#BuyBlack30Challenge

#BuyBlack30Challenge

Now more than ever, it's important to show support for your local community. If you're looking for a meaningful way to do your shopping or just figure out a delicious meal to eat, supporting local and minority-owned businesses is a great way to do it. We know the FiDi area, and we'll help you find plenty of worthy places to support here. Supporting minority-owned businesses in the neighborhood helps not only the businesses themselves, but our unique community as a whole.

Why Support Local, Minority-Owned, and Family-Owned Businesses?

Image via Flickr by wwward0

If you're looking to support your community, one excellent option is buying from local, minority-owned, and family-owned businesses. Instead of putting your money into huge chains such as retail stores and restaurants, you'll help raise up the people who really care about the success of your area. Large companies have historically pushed out small businesses, placing a particularly heavy burden on low-income communities. Rising housing costs driven by expansion of those big chains tend to drive out mom-and-pop shops that give a local area its authenticity.

However, the diversity that goes hand-in-hand with local-owned businesses builds economic strength and uplifts whole communities. Supporting Black-owned or other minority-owned businesses is a step in the right direction of closing the racial wealth gap. It encourages the creation of jobs, too. Flourishing small businesses lead to flourishing communities. Consumer spending drives a huge part of the U.S. economy. By directing your spending power to Black-owned and minority-owned businesses, you're supporting employees, families, and other local business owners.

Next time you're ready to make a purchase or eat out, try to support the minority-owned and family-owned businesses in FiDi. We've been here for decades, and we'll help you get started!

Participate in the #BuyBlack30Challenge

You might have seen #BuyBlack30Challenge trending on social media recently. Dorissa White, an Astoria native, and Kiera Mallett co-founded this challenge to urge Americans to take the month of June to support Black-owned businesses. You can participate in the challenge both locally and nationally, though you'll certainly find plenty of opportunities to show your support by shopping from Black-owned businesses close to home.

The challenge seeks to ease participants into directing their buying dollars to Black-owned businesses in four phases. Black-owned restaurants and grocery stores come first, followed by retail and beauty stores. The third phase moves to entertainment and subscriptions, and the fourth phase goes to booking Black-owned spa services such as nails and hair.

Though there's often a sea of viral challenges on social media, this is one that deserves your attention. The challenge seeks to inspire an evolution of spending habits, so that your everyday purchases and decisions give more resources to Black entrepreneurs. Let this challenge for the month translate into some permanent changes. After all, more resources means more Black entrepreneurs starting their own businesses, and that means job creation and authentic community support.

How to Get Started

Want to participate, but not sure how to start? Here are a few easy steps you can take.

First, follow @buyblack30 on social media. Don't worry if you missed the initial month of the challenge. You can start the 30-day challenge now! This page includes plenty of businesses you can support. Whether you're looking for bookstores, clothing retailers, cosmetics, or anything else, you'll find many places to get you started here. Then share the posts and resources you see with your own followers on social media to boost the message and share with others who want to support this cause and take part in the challenge.

Next, ask your followers and friends about Black-owned businesses they know. Many Black-owned businesses aren't listed, so this step is important for learning more and spreading the information. Take note of what you find out and make a list, organizing it by type of business and location. You'll find curated lists like this already online, too.

You can take pictures or videos of you shopping from these Black-owned businesses to tag with #BuyBlack30Challenge, and they'll share your post. Go beyond this visual support and leave reviews for the businesses you purchase from on Yelp or Google if they have listings. That will generate even more awareness of those businesses. Finally, share the challenge on your social media channels to inspire others to take part.

FiDi's Brooklyn Chop House is the perfect place to start. This popular spot brings together traditional chophouse dishes with dim sum. In other words, there's something for everyone here. Everything from American steakhouse foods to Chinese dumplings to Peking duck and more — Brooklyn Chop House has that eclectic mix. The restaurant features fun brunch and lunch specials depending on the day of the week, and of course, a mouthwatering dinner menu.

Whether you're craving dry-aged ribeye steaks, satays, dumplings, noodles, or anything in between, you'll find a delicious meal at Brooklyn Chop House. Their dumplings go beyond what you might first expect when you hear that word. Sure, you can get pork dumplings here, but you can also order pastrami dumplings or bacon cheeseburger dumplings. And that's only the start! Take a look at their menu and then treat yourself to a meal, and don't forget to post online.

You don't have to leave home to support this business, either. You'll find Brooklyn Chop House in FiDi listed on various delivery platforms. If you've been searching for an excuse to sample this local menu, now is the perfect time. But don't worry if this is the first time you're hearing about this restaurant. We think you'll get inspired to sample the fare today, so take a look through all the options and then start your #BuyBlack30Challenge here. We're definitely adding this spot to our list of go-to restaurants!

We hope we've given you some inspiration as you look for businesses to support. This restaurant is just a few minutes from our doorstep, and we hope it's close enough for you to try soon, too. Do you have a favorite minority-owned or Black-owned business in Fidi we should know about? Let us know if we missed a favorite spot of yours!