[The China Press]: "公益组织助餐馆设在线服务出售礼品卡 Charity Group Providing Digital Services to Restaurants"

Article link: Read it at The China Press here
Originally posted: April 11, 2020
--------
​
中文:

【侨报记者张帆4月10日纽约报道】纽约日益严峻的新冠肺炎疫情冲击着各行各业，而以众多餐馆闻名的曼哈顿华埠相比其他社区损失更重。公益组织“向华埠传递爱”(Send Chinatown Love)日前发起捐赠计划，帮助华埠受疫情影响的餐厅设立在线服务，希望以接受捐赠和出售礼品卡的方式帮助商家渡过疫情难关。
​
　　“向华埠传递爱”表示，该组织的成立是为帮助在疫情期间受损严重的华埠各个餐馆，希望以设立在线网站和出售礼品卡的方式协助商家筹款，确保商家依旧能维持生存，撑过疫情的艰难时段。

​　　该组织称，在疫情相关禁令下，大多数餐馆都开始发展线上和外送服务，但华埠餐饮业者多是英文不流利的移民，一些商家也可能只收现金以及不熟悉数字平台，这将为他们构建线上服务增加难度。该组织将针对各个餐厅的不同需求，帮助商家建立属于自己的在线平台，可接受直接捐赠或售卖礼品卡，鼓励民众使用外卖服务以及在疫情过后进店用餐。
​
　　目前“向华埠传递爱”已在众筹网站Go Fund Me上发起募捐，筹集款项将用于各个餐厅网站的设立及管理、在线营销，以及帮助仅收现金的商家支付信用卡手续费等。有意参与捐赠者可登陆网站：https://www.gofundme.com/f/y43dk-send-chinatown-love 捐献善款。


​
英文:

Charity Group Providing Digital Services to Restaurants 　

The severity of the pandemic is spreading to all kinds of industries. And Manhattan Chinatown, among all communities, has been one of the hardest-hit areas. The self-organized charity group called “Send Chinatown Love” recently launched a donation program aims to help restaurants in Chinatown by providing them with digital resources to obtain financial assistance.
​
Send Chinatown Love comments that the mission of the non-profit organization is to help adversely impacted, Chinese-owned businesses through setting up websites and selling gift cards in order to collect donations, in turn increasing the likelihood of survival for many struggling merchants through the period of pandemic. 

According to the organization, due to pandemic-related lockdown policies, most restaurants have started to offer online orders in addition to delivery services, but the majority of restaurants are owned by Chinese-speaking immigrants who are not digital native and are lacking the skills to develop an online platform; on top of that, most of these business only accept cash payments. Send Chinatown Love seeks to address this gap by tailoring online services to each restaurant to meet their unique business demands, the webpage allows individual merchants to receive donations or sell gift cards, encouraging customers to support the business even after the pandemic.

Currently, Send Chinatown Love has already initiated a fundraising campaign on a crowdfunding platform called Go Fund Me, all the funds will be used for the setup and maintenance of the merchants’ websites, as well as other marketing and payment processing activities. Interested donors could participate in the fundraising campaign at the following website: https://www.gofundme.com/f/y43dk-send-chinatown-love