We’re about as far from business as usual as can be imagined, seeing as how the immediate future is shrouded in uncertainty. But, here at Wisetail, we take heart in all the different ways our client community has stepped up to meet the moment.

We always try to keep up with the good things our hundreds of clients are doing. Their recent efforts are inspiring — those efforts range from free meals for kids home from school to donating shoes to healthcare workers — so we’re sharing a few.

Our hope is that this will at least take your mind off the state of the world for a few minutes, and maybe give you some ideas for being proactive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, if you need free sanitary and hygiene training, check out our Coronavirus information page where you can find downloadable videos, PDFs, and Wisetail’s own Work From Home guidelines.

Wisetail client Allbirds.

Restaurants giving free meals

Despite being perhaps the industry hardest hit by the pandemic, restaurants have responded to dining room closures by helping their communities however they can.

For example, the Melt Shop’s Melt it Forward program offers free sandwiches to kids without access to school lunches and to healthcare workers. In addition, Melt Shop is giving all the money spent on gift cards to their team members.

Lazy Dog Restaurants launched the Lazy Dog Pantry. The pantry offers a home essentials package for $40, which includes raw chicken breast, eggs, milk, bread, and three rolls of toilet paper, among other items.

Einstein Bros. Bagels tweaked the Baker’s Dozen Box, which includes 13 bagels and two tubs of shmear, so that whenever a person orders a box, Einstein donates a box to local community groups across the country, including local schools, food banks, and fire and police stations.

Sweetgreen created Impact Outpost. The new initiative converted Sweetgreen’s regular Outpost, an offsite delivery location, operations to deliver free, fresh salads to hospitals in cities with a Sweetgreen. The salad slingers also partnered with World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides meals after natural disasters, to create the Impact Outpost Fund. Money from the fund will support these meal donations to hospitals and COVID-19 relief sites, “with a goal of donating over 100,000 meals together.”

Wisetail client Lazy Dog.

Fitness gone virtual

With many places around the world staying at home, fitness companies are turning to virtual workouts. Many already offered some version of virtual instruction, but flattening the curve has turned remote fitness into a necessity.

There are even virtual workouts available for children, which is surely a useful resource for working parents. The Little Gym started publishing home workouts on its YouTube page towards the end of March. As of early April there were more than three dozen videos published.

Retail companies giving back

Allbirds is donating shoes to healthcare workers, giving out $500,000 worth of shoes in the last week of March alone. Now they’ve expanded the program so that any altruistic shoppers can donate a specially priced pair, or buy a pair for themselves and a healthcare worker.

The CEO of American Eagle has publicly committed to paying employees for their scheduled work time. American Eagle went so far as to commit to do all it can to “remove financial barriers” for employees who need testing or medical care.

Bella+Canvas started manufacturing facemasks and, at capacity, it can churn out 100 million masks in a week. CDC Director Robert Redfield said in an interview that the agency is weighing the possibility of encouraging the general population to wear masks in an effort to help asymptomatic people from spreading the coronavirus unknowingly.

Wisetail clients Melt Shop, Bella + Canvas, and Sweetgreen.

Supporting local community

A Taco John’s franchisee in Kentucky made a “spur of the moment” decision to offer local senior citizens free meals of a hard- or soft-shell taco and Potato Oles. The decision earned him the praise of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, who said “It’s special… It’s the right thing to do. It’s stepping up at a time when people need us.”

Easy Tiger Bake Shop and Beer Garden announced a 10,000 Loaves Community Challenge, which calls for Easy Tiger to bake 10,000 loaves in 60 days and deliver them to the Central Texas Food Bank, Keep Austin Fed, Drive A Senior, and the Mobile Loaves & Fishes.

Maple Street Biscuit Company started selling bulk items, like toilet paper and paper towels, early on in the pandemic, when it was clear that restaurants could not continue operating as usual and people bought entire stores out of toilet paper. Now Maple Street has a more formal Biscuits for Heroes program, where people can purchase biscuit boxes to send to a hospital, medical facility, or first response unit.