The Coronavirus pandemic is rapidly changing the way society functions. In order to mitigate the spread of the disease, large gatherings are being cancelled, schools are moving online, and a vast part of the labor force is working from home. The hope is that social distancing can “flatten the curve,” slowing down the rate of infection enough to both lower the ultimate number of people infected, and to spread those infections out over many months so that our healthcare system does not become overwhelmed.
We know that social distancing works to limit spread of the disease. But it needs to be accompanied by an equal effort toward creating mutual aid networks to support communities. Social Distance Does Not Equal Social Isolation. In our local communities, neighbors need to help neighbors right now, and this will be especially true for vulnerable populations like the elderly, or people who are quarantined. In our broader communities, it will also be true for small business owners and their employees facing potentially serious financial losses.
For those operating small chocolate businesses who complete this survey, we anticipate being able to direct community support in three areas:
- targeted information dissemination
- immediate needs-matching (more one-off)
- network building (growing infrastructure for chocolate companies and the customers who love them to support one another in the longer term)
We seek 1 completed survey per organization. If there is another person at your organization who is better suited to answer the poll, please forward this survey link to them.
**We encourage responses to the poll by this Tuesday, March 17th by 5 PM EST. In acknowledgment of the fact that news regarding the coronavirus is still developing, the poll will remain open until Friday, March 20th at 5 PM EST.
**All individual answers will be kept confidential. Response data will be shared in the aggregate.
Note: There are a number of resources already available to support food and beverage professionals in responding to the outbreak. We at FCCI are closely monitoring news related to coronavirus, food, and labor, and are regularly sharing resources via social media as the situation develops. You can access those resources via Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter (@chocoinstitute), LinkedIn (Fine Cacao and Chocolate Institute), or our Executive Director's growing Twitter thread on food, labor, and COVID-19:
https://twitter.com/carladmartin/status/1237550242058260480?s=20Thank you in advance for your participation in this survey. Please reach out to our team at
contact@chocolateinstitute.org with any questions.