Tanaine Jenkins is one of the millions of gig workers in the state. Gig worker has become a catchall term for those who work in nontraditional employment like freelancers, performers and those who are self-employed.
Florida’s workforce is estimated to be about 20% gig workers, the highest of any state, and most of them work several different gigs.
“I am actually a YouTuber, a freelance writer and a published author,” Jenkins says. “I also do food delivery for DoorDash. I’ve been a Dasher for about two and a half years.”
While Jenkins enjoys the work, she actually stepped away from doing food deliveries earlier this year to focus on some of her other gigs, and then the COVID-19 pandemic came to the U.S.
“When the lockdown happened, I started back up because I knew food requests would increase and I wanted to make sure everyone was still able to get their orders,” she says.
Jenkins is now back to delivering fulltime. In an eight hour day she makes about 30 deliveries, a significant increase from what she and other Dashers were doing prior to Stay-At-Home orders. While the worry of catching COVID-19 is always there, Jenkins says that she is taking all of the necessary precautions and that DoorDash is helping her and all of their drivers to make sure that is happening.
“[Dashers] all got an email when this started to happen from DoorDash saying the company would be providing all of us with gloves, masks and hand sanitizer for free,” she says.
In these unprecedented times, what it means to be an essential worker has changed for everyone in the country, but the importance of delivery service workers hit home for Jenkins when she made a recent delivery.
“In some cases we’re people’s lifeline,” Jenkins says. “I delivered to a woman not too long ago and I put the food at her door because she had requested a no contact delivery. So I put it at her door and I stood back by my car to make sure that she got the order. When she came to the door to get the order, she saw me and she told me how much she appreciated us because she herself has an autoimmune disorder and cannot go out. She was telling me how thankful she was for services like this and that she didn’t know how she would survive right now without it.”
Jenkins is overwhelmed by the community response to essential workers right now and hopes that people still remember this feeling after things start to get back to normal.
“I want people to understand that we were here when they needed us most, and the same respect that they’re giving us now, I want them to continue to give us that respect whenever this all goes back,” she says. “Sometimes people look at those in fast food or food delivery as like they can’t do anything else. I do a lot of other things, but I do this because I enjoy it and everyone’s always happy to see me.”
Read about other LGBTQ workers in Central Florida and Tampa Bay who are making a difference in Watermark’s full “Essential Heroes” feature.
For the latest updates about COVID-19 and its impact on the LGBTQ communities in Tampa Bay and Central Florida, Watermark’s frequently updated coverage here.
