Servers at an Italian restaurant in Houston celebrated when a customer ordering takeout left a $1,000 tip for the staff.

The customer's original order was $19.49, but they left $1,000 in the tip field, along with the message "stay strong" to encourage the staff.

"When the staff found out, you could hear cheers go through the restaurant," the restaurant's owner, Federico Cavatore, told Fox 11 News. "We needed that."

Mr Cavatore, of Cavatore's Italian Restaurant, said he's been struggling to keep his waiting staff employed, as business has slowed down due to the pandemic.

He has hosted car washes and had given away free diners and gift cards as a way to reward people in his community who have acted to help their neighbours.

The restaurant has begun producing pizza-making kits and selling bottles of its sangria for takeout orders. Mr Cavatore has also been donating pizzas to help community organisations that feed children, and offering discounts to other frontline workers.

He said the $1,000 tip allowed his staff to bring home a pay similar to what they might have made on a busy night prior to the pandemic.

"It was like we weren't closed for regular business," he said.

The restaurant posted on Facebook: "Our hearts are full tonight, they're bursting."

While the act of kindness on the part of the tipper is cause for the servers to celebrate, it also highlights the struggles of "essential" workers during the shutdown.

Many essential workers - servers, grocery baggers, retail associates - were already struggling financially prior to the pandemic. Now they have to decide between paying rent and exposing themselves to potential infection.

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While some of the workers will be eligible for the $1,200 check provided by the $2trn CARES Act, critics of how those funds are being distributed have argued that far too little will actually go towards workers.

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said the one-time payments "were not enough" during a Zoom Q + A session earlier this month.

"I'm telling you right now, and as you probably already know, $1,200 in New York City is not enough," she said. "We fought for recurring payments. In fact, what we fought for was $2,000 per person, in addition to more monthly, recurring payments. And again, the Trump administration and Mitch McConnell's Senate and the Republicans refused, absolutely refused to entertain the idea of recurring payments."

Even conservative commentators said the $1,200 wasn't going to be enough to help distressed workers.

Dan McLaughlin of the National Review pointed out that even in the poorest states the money won't last long.

"It can definitely make a difference, but only gets you so far. Median household income in Mississippi is $43,567 a year, and that's the lowest in the US. So, even in Mississippi, that's less than two weeks' household income for an individual, about five weeks' household income for a family of four," he told Mediaite. "For a typical working family in New York City, it could cover one month's rent. So, if the economy is shut down more than a month, just about everyone who actually needs the money will have run through this by then."

Some members of the staff at the Houston restaurant may not even be eligible for the CARES Act stimulus money. High school seniors, college students whose parents claim them on their taxes and immigrant families who file taxes using a tax identification number are all ineligible for the money.

Until a new plan for robust financial relief is proposed and passed through Congress, Mr Cavatore and his staff will have to continue to rely on the good will of their community to get them through the pandemic.