Matthew Moore: The Fayetteville Independent Restaurant Alliance began in 2020, in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the main components of the alliance is to provide direct aid to industry workers for help paying bills like medical expenses and housing. And earlier this month, they surpassed their highest annual disbursement yet.
Reese Roberts is one of the founding board members of the Fayetteville Independent Restaurant Alliance and co-owner of Leverett Lounge and Sidecar Cocktail Lounge. She says the check that put them beyond the 2020 amount was a big deal.
Reese Roberts: Not so big in the, in the number, in the dollar amount that we wrote it for. But we were able to get someone that works in the industry housed. They had been unhoused for a pretty long period of time and could not quite get past that hump of being able to sign a lease and put down a deposit. So a really exciting check to write in two different ways. We got to get someone into a home. We also surpassed the total dollar amount in 2025, is now greater than the total dollar amount that we disbursed in 2020, which is pretty crazy.
Moore: What does that say about where we are right now in 2025 compared to where, you know, the industry and also just the economy and the world was just five years ago?
Roberts: I think it’s been really difficult for a lot of employers to keep pace with the cost of living. Um, there’s just not as many places to live anymore in Fayetteville. A lot of the property is being taken up by people that can afford to purchase a home instead of rent. We have a lot of people moving into the area every day. I hear some pretty crazy numbers on that. I couldn’t spout the statistics on it. I think that it’s just a clear indicator of the housing crisis and how it’s affecting, um, our workforce.
Moore: When you and I first spoke earlier this year, um, one of the goals that you had for the Fayetteville Independent Restaurant Alliance was to get more restaurants and more businesses involved. Since we have spoken, I’ve followed you on Instagram and I’m always happy to see another business announced as a part of the alliance. What has that been like to see just this year alone, just a pretty good growth in the amount of businesses involved in the alliance?
Roberts: It’s been really exciting. We launched whenever we realized that we were, um, on pace with 2020 numbers earlier this year. We really buckled in and dug our feet in and we knew that we needed to create a more sustainable model for the long term. So the first step of that was launching restaurant and business memberships to give our local businesses an opportunity to reinvest in their workforce, and be able to give us an operating budget.
Still to this day, any donation that gets put into, if you donate to the Fayetteville Independent Restaurant Alliance, it gets put into the Hero Fund. Um, and every single penny of that has been paid out directly to an individual in need. The nice thing about membership dues is most of that still goes into the Hero Fund. But it does give us a little bit of an operating budget to be able to plan an event or pay for some new printed materials or whatever it happens to be that might help us increase our visibility.
So having that take off has been really fulfilling because we have been working on our visibility and our messaging for the entirety of this year. And it feels like it’s just now getting to the point where we’re getting a lot of traction and it’s taking off on its own. People are really interested in what we’re doing.
Moore: And I imagine when you have a business who joins the alliance, it says to those employees, there is somebody here who has my back, and now I know about it. And I’m sure you’re seeing results in that way. To the people who may not have even known where to go, search for that help now know how to ask for it and how to get it.
Roberts: Oh, absolutely. I feel like every time we get an application, the first thing that I say is like, we see you. We see you struggling with, with what you’re struggling with right now. Um, I think that half of processing applications is also just telling people that there’s someone that’s here that’s willing to listen to their problems and see if we can find a solution.
And that’s what we get thanked for. It’s not always like, I mean, the money is great. It’s necessary. It’s a required part of the deal. But what we’re really good at is finding really creative solutions whenever the money isn’t there. We’re willing to call people that we know in the community that might be willing to help. And we’re willing to advocate on someone’s behalf if they need something specific. I will say, too, that we have people come up to the stand whenever I pop up at the farmers market and they ask me, hey, I’m new to town, where should I eat? And I get to tell them, go to our website, scroll to the bottom. You can see all our member restaurants, and that’s a really great indicator of who is really invested in their workforce and their community.”
Moore: What was the 2020 number and then what are we looking at for this year?
Roberts: So in 2020 we paid out, um, to individuals in need, we paid out $43,208.80. That last check that we wrote put us at $43,381.31 for 2025.
Moore: Wow. And these are large and small amounts, right? We’re looking at, you know, if you’re helping somebody, perhaps with a security deposit or you might just be helping them, you know, like get a coat or something, something that may not be quite as much of an expense, but it’s still an expense nonetheless, right?
Roberts: Yeah. We do. We always prioritize housing. Like, we tell people from the get-go, our biggest priority is to make sure that you, if you’re in a situation where you are unable to pay rent, we want to make sure that you are able to stay housed. That’s always going to be our number one priority and how we disburse funding.
Our average disbursement the last time I checked was like $700 or $800, which is not the average rent in Fayetteville. People are really mindful and good about asking for what they actually need. So we do have a lot of people that reach out and they’re like, man, I’ve really exhausted every resource that I have. I’m just $400 short, you know? And that’s really easy for us to work with.
But we do encourage people. We have a lot of resources on our website. We encourage anybody that applies to also explore those resources and opportunities. We are one of the few places that can help with rent and can help with rent quickly. And I think that for a lot of our industry workers that get paid day by day or get paid every week or every other week, um, sometimes they don’t know that it’s going to be dead in the restaurant and that they aren’t making any money until it’s almost time to get paid and they have to pay their bills. So that quick turnaround is really important to us.
Moore: And I feel like there’s a bit of an ethos in the food industry of people. Like, they don’t want to ask for any more than they have to, and they don’t. They feel they don’t want to be a burden on others or especially other colleagues in the industry.
Roberts: Absolutely. We have a lot of people that, um, that are really transparent about exactly where they’re at. How much could really, like how much could really make a difference for them? Um, we have people that say, like, $400 would keep me housed. If I had $600, I could also get groceries. You know? Um, people are really good about asking for exactly what they need.
And we do have people that have received funds in the past that I see come through and donate consistently whenever we have events or, um, they make sure that they’re continuing to share things even if they aren’t in a position to donate financially. So it’s really cool to see that community just come together. And, you know, people seem to be pretty invested in what we’re doing, and we do have people that have also received aid that come and volunteer with us at events. And for the most part, everybody’s very responsible with their asks.
Moore: I mean, did you expect to surpass 2020 numbers?
Roberts: I think we were all worried because even as a small business owner, I have, you know, a little bit more safety and equity. But we also feel the pressure of the rising costs of living. Um, so it’s something that we’ve been concerned about and we have definitely felt the past few years. Um, that it’s just gotten a little bit tighter and a little bit tighter as time’s gone on.
I feel like whenever a bunch of restaurants closed at the beginning of this year, there was like a week where most restaurants in town had to close down for several days in a row. Uh, that was the, that was the week that we were like, oh, man. Like, it’s not just us. Our employees also aren’t, like, none of us can make it without five days of revenue at all across the board. And that is not enough of a safety net for anyone.
Moore: I’ve heard you say that the “J months”, January, June, July, tend to be the hardest in the restaurant industry. We’re coming up on January. What are you doing? What is, uh, IRA doing to kind of be mindful of being available, being visible in a time where it might be tough for not just employees, but restaurants broadly?
Roberts: Man, it’s really, it’s really hard to get out there right now because there are so many, um, holiday events. But there aren’t as many opportunities for us to pop up like we do at the farmers market. Maxine’s just put on a knockoff and raised $3,000 for us. Uh, it was very fun. The energy in there was super great. Um, obviously, that was, like, highly impactful financially.
Luckily, we have a lot of business owners and community members that are, um, engaged in what we need. And they know that January is always a hard month. Um, and they are really coming together and trying to do some fundraising. So I know Bo at Pinpoint is also trying to raise some money right now, um, for the Restaurant Alliance fund. And he cited in his message that January is always a hard month for us, and it really always is.
Moore: Obviously, people ought to eat local, eat at your local restaurants. But if people want to do more than just, you know, eat good food at Fayetteville restaurants, what are ways that individuals can get involved in the restaurant alliance?
Roberts: Donations are always great. We love, we love to see, like, a $5 to $50 monthly donation come through. That creates a little bit of longevity and stability in the Hero Fund.
We do have an email newsletter that we brought back this year. We put all of our events in there and try to talk about what’s going on and what the need is at that specific point in time, and introduce any new members that have signed up. Other than that, we have some events on the website, and I just enjoy talking to people about, um, our local businesses and just sharing the local love a little bit.
So we always have our little station to write love letters to local restaurants and bars and coffee shops at every event that we pop up at. So even just seeing where we might be, if you’re around and you want to come say hi, we love to just talk to people about which place that they’ve really been excited to go to and what they like to eat on the menu and why they enjoy it. And we enjoy being able to share those love letters on social media, too.”
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