NYC foodservice suppliers uncertain about new indoor-dining vaccine rule

NEW YORK — New York City will be the first city in the U.S. to require people to show proof of vaccination to dine indoors at restaurants, as well as use gyms and theaters, causing a ripple effect of responses as the area’s produce wholesalers wait to see how their foodservice demand will react.

Mayor Bill DeBlasio told The New York Times that the requirement is an aggressive measure to curtail the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as the delta variant sweeps across the nation.

Announced Aug. 3, the mandate begins Aug. 16 and will be enforced Sept. 13.

In the Bronx, Hunts Point Produce Market’s 30 merchants supply more than 60% of the produce for the city, including 23,000 restaurants.

Joel Fierman, president of Fierman Produce Exchange at Hunts Point Produce Market, said he’s already seeing a troubling foodservice reaction to the city’s mandate. On Aug. 3, he dined at his friend’s restaurant in Manhattan, which had reopened after being closed for eight months.

“He told me business was fantastic. After yesterday’s announcement, he had 25% cancellations last night,” Fierman said Aug. 4. “We’re dealing with a virus that we get conflicting reports on. I believe people will err on the side of caution. Hence, every time they change the guidelines, it’ll negatively impact our businesses.”

In the city, 66% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to the Citywide Immunization Registry.

In the U.S., more than 60% of adults are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Several leaders at Hunts Point are trying to stay positive about the city mandate’s effect on foodservice business.

“We think it’s too early to tell, but we’re hopeful positive things will come from this, and things will continue to open up. The last several months have been tough for everybody,” said Phillip Grant, CEO of the market. “We’re definitely hoping for a better holiday season going into fall than last year. Thanksgiving is one of our best times. It’s been a better year than last year, so we’re really trying to be optimistic.”

Stefanie Katzman, executive vice president of S. Katzman Produce at Hunts Point, is also choosing a cautiously optimistic perspective.

“We will have to wait and see how NYC reacts, but hopefully this will encourage more people to go out to restaurants, knowing that this safeguard is in place,” Katzman said. “Maybe it will even encourage others to get vaccinated so they can continue to dine indoors.”

After months of being the pandemic hot spot in 2020, people in New York City are fatigued by lockdowns and closures, said Gabriela D’Arrigo, vice president of marketing and communications at D’Arrigo New York in Hunts Point.

If the mandate helps prevent those more drastic measures, it could help foodservice business. Then again, requiring customers to show vaccination records through an app or a paper document card could turn away business.

“Regardless of where people stand politically, it’s jarring. We’re hoping it won’t have such an impact as to prevent foodservice from having a comeback,” D’Arrigo said. “The restaurant industry — outside of Broadway — is the bloodline of this city, the life and breath here. The last thing we want is to have these restaurants get hurt again.”

A representative from Bronx-based Baldor Specialty Foods, a major restaurant supplier, declined to comment.

The delta variant may cause more frequent infections in fully vaccinated people, but these infections tend to be mild or asymptomatic, according to the Times.

More than 400 colleges and universities, which are big foodservice customers, are requiring students to be vaccinated for COVID-19, according to the Times.

People who are unvaccinated cite reasons such as distrust of the government, doubting the vaccine’s safety or effectiveness, as well as confidence in the body’s immune system to handle infection, according to a July survey conducted by The Farm Journal of 764 people across all sectors of the agriculture industry. Thirty-two percent of agriculture industry respondents said they don’t need the vaccine because were already infected, 26% are concerned about side effects and 23% don’t believe in the vaccine.

“The National Restaurant Association and the restaurant industry support vaccination for everyone because higher vaccination rates are our best bet for containing the spread of COVID-19,” Larry Lynch, senior vice president of science and industry for the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement.

However, this requirement places the responsibility for verifying vaccination status of employees and customers on the operator, he said.

“Now, without training, our staff members are expected to check the vaccine status of every customer wanting to eat inside the establishment. Last year, when mask mandates across the country were put in place, restaurant workers suffered terrifying backlash when enforcing those rules. The association’s ServSafe experts had to go so far as to create a conflict de-escalation training module to support those front-of-house workers dealing with customer push-back,” Lynch said in the statement.

“We hope that the city will take this into consideration and will work with us to ensure there is clear guidance and support for our workforce.”

Businesses can mandate employee vaccinations without violating federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission laws. But employers may need to accommodate employees who cannot be vaccinated because of a disability or a conflict with their religious beliefs, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

To avoid these legalities, the association recommends that restaurants encourage, rather than mandate, vaccines.

Customers are worried about New York City’s new rule, said Steve Simoni, CEO of Bbot, which offers digital ordering tools to streamline restaurant operations.

“They think it will have a large effect on travel and tourism in the fall, and thus they will get less foot traffic to their stores,” Simoni said, adding that digital tools can help with recent staffing and demand challenges.

“And with more off-premises ordering happening in these times, restaurateurs need cost-effective omnichannel solutions to adapt to a highly volatile environment.”

Fierman Produce Exchange still hasn’t been paid for product from the last outbreak, Fierman said.

“Many restaurants that we supplied, failed,” Fierman said.

So, minimizing the spread and severity of this third wave and delta variant, while protecting restaurants and foodservice operations, is paramount.

“I’m not happy about any news which negatively impacts our business,” he said. “Time will be the ultimate judge, not the politics.”