Eat your way through the Lunar New Year!
Today marks the start of the Lunar New Year! The holiday celebrated with festivals, parades, and beautiful decoration acknowledges the beginning of the year according to the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. Though the pandemic has restricted New York City’s normal activities for the celebration, organizations like Send Chinatown Love are working to keep the joyous spirit of the Lunar Year’s celebration alive.
Send Chinatown Love first began March of 2020 when business in Chinatown was dramatically declining. The normally bustling neighborhood was “suffering revenue losses of 60-80%* as early as February 2020 as anti-Asian sentiment swelled,” said their website. To help businesses, Send Chinatown Love “built an easy-to-adopt solution to create revenue streams and found creative ways to build a relationship with each and every one of our merchants in order to onboard them to our platform.”
The organization is working to create a digital community for the merchants in Chinatown to be self-sustaining businesses beyond the pandemic. They have already provided tremendous help with their previous campaigns like Gift-A-Meal, Light Up Chinatown, and Sticky Locals x SCL.
To celebrate this year, Send Chinatown Love is doing a Lunar New Year Food Crawl! It began February 1st and will carry throughout the end of the month across Manhattan, Queens, and Brooklyn. The crawl will help “support Asian-owned small businesses that have suffered due to the rise of anti-Asian sentiment,” shared their Instagram.
Send Chinatown Love has curated a list of crawl stops for numerous Asian-owned mom and pop shops across New York City. The featured vendors are offering take-out, delivery, outdoor dining and dine-in where possible. Beyond restaurants, their 29 participating vendors include gift shops as well!
Some participating vendors include:
- 3 Times
- Dreamer’s Coffee
- Go Noodle Nine Moon
- Wonton Noodle Garden
- Yue Wong
- Lanzhou Ramen
- Kam Hing Coffee Shop
- Bodhi Kosher Vegetarian Restaurant
- 46 Mott
And many more!
The organization even created an interactive online passport to collect stamps when you order from one of the vendors or make a donation! Log each $10 minimum receipt or donation ($10 donation = 1 receipt) to your Passport on the Lunar New Year mobile site and unlock a chance to win a giveaway basket. For every 3 receipts/donations logged you will receive one raffle ticket that equals one entry to win. The more you support the vendors, the more chances to win!
Each giveaway basket is valued at over $200! Prizes include goodies like gift cards, hoodies, snacks, and more!
Send Chinatown Love advises you to give good ratings, tip generously, meet the delivery worker in your lobby to reduce their risk, and to always wear a mask during the LNY Crawl!
Follow their curated Lunar New Year map and fill up your LNY Passport to celebrate all month long!
Check out their Instagram for more information!
featured image source: Instagram / @dylanwaalker