Hotel Industry Giving Free Food to Unemployed Workers Friday in Fort Worth

July 16,2020

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See full NBC DFW article by Avery Dalal here.

The Hotel Association of Tarrant County will be distributing complimentary meals to hotel industry employees impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event will take place at the HATC's Hospitality Food Drive Distribution on Friday from 10 a.m. to noon at the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel, located at 170 Commerce Street.

The event is open to all employees of any hotel property located in Tarrant County that has been laid off, had hours reduced or furloughed due to the economic impact of COVID-19.

Each impacted employee that comes to the distribution will receive a bag of food, two loaves of bread, a case of tostadas and a case of coffee.

Employees and their families are asked to drive through the hotel's main driveway off Commerce Street.

The HATC is asking everyone to stay in their vehicles to help maintain social distancing. Everyone must wear a mask.

After pulling into the distribution area, people are to put their vehicles in park and unlock the trunk for food to be loaded.

Attendees will not be required to fill out a registration form to receive food.

"There are more than 400 hotels across Tarrant County, ranging from full-service resorts to select-service properties, representing most of the global hotel brands. All of them have been impacted over the last five months as travel demand plummeted and thousands of employees have been out of work," said John Yeung, General Manager at the Sheraton Fort Worth Downtown Hotel and Chairman of the Board at HATC.

Yeung continued to say that while some hotels are reopening, they are not up to full staffing levels and it will take years for the hospitality industry to fully regain the momentum it had going into 2020.