“We did a 180º. Not only did we unfortunately have to furlough some of our employees, but it was just me, my uncle, and my aunt managing the business. Although it was a slower time for us, it was still very hard. We were just so used to operating with twenty people in the kitchen. It was very, very tough for us. We also run a food truck, but we lost all of our farmers’ market events and food truck events. So that just completely drained us. Thank goodness we made it though. We didn’t close for a single day. It was all three of us working all day. I was working twelve hour shifts, sometimes even more. It was like eighty hour weeks and no days off. We just knew we had to push through this. It was a tough time, but we knew that the more we pushed through, the better it would be for us.”
Q: Do you feel comfortable working?
A: “Well, at first I was very scared. I have some family in California who have been infected. We actually even had a family friend pass away from it. I was very scared because I’m around so many people and I just didn’t want to bring it home. I actually relocated and lived with my boyfriend for some time because I didn’t want to get my parents sick. Now I’m a little bit more comfortable because we know a little bit more about how to handle things. We’re doing better with sanitizing things after every use. We’re using all disposables. We’re doing what we can to keep us and everyone else as safe as possible.”
Q: Is there anything you want to say specifically to people reading this?
A: “I just want to say thank you to all our customers who came by. We’ve been super, super thankful for everyone who has supported us. As a small, family-owned business our goal is to always make sure that customers are safe [while also] being safe ourselves. We’re going to continue to operate to the best we can for the time being. So, thank you to everyone.”
-Natalie (Hourglass District, Orlando, Florida)
