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Across the US, restaurant critics, writers and local food lovers have been pulling together extensive lists of black-owned restaurants and businesses in a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
From online spreadsheets to Google documents, whether statewide or citywide, directories of the names and addresses of African-American-owned food businesses are being published on social media accounts, blogs and websites.
The James Beard Foundation offers one of the most comprehensive countrywide lists of black-owned businesses, featuring a total of twenty US cities, from Atlanta to Washington.
Statewide restaurant apps, like EatOkra are letting users find black-owned businesses in cities around the country, including 2600 restaurants and now food trucks and delivery options.
Meanwhile, citywide directories are available in New York through Black Owned Brooklyn, by Cynthia Gordy Giwa and Tayo Giwa, which highlights restaurants, bars, shops and other black-owned businesses to support in Brooklyn.
More recently, New Yorker food critic Hannah Goldfield compiled a rolling spreadsheet of nearly 200 black-owned eateries, which includes additional info on services such as takeout, delivery or pickup.
In Washington DC, food blogger and activist Anela Malik has put together a comprehensive list and description of black owned restaurants, Black-Owned Restaurants Open During COVID-19.
In Chicago, Black Chicago Eats, offers an online directory of black-owned restaurants in the city, plus restaurant features and interviews with black chefs. The blog Seasoned and Blessed, has also put together a searchable map of Chicago black and brown-owned restaurants open during the coronavirus crisis.
Over on the west coast in San Francisco, Soleil Ho and the Bay Area Organization of Black Owned Businesses (BAOBOB) has created a database of more than 200 black owned Bay Area eateries.
And down in Los Angeles, Kat Hong has put together a Google spreadsheet with contributions from readers, listing over 200 black-owned eateries across Los Angeles city, from ice cream shops to barbecue joints.
When it comes to food delivery, Uber Technologies Inc has recently launched a new feature on its food delivery app Uber Eats allowing customers in the United States and Canada to order from restaurants owned by black people, and pay no delivery fees for those orders through 2020.
Black and Mobile is also another delivery platform operating in Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Detroit, connecting consumers with Black-owned restaurants.
A general relief fund has also been organised by Black People Eat.
