COVID surge? Get Thanksgiving to go

COVID surge? Get Thanksgiving to go

As coronavirus cases surge across the U.S. and officials urge Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving family get-togethers, restaurants are stepping in to offer holiday dinners to go.

Bryan Wood reports.

With U.S. officials warning Americans not to travel or gather for Thanksgiving (November 26), one kitchen in Los Angeles is whipping up all the fixings for a holiday meal to go, ready to heat, and eat, at a social distance.

With even outdoor dining suspended in much of California this week, to-go meals provide a lifeline for struggling restaurants.

"It helps us survive during this weird time." Susan Feniger owns Socalo restaurant, where she's designing dinners that can survive a trip home.

"That's the trick with being able to take food from the restaurant and then reheat it without overcooking it, having it still taste really delicious.

That's the trick with to-go.

If you're making it at home fresh, you can make it all right to order and eat it, but when someone's going to pick it up and then reheat it, that's the trick is, what can you do that still will taste really yummy." Feniger spent all week cooking and preparing takeout orders, simmering greens, slicing turkey, and some sides with Latin twists like cranberry salsa, lime-honey yams and chimichurri potatoes.

"...Everything gets sent cold, instructions how to reheat.

And that's it.

That's a family meal kit.

I don't know, I think we did about 50 or 60 of them for the holiday." These thanksgiving kits cost 40 dollars for two people.

Samuel Bass got one after planning to spend the holiday with friends in-person, but changed his mind when the number of patients being treated for COVID-19 in the U.S. surged to an all-time high.

"So, you know, we can be on a Zoom call with our friends, we can have a nice thing to eat, you know.

And also, like a whole turkey is a lot for two people." Feniger owns another restaurant, Border Grill, in downtown LA that plans to deliver 1700 Thanksgiving meals for elderly, homeless and food insecure people.