Arguably one of the biggest crises to affect global health and the economy in the 21st century is, without a doubt, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Each day, more people are getting diagnosed with the virus, and others are sadly losing their lives because of it.
The United States is a nation with a population of over 329 million people. Around 1.1 million people so far have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and just over a third of those individuals live in New York state.
The New York governor’s response to the COVID-19 crisis was to effectively shut down the state but keep essential services operating, at least until May 15. What that effectively means is most people must stay at home to avoid getting COVID-19 and stop its spread.
Unfortunately, that’s also resulted in an economic crisis due to millions of people finding themselves without any paid employment. Meanwhile, bills must still get paid, and food must get purchased for those people to survive, despite the lack of income.
The federal government has seen a surge of unemployment benefits claims getting submitted. In the last week of April 2020 alone, there were 3.8 million new claims throughout the country, bringing jobless claims to around 30 million.
The sad truth is that millions of those laid-off workers have still not received a cent from the government. The leading causes of that problem are apparently down to processing delays and new rules making many people illegible for unemployment benefits.
How A Saratoga Springs Business Is Helping
A well-known coffee retailer and producer in the Saratoga Springs area of New York is aiming to help local service industry workers that are now out of work because of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Death Wish Coffee Company, a business themselves affected by the coronavirus situation, wants to do their bit to help local service industry workers and businesses.
They are producing and selling two charity T-shirts. 100% of the profits will go towards local establishments and service industry workers afflicted by the shutdown. The “Broke but not Busted” is a joint project in collaboration with the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce.
Each T-shirt costs $25 and is available in a variety of sizes from XS to 5XL. One design features the words “When this is all over, please continue to stay at least 6 feet away from me” and is inspired by one of the company’s memes.
The other design got contributed by a local tattoo artist, Melanie Lucia-Clarke, of The Dead Presidents Lounge tattoo parlor and art gallery in Albany.
“When a member of our community is ‘broke,’ we all are — but we’re not ‘busted’,” said Mike Pilkington, COO at The Death Wish Coffee Company.
“This pandemic has really hurt our industries and has left a lot of us scrambling to keep our business ‘open’ and our bills paid without making any money for the foreseeable future.”
The T-shirts are available to purchase from www.deathwishcoffee.com/notbusted.