As we all know, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on our daily lives and has tested how well we handle challenges. The restaurant business is a great example of the difficult situations this pandemic has brought and how we need to stick together and support one another. As the daughter of a restaurant owner, I have been able to watch my mother’s businesses struggle and face challenges nobody was prepared to face, but I have also seen the amount of support and love sent from people who want the restaurants to pull through. 

“It has been really hard with the regulations set on capacity,” said my mother, who owns the restaurant Oleana and the bakery Sofra. “We used to be able to seat about 80 people, and for a while, we were only able to seat 25% of that. Now we can seat 40% of our original number, but it has been a struggle with indoor dining.”

The takeout business has been one way that restaurants have continued to make money, and my mother said, “We wouldn’t have been able to make it through without takeout.” At Oleana and Sofra, they started doing something similar to a farm CSA, but with prepared foods. The to-go boxes contain baked goods, premade snacks, oven-ready meals, meze, and prepared meals. Customers can pick these boxes up and make lots of food at home.

 “This has been a great way to help us stay afloat,” said Ms. Kurth. As a Boston Globe article about my her restaurant explained, “There is currently a waitlist of more than 300 people. Oleana distributes 100 shares a week, and Sofra does 75, but the restaurants are limited by social distancing requirements in already small production facilities.” 

There are so many people who care about keeping restaurants in business, and I have loved seeing the support from everyone through these tough times. The most important thing that we can do as a community is support our local restaurants, whether it is doing takeout once a week from your favorite local spot or safely dining somewhere you’ve always wanted to try. Here is a link with a list of restaurants in the Lincoln-Sudbury area that could use your help.