Tulsa Restaurant Employees Get Help From Community Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Help is coming for restaurant workers laid-off because of policy changes amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

One restaurant group is holding a fund raiser for its staff, and a Tulsa foundation is setting up a program to help people pay the bills.

At Kilkenny's Irish Pub, the normally crowded dining room is now dark and silent. The only people inside are a few employees preparing to-go and delivery orders.

"It’s scary. I mean, you walk through those doors and its packed full of people, laughter, talking and you kind of walk in now and it's a ghost town," said Sarah Dyer, HR Director for Kilkenny’s Irish Pub and Nola’s Creole & Cocktails.

The pub is just down the road from its sister restaurant, Nola's, which serves up Cajun-Creole inspired food. Dyer said the two restaurants employ about 170 employees.

After dine-in service was temporarily suspended, the majority of that staff was laid off.

Just a mile away at Mother Road Market, which decided to temporarily close, the owner of Bodhi's Bowl laid off all seven employees. 

"It really is out of the blue it really happened overnight I mean that's really hard," said James Wegner the Owner of Bodhi's Bowl.

But both Dyer and Wegner said there is help. Dyer helped start a go fund me page to help employees at both restaurants, Kilkenny’s and Nola’s. So far its raised nearly $3,000.

"It’s going 100% to our tipped employees who have been laid off every bit of it," said Dyer.

And the Lobeck Taylor Family Foundation, which developed Mother Road Market, started the Tulsa Restaurant Employee Relief Fund managed by the Oklahoma Restaurant Association.

The foundation contributed $100,000 in the hopes of giving out $1,000 to Tulsa area restaurant employees who need help paying everything from food gas to even medical bills.

To find out if you qualify or if you’d like to donate to the Tulsa Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, click here. If you’d like to donate to the Kilkenny’s/Nola’s employee fund, click here.