CLEVELAND, Ohio —  There’s an effort underway in Cleveland to ensure businesses are in line with all coronavirus safety guidelines.

The hope is that a visual commitment will give patrons peace of mind during the pandemic.

What You Need To Know

  • Clean Committed provides a visual seal of approval that shows a promise to uphold a standard set of cleanliness practices

  • Since the initiative began in mid-June, around 300 businesses have made the pledge

  • Everything promoting tourism and hospitality —from hotels to restaurants to retail all over Cuyahoga County —can make the commitment

Kernels by Chrissie has been serving gourmet popcorn with a side of nostalgia in downtown Cleveland for the last seven years.

“A lot of opportunity for small businesses, and we were just attracted to being in the middle of everything that Cleveland has to offer, being at the epicenter of commerce, tourism, the sporting and concert events, was just very appealing to us and we've been here ever since and we've loved it," said owner Chrissie Fahey.

But it seems challenging events continue to pop up lately, from coronavirus closures and slow downs, to protests that turned violent, wrecking and looting some downtown staples.

“Ruined our outer doors, broke quite a few of the windows, made off with just about all of our product...It’s a moment in time and it’s just unfortunate that all of this seemed to sort of happen right in the same period of time," said Fahey.

Destination Cleveland wanted to help keep local favorites afloat by establishing the “Clean Committed” campaign. It provides a visual seal of approval that shows a promise to uphold a standard set of cleanliness practices.

“What that does is it helps us responsibly reopen our economy here in Cleveland, gives businesses that sign up to be Cleaned Committed an opportunity to get cleanliness, cleaning and sanitation supplies at a very affordable price. We also offered what we called clean kits. Clean kits are a little individually-sealed pouch that a business can give to a patron if they come without a mask, for instance, with our new mask mandate," said Emily Lauer, senior director of PR/communications, Destination Cleveland

Since the initiative began in mid-June, around 300 businesses like Kernels by Chrissie have made the pledge. Everything promoting tourism and hospitality — from hotels to restaurants to retail all over Cuyahoga County — can make the commitment.

"Being a part of the Clean Committed movement really was important to us so that we could further demonstrate, again, a solidarity with other businesses in the area, and just reinforce that yes, we have, we were good before, we've even stepped up our efforts because we want our customers not only to be happy with our product, but we want them to be safe and healthy as well," said Fahey.

People who frequent downtown Cleveland say they love knowing a business is Clean Committed.

“Very safe, very safe. I would recommend the business to everybody else, as long as it’s following the guidelines. If they do the guidelines, it’s more business for them and the customer is happy," said John Hall, who says he comes downtown all of the time."

If you’re a business interested in signing up, simply click here.