Dunkin’ mascot Cuppy (THE WESTFIELD NEWS FILE PHOTO)
WESTFIELD – Small businesses helping other businesses survive during the coronavirus pandemic is what prompted the launch of westfieldtogo.com, a website listing all the restaurants in town that offer food to go during the current shutdown.
The website is hosted for free by DFA Group, At-large Councilor Dave Flaherty’s company.
“It was built by volunteers who want to help our local restaurant businesses. I built the website and database, and Kenny Stomski and Westfield student Andrew Warsaw collected the initial data,” Flaherty said, adding, “We’ll try to keep it up to date in the coming weeks.”
Currently, there are 43 restaurants listed, ranging from national franchises with shops in Westfield, such as Dunkin and Ninety Nine, to local one-of-a-kind eateries such as Two Rivers Burrito and Yummi Noodle.
“The site allows us to add restaurant logos, social media links, and brief descriptions of the business. If they have regular hours, we can also add that. They can let us know using the contact form,” Flaherty said.
Flaherty’s business, DFA Group, builds websites and software, and hosts hundreds of websites. He said that if any restaurants need help setting up online ordering, DFA Group can help, and has helped several restaurants already. They can be contacted at413- 746-9661.
Flaherty said he still goes to work every day, but business has slowed way down. “Everybody’s affected,” he said.
“We were looking for some way to help out the small businesses, and help people find the places that were open,” Flaherty said about the westfieldtogo.com, adding, “We have some down time now that the economy is quiet.”
