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While Restaurant Servers Scramble, Food Delivery Services Expand

Virginia State Parks Staff
/
Virginia Dept. of Conservation and Recreation

  Restaurant servers are scrambling to figure out plans amid coronavirus concerns, after Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s order to cease all in-person dining and services at restaurants and bars effective Monday afternoon. Yet a western Kentucky food-delivery business  is seeing the crisis as an opportunity to expand to a third location nearly three weeks ahead of schedule. 

Murray Eats, a family-owned delivery service in Calloway County, launched a little more than a year ago and launched Marshall Eats to serve Marshall County in Sept. 2019. Heather Taylor, marketing director for Murray Eats and owner of Marshall Eats, said she planned to launch Mayfield Eats serving Graves County on April 1. But after hearing the announcement of restaurant closures and out of concern for the community, decided to launch today. 

 

All three branches of the business work with local restaurants, convenience stores and grocery stores to bring what their customers need right to their doors. 

 

Taylor said the business was growing quickly, but has grown exponentially since the coronavirus pandemic struck the U.S. With people afraid to leave their homes and widespread closures of schools, restaurants and bars, Murray Eats owners are having to hire more staff in addition to launching the new business. They’re looking to hire at least 20 drivers before Wednesday.

 

In response to health concerns, the Murray/Marshall/Mayfield Eats websites offers a “no contact delivery” option. Taylor said that means the driver will deliver the customer’s goods to their door, call, knock on the door or ring the doorbell (based on the customer’s directives), and then leave. 

 

“It has been a very popular feature over the past few days,” she noted.

 

Another feature new to the service is acceptance of checks as a method of payment. In the past, Taylor said they’ve only accepted cards or cash. But in light of the current situation and people afraid to leave home, they’re trying to accommodate a multitude of needs.

 

Taylor said the delivery drivers are taking a number of calculated precautions including wearing medical masks on their faces. She said drivers were also provided hand sanitizer and sterile gloves. 

 

“All the drivers, if they walk into a restaurant they are to wash their hands and then put on clean gloves before touching the bag containing the food. Then when they get to the car, they put the food in a closed warmer bag and take off their gloves to drive. Then when they arrive at the customer’s home, they put on a new set of gloves before touching the food to complete the delivery,” she explained. “These are precautions we’re taking for our customers. We’re doing everything we can for sanitation.”

 

One more additional feature that’s been popular, Taylor said, is the ability to set up a home account. If, for instance, a person has a loved one who lives in the delivery area who might benefit from the service but doesn’t have the resources to purchase what they need, the website offers the ability to create an account in the name of that loved one and store money for purchases.

 

“We want to make sure everyone’s family is okay,” she said. “This region, we’re little towns where everybody is family and we take care of each other the best we can. We want to make sure our family of a community is taken care of the best we can. If we can take care of something, we’ll do it the best we can do.”

 

But several west Kentucky restaurants and their employees amid uncertain times are scrambling to create an answer to the question: “What now?”

 

Brooke McAuliffe is a server at LongHorn Steakhouse in Paducah. She said she feels confident Darden Restaurants and her management team will take care of its employees to the best of their ability but the limitations put in place also limit the possibilities for the large number of employees who work there. 

 

Regarding what’s next, McAuliffe said she’s hoping the closure doesn’t last more than a couple of weeks and grateful she only has herself to worry about. She said she keeps thinking of her colleagues who have children to consider.

 

“I’ve already called about my car insurance and AT&T to see if they’re working with people and most of them are so that’s really helpful. I’m just hoping it doesn’t last that long because who knows how long they’re willing to extend these things,” she said.

McAuliffe said she’s been serving tables since she was 20 years old and she’s never, ever received a paycheck from a restaurant. The minimum wage in Kentucky is still $2.13 per hour and employers pull the taxes owed for tips from that amount before a check is issued. 

“I have never, in my eight years of serving in a restaurant have ever, gotten a paycheck, ever,” she said.

 

But she anticipates getting one during the next pay period, and expects it will amount to approximately $50--unless her place of employment is able to provide jobs in-house for servers who have now lost their income entirely. And it’s not like any of them could easily get another job somewhere else to help pay the bills while they wait for their restaurants to reopen. 

 

McAuliffe is also concerned for her mother who’s over 50 years old and works at a Wal-Mart in Ohio, and her father who’s also susceptible to contract illness after recently having a liver transplant. She mentioned seeing videos on Snapchat of friends partying in bars near Lexington over the weekend and how much it upsets her, because even if her friends are okay, they’re putting people like her parents at risk by not caring for themselves.

 

“I just want to say to them, ‘I’m worried about my loved ones. Are you not worried about your loved ones?’”

 

“A nightmare. That’s what this is,” she added.

 

But in the uncertainty, McAuliffe said she’s trying to focus on the positive stories of people helping people -- like the doctor’s offices providing formula to the families who weren’t able to purchase before the rush cleared out the shelves; and the community members who are voluntary grocery shopping for their elderly neighbors. 

 

“That’s what’s going to get people through this time of crisis, is helpful people,” she said.

Rachel’s interest in journalism began early in life, reading newspapers while sitting in the laps of her grandparents. Those interactions ignited a thirst for language and stories, and she recalls getting caught more than once as a young girl hiding under the bed covers with a flashlight and book because she just couldn’t stop reading.
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