With recent attention to issues affecting the African-American community, people have taken interest in supporting Black-owned businesses. Uber Eats and Yelp are taking a lead in boosting that support through their apps.
On opening the Uber Eats app, users see a sleek black-and-white header promotion that reads “Support Black-owned restaurants.” Once that option is selected, a selection of restaurants will appear in a list of nearby restaurants available for delivery.
“You asked for an easy way to order from Black-owned restaurants – we listened. Show your support by ordering from any of these restaurants with no Delivery Fee through 2020,” the message on the app reads.
As for Yelp, it will be adding a new tool that allows businesses on the platform to self-identify as Black-owned.
Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman said in a recent blog post that the new tool follows an increase in user searches for Black-owned businesses. Over the first week of protests, Yelp reported seeing “a 25x increase in the frequency of searches for Black-owned businesses across categories on Yelp compared to the same time last year.”
The company said it also will be donating $500,000 to the Equal Justice Initiative and NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Yelp will also double its match of donations made this month by employees who contribute funds to select Black-led or Black-serving organizations, including Black Futures Lab and Know Your Rights Camp.
OTHER RESOURCES
– The app EatOkra, co-founded by Anthony Edwards Jr. and Janique Bradley, helps users easily find and get connected to Black-owned restaurants in dozens of American cities. You can also order delivery or purchase condiments from other Black-owned businesses within EatOkra.
– Many people are heading to social media to share curated lists of Black-owned restaurants in their areas, including shareable spreadsheets. You can often find them using keywords or hashtags like #BlackOwnedRestaurants.
– Follow websites and blogs that highlight Black businesses. Husband and wife team Tony Lawson and Shantrelle Lewis created ShoppeBlack.us in 2015 to curate content related to Black business ownership and culture, and it features thousands of business profiles and hundreds of interviews with Black entrepreneurs and professionals. BlackVegansToday.com is dedicated to providing vegan and plant-based news, recipes, tips and information from Black chefs, journalists and other food leaders, plus a list of 35 Black-owned vegan restaurants across the country.
– Visit www.CommunityVoiceKS.com and search for “Our Eats,” a list of Black-owned restaurants in our readership area of Kansas and Kansas City . Or CLICK HERE for it.