When people stopped walking the streets, street vendors’ business evaporated. But in several cities, efforts have arisen to help these workers, who are often informally employed and left out of government support, Jennifer Hattam reports.
In New York City, the Street Vendor Project’s crowd-funding campaign has raised more than $70,000 in under a month. The group is also working to get some of New York’s 20,000 street vendors included in municipal contracts to deliver food to people left homebound by the pandemic.
A similar effort is underway in the UK, where the Nationwide Caterers Association is connecting food truck operators and other mobile vendors with gigs feeding essential workers, including healthcare staff at the NHS. And in Barcelona, members of a migrant street vendors union are being employed by a food bank to deliver groceries to needy families.
Read more in Jennifer’s story: As the world stays home, street vendors fight to survive
