participating restaurants:

Currently, we have partnered with four restaurants located in San Francisco Chinatown for our pilot run: China Live, Dim Sum Corner, Adam's Grub Truck, and Uji Time Dessert. We are also looking to expand into New York City very soon. We have also received interest from restaurants in other major metropolitan cities (including Seattle and Chicago) that are seeking to partner with us.

The OpenMeal Vision:

We hope that this unprecedented situation improves soon, but it is likely to be a long and slow path towards full recovery for both those who are in need and the small businesses who rely on them as customers. Our vision for this year is to scale our platform to major cities across the United States such as New York, Seattle, LA, Chicago and Texas.

If we can help you out in any way (as a requester, restaurant) or if you are willing to donate, don’t hesitate to send us a PM on Reddit or contact us at <
[email protected]>(mailto:

[email protected]).

We’re sending you and your loved ones all the best and hope you are staying safe and healthy.