NJ brothers making 3,000 mile journey across America for restaurant workers
Aiden and Louis Ardine raised more than $15,000 for the restaurant industry
Two New Jersey brothers are making a 3,000 mile trek across America to support restaurant workers hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Former bartenders Aiden and Louis Ardine teamed up with the nonprofit advocacy group Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation to raise money for the effort.
"We left the industry out of fear for COVID. We were both living at home with our families to save a little bit of money, and it just seemed like the fall was going to be a really hard time with the pandemic," Aiden Ardine told FOX Business Network’s "Mornings with Maria."
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Aiden, 28, and Louis, 27, were inspired to help their peers in the restaurant industry after they saw how the coronavirus pandemic heavily affected their colleagues over the past year.
The fundraising walk kicked off in Asbury Park, New Jersey, and will conclude at Redwood National Forest outside of San Francisco, California.
"We raised over $15,000 so far and counting. We're on day five. We actually walked across New Jersey and we are currently staying with a friend of a friend in Philadelphia," Louis Ardine added.
The Ardine brothers said the effort has gathered an "incredibly supportive" response from the people they have met along the way.
"Well, our feet are tired. We are definitely feeling an energy from the people we meet, and that helps us kind of move on every day," Aiden Ardine told Maria Bartiromo.
Louis Ardine believes the restaurant industry can "absolutely" recover and will "find a way to come back."
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"Restaurants are a fabric of American communities across the country where people come together and break bread… They will not be put out of business permanently by this horrible pandemic" Louis Ardine said.
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