Since we are still at home, spending time social distancing, there are places that are open to serve others. The times that we are going through are very crucial because for a lot of restaurants that are dine in, the restaurants are now curbside or delivery only. There are coffee shops that are still open and that are now curbside or they are actually driving through. 

There are facebook pages now where people are asking about different places to try because now that a lot of people are not busy, they are trying to find some places that they could have more often after the quarantine is over. The page is called QC emergency take out and delivery. People ask for recommendations for places to eat or they post a place that they got food from and sometimes what they got. Some people also post pictures of the food. Some people also ask for specific recommendations for types of food to have, even on which side of the river. 

For all of you coffee lovers, there are many places that you can try and support. One shop is Caribou Coffee, which is located in the Hy-Vee off of John Deere Road. They have a wide variety of drinks to choose from. They have hot, iced, and blended drinks, in many different flavors. Another place is Awake, which is very popular because of their energy drinks. They also have regular coffee drinks and smoothies. There is a drive thru coffee place where you order off of a screen and you can choose what milk, chocolate, and other things that you can put in the drink. They have many flavored blended coffee drinks and coffeeless drinks, also. They have flavors like s’mores, toffee, mint, java chip, and many others. A coffee shop that is doing curbside pick up is Cool Beanz and they have some food, but they would post updates on their Instagram on how they are doing as a business. 

My family has been trying to find new places to try out, but we also have been going to places that we have had before, such as Pizza and Subs. We have tried out places that have pad thai. We had Finn’s Grill, which we haven’t had in awhile. We have gotten El Mariachi’s which we would usually go to and sit down and eat with our friends. 

There have been some restaurants that have been giving back to the community. One restaurant that has been giving out free meals is Finn’s Grill. The other day, they were giving out free ice cream, and they had two different times where you could go out and get some ice cream. The restaurant also saves up to give away meals during the holidays. Finn’s wanted to give out 400 meals for Easter, but they ended up doubling the amount that they were handing out. They thought that it would be a good thing to do during this pandemic. They wanted to hand out all of the meals because the restaurant wanted to give back to the community because of all the support that they have gotten. They handed out 400 for lunch and then decided to hand out the next 400 for dinner. They love giving back to their community by doing a lot of things. They have really good food for a good price. 

Another business that has been busy ever since the lockdown is Hy-Vee. They have an online ordering part of the store like most places now. They are packaging up around 169 orders a day. They wear gloves and masks and bring all of the things that the person bought. There is one entrance and exit for the people that bring out the items. They also take the time to put all of the bags that are filled with groceries into the customer’s trunk or wherever they want the groceries to be stored to take home. When our family friends did the online order and when she pulled up she was talking with the worker a little bit and she found out that the kid was a senior and how he was missing out on his last high school baseball season. So, after he had put away all of the groceries she had asked if they took tips and he said yes, so now whenever she receives her groceries, she would tip them a couple dollars. Most of the people that are working the aisles online are probably working at Hy-Vee because their main job might have let them go. Plus, Hy-Vee has needed workers knowing that they would be busy every day.