Tso Chinese Delivery

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Tso Chinese Delivery

Born-digital media documenting the business operations of Tso Chinese Delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas. "When COVID-19 lockdowns began to domino across the globe last year, the co-founders of local restaurant Tso Chinese Delivery — Min Choe, Jenna Choe, Eunice Tsang, and Angell Tsang — immediately looked for some way to help fellow Austinites. Many locals were suddenly out of jobs as non-essential businesses were forced to temporarily close to mitigating the spread of the virus. The three decided that the easiest way that their to-go and delivery-only restaurants could help was by offering free meals to un- or underemployed people. “We wanted to feed a few folks,” says Min Choe, an Austin native, and a long-time entrepreneur whose restaurants are located in Cherrywood and the Arboretum. With that simple directive, the couples launched charitable branch Tso Giving in March 2020, and began their path to supplying Austinites hardest hit with more than $220,000 worth of meals — equivalent to 22,000 portions. As part of the then-newly-formed Tso Giving in March 2020, the co-founders envisioned helping out the Austin service industry. They developed a donation infrastructure to offset the costs of food and production while paying their staff for their work through a combination of Venmo, GoFundMe, and Tso’s official website. From there, the Austin community pitched in: donations from individuals and from other local companies to contribute to the fund. Initially, Tso Giving’s goal was small: They wanted to hand out just a few hundred meals. The restaurant put out a call for email and phone call submissions from people who felt they needed meals from the restaurant. Co-founder Eunice Tsang sorted through those requests to determine who would receive what, which were then delivered by the staff. Once the number of requests became too large to manage, Tso set up a curbside pickup tent at its Arbor location instead, so that those people could just come and pick up food at designated times. Those springtime drive-thrus were initially run by the Choes and Tsangs. But, pretty soon much of the Tso staff were volunteering their time between shifts to the cause." - From the article 'Tso Chinese Delivery’s takeout operation grew a small token of kindness into an operation that fed thousands' by Nina Hernandez, Austin Eater, 2021

Item Description

Identifier: DO/2020/219

Title: Tso Chinese Delivery Giving Campaign

Description: Born-digital media documenting the business operations of Tso Chinese Delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas. "When COVID-19 lockdowns began to domino across the globe last year, the co-founders of local restaurant Tso Chinese Delivery — Min Choe, Jenna Choe, Eunice Tsang, and Angell Tsang — immediately looked for some way to help fellow Austinites. Many locals were suddenly out of jobs as non-essential businesses were forced to temporarily close to mitigating the spread of the virus. The three decided that the easiest way that their to-go and delivery-only restaurants could help was by offering free meals to un- or underemployed people. “We wanted to feed a few folks,” says Min Choe, an Austin native, and a long-time entrepreneur whose restaurants are located in Cherrywood and the Arboretum. With that simple directive, the couples launched charitable branch Tso Giving in March 2020, and began their path to supplying Austinites hardest hit with more than $220,000 worth of meals — equivalent to 22,000 portions. As part of the then-newly-formed Tso Giving in March 2020, the co-founders envisioned helping out the Austin service industry. They developed a donation infrastructure to offset the costs of food and production while paying their staff for their work through a combination of Venmo, GoFundMe, and Tso’s official website. From there, the Austin community pitched in: donations from individuals and from other local companies to contribute to the fund. Initially, Tso Giving’s goal was small: They wanted to hand out just a few hundred meals. The restaurant put out a call for email and phone call submissions from people who felt they needed meals from the restaurant. Co-founder Eunice Tsang sorted through those requests to determine who would receive what, which were then delivered by the staff. Once the number of requests became too large to manage, Tso set up a curbside pickup tent at its Arbor location instead, so that those people could just come and pick up food at designated times. Those springtime drive-thrus were initially run by the Choes and Tsangs. But, pretty soon much of the Tso staff were volunteering their time between shifts to the cause." - From the article 'Tso Chinese Delivery’s takeout operation grew a small token of kindness into an operation that fed thousands' by Nina Hernandez, Austin Eater, 2021

Date Created: 2020

Date Created Range: 2020s

Creator: Tso Chinese Delivery

Creator: Shapira, Stefanie

Collection: AR.2020.014

Collection: COVID-19 Files: Austin Responds to a Pandemic

Subject: COVID-19

Subject: Restaurants

Publisher: Austin History Center, Austin Public Library

Rights: AHC Owns Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted. This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. In addition, no permission is required from the rights-holder(s) for non-commercial educational or personal research use, though credit is required using the required credit line. For commercial and publication uses, you must obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) by submitting the form found on this page: http://library.austintexas.gov/ahc/ordering-photos.

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50k For Teachers

Tso Chinese Delivery 50k For Teachers giving campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas.

Press Links

Tso Chinese Delivery Press Links during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tso Chinese Delivery giving campaigns (photos by Courtney Pierce)

Photographs taken by Courtney Pierce documenting the Tso Chinese Delivery Giving Campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic. They developed a donation infrastructure to offset the costs of food and production while paying their staff for their work through a combination of Venmo, GoFundMe, and Tso’s official website. From there, the Austin community pitched in: donations from individuals and from other local companies to contribute to the fund. Initially, Tso Giving’s goal was small: They wanted to hand out just a few hundred meals. The restaurant put out a call for email and phone call submissions from people who felt they needed meals from the restaurant. Co-founder Eunice Tsang sorted through those requests to determine who would receive what, which were then delivered by the staff.

Tso Chinese Delivery Videos

Video created by Tso Chinese Delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tso Giving

Tso Chinese Delivery charitable giving campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas. They developed a donation infrastructure to offset the costs of food and production while paying their staff for their work through a combination of Venmo, GoFundMe, and Tso’s official website. From there, the Austin community pitched in: donations from individuals and from other local companies to contribute to the fund. Initially, Tso Giving’s goal was small: They wanted to hand out just a few hundred meals. The restaurant put out a call for email and phone call submissions from people who felt they needed meals from the restaurant. Co-founder Eunice Tsang sorted through those requests to determine who would receive what, which were then delivered by the staff.

Tso Photos

Tso Chinese Delivery photographs of menu items taken during the COVID-19 pandemic in Austin, Texas.