With the threat of COVID-19 forcing widespread closures and business interruptions, companies around the world are struggling to adapt, and the small businesses of North Carolina are no exception. With many of our plans at OCLW interrupted as well, we wanted to use our April newsletter to provide resources and links for how you can help in this time of economic uncertainty and distress.
As economically painful as they are, it's important to note that social distancing measures in North Carolina are working, and are likely saving thousands of lives. While we have been spared of the worst (NC’s 13 deaths per 1M people is among the lowest deaths per capita in the U.S.), we need only look at similarly-populated Michigan (now projected to face 2,000 deaths through May) and, of course, New York (projecting nearly 15,000 deaths through May) to grasp the devastating potential of the virus (source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation).
FIND WAYS TO CONTINUE TO SHOP WITH YOUR FAVORITE LOCAL BUSINESSES, DESPITE CLOSURES
Local businesses and nonprofits, especially those that rely on physical, densely populated spaces to operate, are among the hardest hit by stay-at-home orders and business closures. Many are coming up with creative solutions to adapt. We recommend calling or checking social media for your local favorites, to find out how you can support them. To support Living Wage-certified businesses in the area, see our full directory on our site. Here are some highlights:
No matter the business, we strongly recommend buying gift cards whenever available — these function like interest-free loans, allowing for the funds to be used however necessary until businesses can return to (something resembling) normal.
DONATE TO MUTUAL AID AND RELIEF FUNDS
Despite the continued support of online and phone purchases from customers like you, as well as federal support programs like the Small Business Administration's Payroll Protection Plan, many local businesses will not be able to keep all of their workers on payroll. For these workers, support from local relief fundraisers will be crucial. Here are a few in our area:
At OCLW, we're doing our best to adapt, too. We're providing a six-month grace period to all our Living Wage member businesses — allowing those that need to temporarily drop wages below our Living Wage standard to maintain their business to do so without losing certification. See the announcement here.
The realities of COVID-19 and social distancing are impacting the most simple and mundane of processes too. We held our first ever Zoom-based Steering Committee meeting last week. Because we have the luxury of doing much of our work online, this will likely be our standard mode of communication for the foreseeable future.
