Independent Operators

Is your food truck prepared for possible second wave of COVID-19?

Successful food truck operators will need to apply a measured approach to both disaster preparedness and recovery with the likely prospect of a "second wave" of COVID-19.

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August 3, 2020 by Patrick Hardy

The unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic has provided an unprecedented challenge to food truck and restaurant operations throughout the U.S. and the world. National lockdowns followed by uneven reopening schemes and state-by-state procedural and sanitation guidance have forced management teams to quickly pivot and adapt to a rapidly evolving environment.

Successful restaurant and food truck operators will need to apply a measured approach to both disaster preparedness and recovery with the likely prospect of a "second wave" of COVID-19. This second wave, of unknown duration and severity resulting in either a regional or national outbreak in the latter part of 2020 will create a brand-new set of challenges. To successfully navigate these events, operators should consider these three proven strategies to prepare for the "second wave".

What have you already learned?
The first thing a restaurant operator needs to do when the restaurant reopens is to hold a short meeting with every staff member and do a full debriefing of the COVID-19 response. Methodically go through every part of the response and ask two questions: "What did we do well?" and "What do we need to work on?" By doing this, a successful debriefing will identify both the strengths and weaknesses of the restaurant's emergency response. When deciding how to conduct a debriefing, follow these three rules:

1. Hold it within 30 days of reopening. Memories will fade quickly as staff goes back into their routine, and valuable lessons-learned could be lost.
2. Require 100% participation of staff. Front and back of the house staff (even part-time), management, and even ownership should participate because they can provide unique perspectives on each element of your response.
3. Recruit a third party to lead the meeting. It is critical that you receive honest, forthright feedback about the management and operations of your disaster plan. This cannot be accomplished when the meeting is run by the same managers whose policies and procedures will be discussed. Therefore, have the meeting led by a person NOT associated with the restaurant, because when management is running the meeting, employees become extremely reluctant to say anything perceived as a critique of their superiors.

Once this meeting has been conducted, management should write a full report of everything discovered. In emergency management, we call this an After-Action Report. This document, when property constructed, provides actionable improvement steps on what procedural, functional, and policy modifications need to be made to strengthen the restaurant's pandemic response. It is so critical, in fact, that these are required by statute or regulation in other industries such as healthcare, construction, first response and even by the government at all levels.

Prepare for second quarantine lockdowns

Don't let those valuable lessons go to waste! Once the restaurant's lessons-learned meeting has been completed, the recommendations should be embedded in the COVID-19 Pandemic Plan. There is little doubt that the long-term threat of COVID-19 to operations is not going to evaporate once the lockdown orders are lifted, so identified lessons can be invaluable if there is a second wave.

Therefore, restaurant operators need to prepare for the potential for periodic spikes which, depending on its severity and level of media coverage, could create a reflexive action by public health authorities in the form of a secondary quarantine. This occurred in food establishments located in outdoor hospitality venues throughout the US, particularly in California and Michigan, where initial opening orders were quickly followed by instructions to re-close.

Depending on the sophistication of the restaurant operation, this will unquestionably involve preparing and repurposing the restaurant finances, marketing, and operations. Further, even if a second wave fails to materialize, those lessons in the COVID-19 pandemic can be applied to seasonal influenza fluctuations or other disease outbreaks that occur every winter.

Don't forget other disasters
The overwhelming saturation of news regarding COVID-19 has overshadowed the other natural, technological or security risks that restaurant operators face daily. Post-COVID-19 restaurant disaster plans need to consider how to manage a second emergency simultaneously with COVID such as a wildfire, tornado, hurricane or even the widespread blackouts experienced in California in late 2019/early 2020 because these responses will now be more complex in the "new normal."

For example, the typical tornado response will initially involve a shelter-in-place, where high concentrations of staff and customers will be sheltered in a small room or area. With COVID-19, those tornado plans need to be modified, as employees may need to be sheltered in multiple locations, and/or masks and portable barriers will need to be added to sheltering areas to ensure that COVID-19 precautions are maintained.

Even with the lifting of quarantine lockdowns, restaurants will continue to encounter multiple challenges to their disaster program related to COVID-19. Successful restaurant operators who implement a few basic procedures will respond more effectively not only to a "second wave" of COVID-19 but also from the next pandemic that might be lurking around the corner.

About Patrick Hardy

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Patrick Hardy is Americas Disaster Planner. He's a Certified Emergency Manager®, Certified Risk Manager® and a FEMA Master of Exercise Practitioner®. He is the only person in the world who holds all three of these important disaster management certifications.

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