Weekly Update: Mayor's Meal Challenge

Friends,

If you or someone you know has not been tested, and you’re experiencing symptoms—get tested. We have the resources readily available, and they’re all free.

You don’t need a doctor’s referral, but you do have to make an appointment. At this time, we are not--let me say that again--we are not testing asymptomatic individuals. We have testing sites all over our city and starting today, we’re adding more capacity in Frayser and Hickory Hill. For a full list of test sites, click here.

There is no reason you shouldn’t get tested. The resources are there and waiting to be used. Please use them.

Mayor’s Meal Challenge: As I’ve said before, our small businesses, especially our locally-owned restaurants, have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, many more in Memphis are now experiencing food insecurity.

The initiative I’m launching today is designed to help both challenges in a small way. We're launching the Mayor’s Meal Challenge to encourage more people to support our restaurants and to help the Mid-South Food Bank.

I will donate $25 to the Mid-South Food Bank for each of the first 100 photos that residents tag the City’s or my Facebook pages or Twitter accounts featuring a to-go order purchased from a local Memphis restaurant.

I was inspired by the Mayor of Arlington, Texas, Jeff Williams, and decided to follow suit with the Mayor’s Meal Challenge for our community.

To participate in the Mayor’s Meal Challenge:

• Pick up a “to-go” order from local restaurants
• Post your photos of the food on social media and
• Tag the City of Memphis or my Facebook page @CityofMemphis or @MayorMemphis and Twitter @CityofMemphis or @MayorMemphis and the restaurant’s page
• Include the Hashtags #MayorsMealChallenge and #saferathome

During this critical time, I encourage you to continue to shop local and support small our businesses. If you would like to donate to the food bank visit www.midsouthfoodbank.org/donate. Under the “My Donation is for” tab, select the Mayor’s Meal Challenge. To learn more, visit covid19.memphistn.gov and find small business assistance information.

The Links at Whitehaven: Starting tomorrow on a trial basis, we will open the Links at Whitehaven golf course. Tee times will be separated by 20 minutes, and the clubhouse will be closed to the public. All transactions will be made through the clubhouse window. If this is successful, we will look at opening other city courses in the near future.

Thanks to the Memphis City Council: In their March 24th meeting, the City Council approved a $2 million budget amendment to help our community in the fight against COVID-19. Because of their passage of the amendment, so far City government has been able to contribute $50,000 to the Mid-South Food Bank and ensure families and people in need have meals to eat. We’ve contributed $100,000 for homeless sheltering and $150,000 for drive-thru testing with Shelby County and an anonymous donor agreeing to match funds in these two areas.

I just wanted to take a second and publicly thank our members of the City Council for their leadership and for allowing us to put this money to good use during a very difficult time in our community.

COVID-19 Joint Task Force at work: For the last several weeks, the Joint Task Force has been meeting and working collectively to address the problems of the day. A great example happened this week and was brought to light in this morning’s briefing.

One of the local hospitals was having difficulty locating additional personal protection equipment (PPE) and brought that to the task force earlier in the week. Antonio Adams (Director of General Services for the City of Memphis) who heads up Logistics for the Task Force, was able to quickly locate and deliver what the hospital needed. This is just one example of many since this all started, and it’s a clear demonstration for the importance of all of us working together for the greater good.

Have a great weekend.

Yours,