Page 47 - Barbecue News April 2020 Issue

Personally
Personal hygiene is going to be the number one way we can all combat this virus. Every news cast seems to be reminding us to wash our hands and not touch our faces with dirty hands. The pro- fessionals are even giving us songs to sing, such as Happy Birthday (twice) or the Alphabet song to make sure we spend the entire 20 seconds washing our hands. Some more creative folk have come up with more fun songs which you can Google, but to give you an idea, the chorus to Prince’s Raspberry Beret fits perfectly.
For the cook, cleanliness is a no brainer (at least it should be) as washing our hands and keeping a decently clean work area is a must. But at an event water can be hard to come by at some events so having a proper hand washing space at your site would be nec- essary. Most of us know proper technique (food safety class) but as a refresher here you go - Rinse hands with warm, clean, running (if available) water. Apply soap to hands and rub vigorously for at least 15 seconds with particular attention to the areas between fin- gers, under fingernails, wrists, and forearms. Rinse hands thor- oughly under clean, warm, running water. In those cases where there is no running water, or water at all for that matter, consider setting up your own hand washing station.
This may require you to bring a few extra items for your cook but your safety as well as those around you is of the utmost importance in this day and time. Be creative but be safe.
1. Get a water cooler. This can be filled at home and the water heated in a pot on the grill, so you have hot water.
2. Sanitizer buckets. Create your one three sink wash station.
3. Get some hand soap. They’re small and portable making it easier for you to stay clean.
4. Bring a small bottle of bleach. This will help you keep your cook area bacteria free.
Professionally
The NBBQA has the constant goal of helping you improve your business of BBQ and this will continue. From marketing tips to highlighting a different NBBQA Business member in the weekly newsletter. As state governments continue to mandate restaurants close (except for carry-out or delivery orders), this will be needed more than ever. We will continue to post on our social media as well as in the newsletter tips and tricks to aid in the challenges COVID-19 present.
The BBQ community is often referred to as one big family and when family hurts, we all hurt. There are many of you coming up with ways to continue to provide a service as well as getting pre- pared for when the mandates are lifted. We would like for you to share those tips with us here at the NBBQA so we can get them out to the rest of the family. Email them to info@nbbqa.org or post them to the NBBQA Facebook page. Whether you’re a restaurant owner, have a catering business or run a food truck, let us know
how you’re navigating the storm (or where you may need some helpful ideas). Here are just a few.
1. Plan for your re-opening. Perhaps make it into a party like the first day you opened for business.
2. Keep in touch with your employees. For many being shut means no paycheck. But some good will and concern for your people will let them know you are as loyal to them as they are to you.
3. Go through and see what you will have to throw out if you can’t re-open in time. Use that to feed some homeless (talk to your health services first, of course) in your area or give some to your employees and their families.
4. Use this time productively. Make a new marketing plan or tweak your current so when you open you can rock through the rest of the year. Develop new recipes for your menu to keep it fresh.
Planned Events
For the conference this year there were three food sport events taking place not to mention the bus tours to various eateries. All over America events are either postponing or canceling altogether. Even the Kentucky Derby, which was scheduled one month after our conference, has been re-scheduled to September. Major League Baseball is postponing opening day (this is practically a holiday) by several weeks. All the food sanctioning bodies are feel- ing the struggle as promoters continue to ring up to cancel or move dates. When Memphis in May is considering canceling their events at Tom Lee Park, you know things are becoming more serious in our industry.
The key thing is to be prepared. This is a good practice to have for every event, because, let’s face it, when you began planning, having a pandemic to deal with never crossed your mind. But in the fore- seeable future it will, I’m sure. So how do you prepare?
1. Have an action plan. Regardless of the circumstance, what is your general action plan if something arises and your event is can- celed?
2. Have contact information handy. A record of your attendees not only of your competitors, but vendors and sponsors as well. So if something arises you can let them know, hopefully before they get too far down the road.
3. Have insurance. We do this when we travel incase something arises, which we hope never does (but just talk to someone on a cruise ship recently). Why not have some for your event which will cover things to a degree?
4. Have a team who will help you be decisive. Wise counsel saves a lot head and heartache when placed in an undesirable position of having to cancel an event.
Look how far we’ve come since the very first case was reported in Seattle. January 20th. We all know there have been some dark days and there will be some long-lasting affects from this. How- ever, by pulling together and practicing a little “love your neigh- bor” we’ll come through on the other side better prepared for the next challenging obstacle.
APRIL 2020
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