The Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce works with about 850 businesses, representing about 36,000 individuals in Kent County.
And that work now includes helping many of those businesses reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Central Delaware Chamber president Judy Diogo says she’s been hearing a lot of frustration coming from business owners.
“Probably the last 4 weeks their frustration was really not being able to open," said Diogo. "We've been communicating with our members on a very regular basis - we’ve been doing surveys. And it became very clear to us about 4 weeks ago that they had programs; they had plans put together, they had thought about how they were going to reopen and how they were going to do that in a safe manner.”
Diogo says most businesses realize that to get customers back, they need to foster confidence and trust that they will keep customers safe.
She says the Chamber distributed “Getting Back to Business” starter kits last week and has handed out 100 to businesses with fewer than 20 employees.
"Inside the kit they have thermometers, masks, gloves, wipes; they got three gallons of hand sanitizer and three gallons of a surface spray and a coupon for an electrostatic spray of their facility for free,”Diogo said.
Diogo says the electric utility Calpine, the City of Dover and Kent County Levy Court provided the funding for the kits.
She says the Chamber will continue providing businesses with support.
"We will continue providing them with information and we will continue being their voice with our legislators to try to make sure that the guidelines for getting back to business actually fit the various businesses - because there is not one thing that every business can do," said Diogo. "Every business is different in how they deal with the public.”
Diogo says the Chamber will also continue to speak with businesses about maintaining safety for employees.
