NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas — In New Braunfels, where the hospitality industry is big business, employees are facing uncertain times.
The community is finding ways to support tip-based workers.
The New Braunfels Downtown Association put together a t-shirt fundraiser in an effort to support those impacted by mandated closures.
The bold, yellow shirts say “Keep it Wunderful.”
“There are so many people that are being affected in different ways and we're all trying to work together to help each other,” said Heidi Aleman, President of the New Braunfels Downtown Association.
The group also spent $4,500 on gift cards, hoping the fast cash from the sales will help businesses in need.
The gift cards themselves are being given away to the public daily on Facebook and Instagram.
“When everything slows down and kind of gets back to normalcy, people can use those gift cards to go in and frequent those businesses and hopefully spend more of their own money in addition to what we've given them, to kind of plant the seed to help these small businesses keep going,” said Aleman.
Muck & Fuss is one of the downtown businesses adjusting to a new routine. The restaurant, known for craft beer and burgers, is offering to-go service and family-style take and bake meals.
“People are being great,” said owner Terry Muckenfuss. “There's been a bigger demand than we thought and when people pick up their orders, they're leaving tips.”
The City of New Braunfels is under a stay home, work safe order but the community is still able to pick up food from area restaurants.
A Facebook page called “New Braunfels open restaurants during COVID-19” has almost 10,000 members and is a space where eateries can post specials and ordering instructions.
“There's a lot of unknown right now,” said Muckenfuss. “I think that businesses will come back even stronger when this is all over. So that's what we're very hopeful for that.”