CLEVELAND — Restaurants are being hit particularly hard by the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A local printing company is stepping in to help them through this crisis - by getting the word out that those restaurants are still open for business.
Northern Ohio Printing is going to print up to 250,000 carry-out menus, coupons, or flyers for local restaurants - all for free. They’re hoping to encourage more people to take advantage of take out options.
Staff members are already hard at work printing those orders.
Owner Gary Chmielewski says they’ve already received several from eager business owners.
“They're excited because they really didn't, they really don't have the money to expense it right now,” Chmielewski said.
Because of the pandemic, Northern Ohio Printing is down to about 80% of their own staff, doing 50-70% of the business they usually do. But, Chmielewski says his employees wanted to give back to the community during this time of uncertainty. They decided to focus on the restaurant community specifically because of how hard they were hit by the pandemic.
“People aren't using the carry out like they should. People are fearful of going in and catching something. But really, all these restaurants are taking, you know, preparations and precautions,” Chmielewski said.
Each restaurant can get up to 1,000 prints. The company is also asking restaurants that have a little more financial wiggle room to have a local graphic designer prepare their menus - to pay it forward.
“That would be ideal to kind of spread it around and help out another sector,” Mark Day, the project coordinator for Northern Ohio Printing, said.
NOP plans to keep the program going until restaurants are back up and running.
Restaurants interested in participating in the free printing program can find more information on its website.
Jade Jarvis is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
