Fieri joined the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund (RERF) and gave $500 grants to 43,000 restaurant workers across 50 states. Nearly 60 percent of the recipients were women, he said, and 50 percent were people of color.
Food Network star Guy Fieri really is a 'good’ guy.
The host of the popular “Diners Drive-ins and Dives,” aka “Triple D,” managed to raise $25 million for restaurant workers in need during the global pandemic.
When COVID-19 hit, Fieri, like so many of his peers, was directly affected. During an interview, Fieri told CBS News that he was separated from his parents for Christmas. He had lost some friends he described as “really wonderful,” which got him pretty down. And, the two industries that have been part of his livelihood for so long — TV production and restaurants — were shut down. Instead, of letting his sadness get the best of him, Fieri used his platform to friend it forward and help others in the industry who were in need.
"You know, so many people work in the restaurant industry in multiple jobs, second jobs, single moms, single parents, students, retirees. And the restaurant industry is massively important to our communities," Fieri said. "And so, when I saw this coming, I said, 'We got to do something to get some money to these folks.'”
And so it goes.
Fieri joined the Restaurant Employee Relief Fund (RERF) and gave $500 grants to 43,000 restaurant workers across 50 states. Nearly 60 percent of the recipients were women, he said, and 50 percent were people of color.
"The reason was, there's a lot of folks that, for various reasons, don't have the resources, have the time, have the ability to get that money," Fieri said.
He then went on to share a story that was told to him by someone in the industry. The person said to him, "I live in a building with a bunch of people who work in the service industry, and none of us have any money – I don't even have anyone I can borrow money from because nobody I know has any money."
Fieri added, “When you start hearing those kinds of things...there's nothing more important."
Fieri, who said he filmed some of the shows in his Northern California home during the pandemic, said that he's been able to get back on the road to film some episodes of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives," and meeting restaurant workers, feeling like the days pre-COVID.
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