Special Update: COVID-19

New York Wine & Grape Foundation

Special Update

March 18th, 2020

Dear Friends,

This radical change in how we are living creates a tremendous amount of stress. I started feeling funny last night and I woke up this morning achy and lethargic. I chose to use the morning to go back to bed and get more rest. I am constantly emphasizing with my team that their personal health, mental health and the health of their families is of upmost importance. We increased everyone’s paid sick time to provide them the flexibility to take time when they need it for their health or for a loved one. This is going to be a long campaign to eradicate COVID-19, more challenges are ahead, and we need our health to keep a positive outlook and to keep moving forward. I am feeling better tonight and ready to keep fighting for the grape and wine industry.

I received many encouraging emails from friends and industry partners over the past 24 hours who appreciate these updates. Some of them even provided resources from their organizations to help make sense of this crisis and how to keep businesses moving forward. The NYWGF team is also actively developing a marketing plan to support the New York industry as we adjust to this new reality.

Pablo Olay, VP at Padilla New York and a recent B.E.V. NY Business Day Speaker, shared with me Padilla's ongoing analysis of the conversations, trending and inflection points around COVID-19 both for their understanding of the situation and for sharing with agency friends and clients. Their report will be updated and posted to their Web site and social media channels every Monday and Friday ( click here for the report).

Jonathan Lange, EVP at Campbell Ewald, also a recent B.E.V. NY Business Day Speaker, shared a document from his strategy team that summarizes six topics they are seeing and reading about right now as it relates to COVID-19. They developed this document as a resource for their clients who have been asking many questions around business, advertising, and what brands are doing in this unusual environment ( click here for the report).

WineAmerica continues to step up its efforts for United States wine industry. Today, they released a survey to gather information on the impact of COVID-19 on the national wine industry. The information will be vital as WineAmerica works with Congress on measures to provide relief to our industry.

Now, for a little humor, I would like to share a video that my mom sent me earlier this week. Imagine if you had to barter wine or concord grape juice for toilet paper and hand sanitizer!

Sincerely,

Sam Filler, Executive Director

New York Wine & Grape Foundation

Frequently Asked Questions

Question: We were under the impression that we cannot promote "free shipping" and have to say "shipping included" for all alcohol sales in NYS. I'm seeing some wineries promote "Free shipping." Any clarification?

SLA confirmed via email to NYWGF that free shipping to consumers is permissible.

NYWGF is also posting (as they are shared with us) all online promotions being offered by New York wineries on our Facebook page.

Question: Can employers require that employees use paid time off that’s available to them, before they file for unemployment benefits?

No. Once someone is out of work, they can apply for UI. Employers cannot force them to wait.

For other hour and wage issues, NYSDOL has issued a new publication that will answer those questions: https://www.labor.ny.gov/formsdocs/dipa/p130.pdf.

COVID-19 Resource from the Cornell Food Safety Extension Team

COVID-19 is already changing the way we interact with and produce food. Over the coming weeks the impact of these changes will only increase. The Cornell Food Safety Extension Team is here to support you and provide resources so that you can more readily navigate these challenging conditions. In that spirit, we are providing information and resources via the Institute for Food Safety at Cornell University and through our newsletters, that we hope will aid you in the management of COVID-19 related challenges. We will continue to provide updates via these resources as the situation changes and new information becomes available.

Click For Food Safety Resources

Join the Discussion

We invite you to our join our New York Wine Industry: COVID-19 Resources Facebook group dedicated to sharing resources relevant to the community. We will continue to monitor the ever-changing situation regarding increased safeguards at the local, state, and federal levels to help stem the spread of COVID-19. We hope that this online forum will serve as a place for our community to share information as it becomes available. .