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City Councilman Michael Jones and Mayor Levar Stoney addressed the media at Abuelita's restaurant in South Side Tuesday.
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Abuelita's remains open for takeout service during the pandemic.
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Abuelita's owners Karina Benavides and Everardo Fonseca
As Richmonders celebrated Cinco de Mayo from home, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney joined City Councilman Michael Jones at Abuelita’s on Midlothian Turnpike Tuesday to highlight resources for the local Latinx community during the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are in a battle of our own as we fight COVID-19, and throughout this battle with this pandemic, it’s our goal to continue to support small businesses, particularly our restaurants, when we can,” Stoney said, connecting COVID-19 relief efforts to the Battle of Puebla in 1862 that is commemorated annually on Cinco de Mayo.
In recent weeks, free COVID-19 testing was offered at low-income communities across the city, including Richmond’s predominantly Latinx Southwood community, but Stoney said more needs to be done to address the disproportionate impact that the coronavirus has had on communities of color. According to the Virginia Department of Health, 20.6% of COVID-19 patients in Richmond are Hispanic or Latinx.
“We should do more, and we need the Commonwealth of Virginia to back us up on that,” he said. “Before we even talk about stepping into reopening and having those conversations, we need to be more robust [with] more assistive testing, particularly in these communities.”
For South Side residents who lack access to personal protective equipment, Jones said he's working with the mayor’s administration to create face mask distribution sites throughout his district after the owner of local business BeautiFull Beauty Supply Store pledged to donate 10,000 face masks. Free hand sanitizer and face masks also were offered to everyone who visited a free COVID-19 testing site in the city, Stoney spokesman Jim Nolan said.
“Our goal is to make sure that every vulnerable person has a mask, and so that’s going to happen,” Jones said.
Small minority-owned restaurants like Abuelita’s are also in need of aid, Stoney said. With dining rooms closed across the state for at least another week, he’s calling on the federal government to keep business owners of color afloat during the economic slump caused by the current health crisis.
He also encouraged city residents to visit rvastrong.org, a centralized directory of local COVID-19 relief efforts. A version of the website is available in Spanish at rvastrong.org/espanol.
Abuelita’s owners Karina Benavides and Everardo Fonseca, meanwhile, say they’ve done their best to create a lively atmosphere in their restaurant for Cinco de Mayo in the past, and although they continue offering takeout, this year wasn’t the same.
“It feels like you’re incomplete,” Benavides said.
