We're Still Here 💕 Caring for our Staff and Community

To our community: things have been changing fast, both in our industry and beyond. We appreciate your continued support during this period and are writing to update you on how we’re doing at Mei Mei. 

First and foremost, while we take great pride in our role in feeding the community, our primary focus during this time is the health and wellbeing of our staff. We’ve always worked to put our people first; what we do at Mei Mei is only possible with our incredible team. So what have we been doing? 

• Supporting staff in applying to the Massachusetts Workshare Program, allowing them to collect benefits, but remain employed with Mei Mei with a reduced number of hours. They keep their other Mei Mei benefits as well, like health insurance. We have transitioned the majority of the staff to remote administrative work, and are engaging in weeklong “sprints” to improve the business.

Mei Mei staff at our remote AM daily check-in’s

Mei Mei staff at our remote AM daily check-in’s

• Practicing mindfulness with assistance from a longtime regular and friend of the house (thank you Beth!). Our HR team has created a Mei Mei mindfulness site for the team that includes toolkits to provide folks with language and skills to be able to self-regulate and even grow during this stressful time. The HR team has also begun hosting daily remote daily mindfulness check ins.

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• Implementing new safety and sanitation protocol for the two to three staff members who work on site every day. You might see us wearing masks and standing nice and far apart from each other. We’re also limiting staff use of public transit, and increasing the frequency of cleaning and sanitizing all items in the restaurant.

• Expanding our grocery program, allowing staff and other restaurant industry workers affected by the pandemic to purchase quality products from local farms at cost. 

• Feeding hospital workers in partnership with Off Their Plate. In the last week, we’ve provided 250 meals for ER staff at Brigham & Women’s Hospitals. The Li family is deeply rooted in Boston’s medical community and we are proud to do our part.

What’s next? In the long run, Mei Mei will re-open for regular service once it is deemed safe. This much we know. For now, we’re offering take-home orders of dumplings and hot entrees for online pick up orders during limited hours, and we plan to add to our menu this week. Orders can be placed online via our website. Please follow us on our social media channels to receive daily updates about bulk orders and other offerings for pick up. 

As our situation changes from day to day one thing is quite clear: the restaurant industry will not be the same on the other side of this. Before the pandemic, we hosted our Open Book Open House, detailing for the public just how difficult it is to run a small restaurant even in the best of times. And now, in what seems like the worst of times, we’re turning to our guests, our communities, and our government for help. We’re heartened by the flurries of gift card purchases, and proliferation of state and federal aid programs. For many restaurants, though, it won’t be enough. Please continue to advocate for us so that we can be here for you when this is over.

Once again, we want to thank you for supporting Mei Mei throughout the years and enabling us to grow the point that we are able to weather this storm. Mei Mei has made it this far as a small, family-owned restaurant thanks to the incredible support of our community, and we are eagerly anticipating the day that we can re-open our doors for everyone. 

With love from our family to you and yours, 

Irene & the team at Mei Mei