Feb. 5, 2023- Braving freezing temperatures and post-holiday blues, patrons supported local restaurants during Lawrence’s ninth annual Restaurant Week, celebrating the city’s diverse culinary scene while raising money for a good cause. 

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Downtown Lawrence Inc., a non-profit business association for downtown businesses, started Restaurant Week.

“Lawrence Restaurant Week is a time for our restaurants and chefs to really showcase their creativity and put some interesting things on the menu that aren’t always available,” said Kim Anspach, Executive Director of eXplore Lawrence. 

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Restaurant Week began in 2014, aiming to bring more business to downtown Lawrence right after the holidays.

“It creates something to be excited about in January,” Anspach said. “People always have their favorite places that they want to try out.”

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Then, six years after the inaugural restaurant week, COVID-19 hit, and Lawrence’s restaurant community found itself facing an employment crisis. 

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“So, you know, of course, March 2020, all of us shut our businesses down with no notice,” said Emily Peterson, co-owner of Merchants Pubs and Plate with her husband T.K.

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With no idea how long this shutdown would last, restaurant workers found themselves without jobs and access to unemployment. 

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“We could immediately see that something needed to be done to support and protect our workforce because we’re nothing without our people,” Peterson said.  

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To address the problem, the Lawrence Restaurant Association created the Hospitality Workers Relief Fund to provide emergency aid to workers.

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“We were able to raise $240,000 through private donations and grants that allowed us to give out emergency grants to hospitality workers,” Peterson said. 

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The Lawrence Restaurant Association collaborated with local organizations such as the Ballard Center, Bert Nash, Centro Hispano, and Heartland Community Health to distribute funds. According to Kyle Roggenkamp, the Ballard Center’s Director of Human Services, this partnership has proved invaluable for those in need.

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“From the Ballard perspective, opening the door to the hospitality industry is the greatest gift this fund has given us beyond the money,” Roggenkamp said. 

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When individuals go to the Ballard Center, which provides early childhood education and need-based assistance, to receive support from the fund, they are alerted to Ballard’s resources.

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“We can do what we do best, which is raise peoples’ social capital on what resources are available to them, teach them how to advocate for themselves,” Roggenkamp said. 

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Centro Hispano, an organization focused on Lawrence’s Hispanic community, recently funded a residency application for a hospitality worker trying to remain a U.S. citizen, Peterson said. Money from the fund helped this worker stay in the U.S. Even though it has been almost three years since the beginning of the pandemic, the fund isn’t going anywhere, Peterson said. 

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“We saw that we created something really incredible,” Peterson said. “We wanted to provide support on an ongoing basis.”

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As fundraising now occurs year-round, Lawrence’s restaurant community continues to rally around one another.

“Having this whole effort has certainly brought us closer together and, I think, done more to raise awareness about how we can help take care of one another,” Peterson said. 

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Tax-deductible donations to the Hospitality Fund can be made through the Lawrence Restaurant Association website.