Jen Hidinger-Kendrick

00:00What's up guys today's episode with Jen Heidinger Kendrick is amazing and we're really excited to bring it to you and we're talking about some really important things and kind of going with this interview I wanted to start today's episode off talking about Southern Health Insurance because while the Giving Kitchen is an amazing organization and they can help you nothing helps like having health insurance you really need to have health insurance it's that safety blanket that really really protects you and Dan Mar at Southern Health wants to get you insured so if you're an individual who you need insurance Southern Health is the way to go dental vision health even life insurance if you're a restaurant if you are a small restaurant if you're a large restaurant and you've been pricing out insurance and it's too expensive going into 2023 this is the benefit that you really need to be offering people if you're wondering why your employees aren't staying or you have too much turnover offering insurance is a massive way to keep employees working at the same place and to show them that you absolutely care about their health and well-being so how do you get started you call Dan Mar eight three two eight one six eighty six oh two that is Dan at Southern Health ins.com that's his email address again call him at eight three two eight one six eighty six oh two or email him at Dan at Southern Health ins.com Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio the tastiest hour of talk in Music City now here's your host Brandon Styll Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio powered by Gordon food service my name is

02:06Brandon Styll and I am joined with Caroline Galzin hi Caroline hey Brandon how's it going going great how are you uh I'm wonderful I'm so I'm still riding a high from this interview that we did with Jen Heidinger Kendrick and a feel-good interview Marsha Masula joined us in studio I know I you know Marsha sends us people we love PR companies because they have people they want to get on the show and they often contact us if you are a PR company you want to bring somebody on the show send us an email Brandon at Nashville Restaurant Radio.com there's our little we love to chat yeah well look you know what if you have an interesting person that you want to get on the show I'd love to hear from you so I mean I'm definitely down to hear your interesting idea and this episode today is really a special episode I think totally perfect for the lead-up to Thanksgiving I think yes I mean I think that this is Thanksgiving week yeah and Thanksgiving is this Thursday yeah oh my god is it here already I can't what do you do for Thanksgiving um so we usually my dad comes in town my dad lives in Los Angeles and he comes in town and my uncle who lives in Alabama comes up and we just do a little Thanksgiving at home with me and Tony and my dad and my brother and my uncle and then the day after Thanksgiving is when we decorate st. Nicky's so it's kind of fast and furious it's it's a little quick holiday but we are this year bringing in our entire staff the day after Thanksgiving to decorate for st. Nicky's and we are getting Thanksgiving family meal to do a staff Thanksgiving that day from Martin's we always order Thanksgiving food from well that's awesome yeah I don't think you're your family Thanksgiving with your team the day after Thanksgiving yes to decorate for st. Nicky's which is your holiday pop-up that's our holiday pop-up so it's oh my god a week from Saturday is the first day of St. Nicky's I'm not ready Wow well so actually sorry by the time this

04:08episode drops it will be this Saturday the 26th let's just redo that and say it's gonna be this Saturday it's gonna be this Saturday the 26th I I I don't even know how do we get here so one of the traditions that I do I'm gonna throw you on the spot right now okay you ready oh boy I didn't know this was gonna happen brother so Thanksgiving is this Thursday and one of the traditions that we always do around the Thanksgiving table is we say go around the table and say something you're grateful for so the last couple years I've done an episode called the great grateful Nashville and I've asked chefs restaurant owners Benjamin Goldberg and his wife Tara have come on and Stephen and Jolene smithing and Kelly Sutton came on last year we've had all these people that have said what they're thankful for but I'm curious for you what are you grateful for this year I think this year I'm grateful for my health I just I don't know I feel like coming out of the pandemic and having to be constantly so focused and worried about am I healthy am I going to get sick which of course the pan you know COVID still here but I think that there is a sense of relief this year that I a little more sense of ease this year that I didn't feel this time when I think about this time last year there was still very much that elevated anxiety about not only myself but Tony my family our team you know and and I'm very grateful that the volume has been turned down on that anxiety this year I'm grateful for a lot of things but that's kind of the first thing that comes to mind how about you you know I we talked about it in this episode when we talk about I talked about a therapist that I have and I go in every month they have to ask those like questionnaire and I think that it's just like some basic things you know I think I'm grateful for again health I'm grateful for my kids and grateful for electricity I know those

06:12things are like stupid but no something I take for granted something that yeah things I take you're gonna like I try and meditate I try and do some mindfulness things like I go hiking a lot but when I sit there sometimes I try and practice gratitude every day and it's hard because I think that I have a car and you know these things but like it's hard sometimes to find gratitude but I find myself going I have clothes that are clean and I do have a car and I have a warm house and I have people that care about me and like just some of like the basic things that I think a lot of people don't necessarily have and I don't think we recognize how many people don't have those things that I just want to find myself daily going hey look it's okay like and I think in that it's where I find some of the service that's where I go hey talking to people like Jen hiding your Kendrick who's helping people who's made it her life mission to help people who may not have some of those things absolutely and I think that when we start looking too too lofty in gratitude I think we lose sight of hey look we're pretty special that we get to have some of the basic needs and a lot of people don't have those things and I think this is the season where we want to give back you want to give back as much as you possibly can and that's where that's where I find a great source of gratitude for myself absolutely and I think that our conversation with Jen today is the perfect reminder of that she's got a really really touching story about how she came to found giving kitchen and it's gonna tell us about all of the incredible work that they do how we can get involved how our restaurant community in Nashville can stay involved with giving kitchen and if you're looking for an opportunity to give back this season I think that this is couldn't be a better organization to work with 100% and we're gonna do a recap we're gonna kind of catch up on some of the stuff we talked about right at the end of the episode but let's jump in you

08:15ready I'm ready let's do it let's do this so Jen hiding your Kendrick who's the co-founder of the giving kitchen and Marsha Marsha Masula who is the CEO and owner of roar she'll love that all right let's do it super excited today to welcome and Jen hiding your Kendrick she is a co-founder of the giving kitchen we're also joined today with Marsha Masula who is the CEO of raw like that I don't have the strength today and of course Caroline hi Caroline hi it's a full studio today it is this is only the second time I've recorded with a full studio I like this is fun it's pretty yeah we've been like hanging out so I'm like hey we should hit record because we've been doing this for so long but welcome to the studio last time you were here it was February the 22nd and visit music city was doing a restaurant week and we brought you in to kind of promote all the restaurants that were supporting the giving kitchen and was that a good week for you guys how did that work out I mean I would say it's great especially with the fact that giving kitchen launched in Tennessee and here in Nashville just last September to partner with the community in this way to help share the word and you know raise some vital funds is incredibly important so heck yeah it was awesome awesome things are going well for the giving kitchen in Nashville they are going very well in Nashville actually I'm really really proud of the work giving kitchens been doing since our inception in 2013 and you know primarily here in a new market you know we've learned so much about our evolution of how we are gonna serve food service workers you know there was a directive from my late husband so many years ago to say I want this to be for everybody and we are so excited that we

10:19have been serving Nashvilleians and the food service population of Tennessee since early 2021 it's really been fantastic so much so that nearly $300,000 has gone right back into the food service community throughout the state of Tennessee but 78% of that has actually the dollar those dollars have gone right back into Nashville food service it's been pretty spectacular in the last 12 months that's amazing so John for our listeners who may not have heard the previous episode or maybe have heard of the giving kitchen but aren't sure exactly what it's all about give us kind of the the elevator pitch quickly for for listeners or go longer it's like a long elevator you know giving kitchen is pretty simple to be honest you know we all raise your hand you can't see us but if you go out to eat yeah yes exactly right it's nearly like 80% of us in America are gonna go out to eat later this week right and giving kitchen helps those who serve us every single day we help food service workers in crisis and we do that through two vital core programs one is through our financial assistance program where we help pay the rent and the utilities when a food service worker is out due to an unexpected or unanticipated hardship so something like an illness COVID-19 or otherwise a devastating devastating cancer diagnosis like what happened to my late husband and to many other food service workers in our ten years to an injury broken bone broken back car accident anything like that the death of a family member the loss of a wife a child and a housing disaster like a flood or a fire or oftentimes even mold those those cases can take somebody out of work and potentially out of their home for temporary time and we'll make sure that the the bills are paid in order for them to get back to work and back on their feet and another core program that we have is what we call our stability network program and these are warm referrals to community resources so take an example of you know someone in food service is struggling with mental health and they just need to talk to

12:21somebody they can reach out to giving kitchen and ask for a referral in their network to a mental health counselor and we will directly assist them to either lower no cost services to somebody in their community and oftentimes that will be you know again with with mental health physical wellness opportunities financial literacy housing security food security opportunities all across all across the community that is so amazing I've been working in the restaurant industry for over 25 years now and you know this is just something that I know how invaluable this is to restaurant workers who don't typically have health insurance or supplemental insurance or these types of resources so huge yeah absolutely I mean it's you know oftentimes you know we we so often hear this is a you know paycheck to paycheck industry and you know sometimes it is and in fact we know that a four to six hundred dollar additional bill monthly can actually set someone into that downward spile of potential eviction so you know I think that's where our stability network really is has the opportunity to stabilize someone but offer them the potential to thrive and do what they do best go back to work you know contribute to their community raise their family those are the vital resources that I think are really really important to giving kitchen so oh sorry go ahead I was just gonna say this is so incredible that you're doing this like where did this begin like you talked about your late husband and I know there's a story behind that but will you go into what was the genesis what made you decide to spend like to make this like your life work to help hospitality employees that that that answer could take a couple minutes last time we had 20 minutes let's go I love it you know it's I will say this is never the work of one right I mean it's just that's impossible Ryan Heidinger my late husband we're both from Indianapolis Indiana so up north and we moved to Atlanta in 2004 and he was a really a

14:25well-admired you know respected chef in Atlanta and an anniversary trip that I bought him to go to New York City and try you know food up there was a supposed to be an 8-10 hour trip he was supposed to come back home he'd never been to New York before that moment but it got him back home and he ended up getting sick flu like symptoms led to an ultrasound that led to an MRI about a week later and then we were told you know in a small yellow room by an oncologist that he had six months to live this was I mean literally he just he'd never missed a day of work he never had a cold he was just super healthy this is really unexpected diagnosed with stage 4 gallbladder cancer and it you know for us it was it was a moment of clear darkness you know we really did not know what to expect we were working on you know building a restaurant of our own and then all of a sudden you know this everything just came crashing down and the only thing that got us through that initial few days those initial couple of weeks was our community his bosses our chef mentors our best friends and our family quite literally rallied behind us in such a powerful way that I truly believe that those first few weeks in that first year changed the course of the food service industry that we know today with giving kitchen being a vital resource to stabilizing our community in a few weeks time his boss's chef mentors you know stood up and said let us help they put on a benefit that we call team Heidi Heidi being short for our last name of fighting her and a few weeks you know again from his diagnosis to the time this happened nearly a thousand people showed up 40 of Atlanta's restaurants and bars yacht rock review the musicians showed up and there was a live auction and it just all came together and raised nearly $300,000 for us and that was just it was an incredible moment and you know I'm only I'm only one voice in the kind of

16:27the founding of giving kitchen and it's really amazing I love this question about our origin because especially for those who were really really close to the beginning they all have kind of the nucleus is always about the same but they always have their slightly different perspectives and I I just I love it and and so yeah that's that's really what was that that's how giving kitchen came to be was this this light bulb moment that you know there was nothing really available for the food service community so why not create something that could give back and giving kitchen was born a couple of months later officially amazing I love it so then you mentioned that you guys came to Nashville September a year ago which I remember but for those who aren't familiar with your story and how Nashville came to be a market for you I'd love for you to tell our listeners about that because it is such a cool story yeah so you know when giving kitchen was first born in you know officially 2013 we really started inside Metro Atlanta we served full-service restaurant workers and it was the community that we knew so someone would just all of a sudden email Ryan and Jen or those closest to us say hey something happened to me I was on a trip and I in fact this is a true story I was involved in a hit-and-run and suffered a very traumatic brain injury was in Trauma Institute in Atlanta for quite a while but she raised her hand and we were able to step in and help with the additional funds that were given to us we ended up putting right back into the community immediately that initial few hundred thousand dollars was more than we ever needed so we we really took the majority of that to put it right back in the community when we started to hear those stories and then it grew you know calls would come in we had two full-time individuals working for giving a kitchen at that time and calls kept coming in I know in that first year or two I think we served it's somewhere between 150 and 250 clients in the first couple of years of giving kitchen and it just kept

18:29blossoming and growing we knew that the need was vast we listened to stories that were coming in that's you know in a couple of years after giving kitchen was born that's when stability network was created and it just kept growing from there we knew early on that in order to be able to help more people it really meant that we had to just kind of loosen those those boundaries a little bit more several years into giving kitchen we instead of just serving full-service restaurant workers we opened up to all of food service so we define our food service community as anyone who works in full service fast casual you know fast food cafeterias concessions food trucks bars and taprooms anybody in that food service sector can come in raise their hand and ask for help and we'll make sure that the the vital resources are there and then you know here we are eight nine years later and it took a lot of work a lot of you know in internal infrastructure building you know with with technologies with capacity building in teams for us to really realize that again taking that directive from my late husband in 2013 saying I want this to be for everybody it just meant that we had to pursue those and so with an incredibly dedicated board and a community willing to step up that was that was really the opportunity we COVID COVID hit in early 2020 and giving kitchen you know saw this propulsion that just set us off into where we are today early 2020 we were seeing gosh I think it was like 20 times the volume of clients food service workers coming to giving kitchen and asking asking for help we were seeing more website traffic in the first couple of weeks than we did the entire year of 2019 it led us to build a COVID-19 resource page we ended up hiring and consultant to help us through a new five-year strategic plan knowing that we needed to grow and we implemented that in late 2020 in fact it was right when we also implemented a substance misuse recovery initiative and teamed up with our buddy

20:31Andrew Zimmern to be a national spokesperson for us and and help spread the word around substance misuse and that additional mental health there's a lot of other things that we've we've done since then as well but we really took that five-year strategic plan and said we're gonna help thousands and thousands of food service workers over the next three to five years and in order to do that we got to get out of Georgia and Tennessee and a concentration in Nashville was our number one our number one and so we hired a teammate here in Nashville we were introduced to Marcia and brought her along she's been an amazing advocate for the food service community and many other philanthropic opportunity we know so yeah she's been pretty spectacular and we we set out to do some work so we what we did for the plan in 2021 was to do a kind of this quiet approach learn about the community hire somebody here get to know who we should be talking to and gradually it got to September and we did a loud what we called a loud launch and celebrated for a few days and the mayor and the governor proclaimed you know September 27th as giving kitchen day in the state of Tennessee and here in Nashville and we we just went out and the community we educated we showed up we gave some pretty sweet swag hats and t-shirts it was nice and we we spoke up and since then that's really what's been the most remarkable is to see exactly those I mean I think it's nearly a hundred people just this year alone that have you know raised their hand and have asked for help and have received financial aid and community resources just this year so definitely a few of our team members we're gonna take a quick moment to hear a word from our sponsors we are supported by Robbins insurance an independent insurance agency known for providing customized insurance policies sound guidance and attentive service Robbins is also known for delivering exceptional coverage to Nashville's restaurants and bars whether it's a fryer fire that sets off the sprinkler system and leaves your

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24:38that I'm not good at I run restaurants I'm good at hospitality I'm good at service I'm not good at all of the numbers and stuff and that is what net checks is here for you just heard a full episode with Lauren and Anna and Anna's daughter Ruby on our last episode you need to call him you need to call Lauren Wilson domain right now her number is 615-319-9200 that is her cell phone you get directly to Lauren give her a call do a demo and just learn about what they have to offer you will not regret it going into 2023 these are things we've got to be on top of so give him a call right now hiring we all need to do it and we are in the holidays now guys holiday parties are happening and you need staff where are you gonna find them you're gonna go and you're gonna post and pray you're gonna go on Facebook and make another post is hey I need a bartender of course you do everybody does you've got to be specific you've got to work with professionals who know what they're doing that is where poached hospitality jobs comes into play here's what you do you go to Nashville restaurant radio calm you click the sponsors tab and you scroll down to the poached jobs ad you click that link right there when you do that you're gonna be on a special Nashville restaurant radio landing page you're gonna post your job whatever job you need a bartender you need a server you need a server assistant you need a manager you need a host whatever it might be you go ahead and make that post and it's gonna ask you for a promo code here's where you got to pay attention you got to you listen let's write this down this is your promo code Nashville restaurant radio you do that and your post is going to be free simply for you listening to the fourth ad in this particular ad set you get to hire people for free what are we doing here people this is what I'm talking about this is this is the joy of podcasting right I'm

26:39losing my mind here listen up you need to check this out this is real stuff poached jobs they are the pros go right now to Nashville restaurant radio.com click that sponsors tab and click on poached it's nearly a hundred people just this year alone that have you know raised their hand and have asked for help and have received financial aid and community resources just this year definitely a few of our team members I got to hop in here with my Bonnie Rayett voice right now I haven't been drinking scotch and smoking cigars this morning but I got to say and Caroline I know you know this because I'm like making direct eye contact with you you all showed up right on time in Nashville right on time you know obviously that was a really devastating year for everyone but especially for us here in Nashville with the quadruple punch of you know tornadoes and then we punctuated it with a nice Christmas Day bombing I'm usually bit more optimistic but it was a rough year and so I know Jen and I and Caroline and Brandon we all know that again I keep saying this term but it's the absolute truth is the city is built on the backs of food service workers and hospitality workers and the fact and we were from afar Caroline and I were a part of action for hospitality on the ground and we were looking at you all from afar like giving kitchen kept coming up in conversation right Caroline yeah oh absolutely I think that that was kind of the number one thing on our resources page for action for hospitality was when you click I need help it took you right to giving kitchens website that's that's amazing I mean yeah we when we learned of action for hospitality in the work that you guys were able to do in such a short amount of time to raise such a significant amount of money to put right back in your community I mean it it literally made me think back to 2012 and 2013 when that they had exact same thing happen for one individual I mean just what that means for a community was so powerful but I think I think with you all having like being in the trenches and

28:41and just doing the work I just hope you know that there are so many people like we were like giving kitchen kept coming up and we kept saying like you know what's their model we were like stalking your website and like you were like the pillar of what to do because there's not very many resources oh absolutely I mean I remember some of those early days it was kind of like throwing everything at the wall and thinking like we have such a volume of hospitality workers who were saying hey we want to help you but we don't exactly have all those we had a little thing here and a little thing here and a little thing there and then once you guys came around we actually said okay here's something that's sustainable that we can actually send people to that is actually here to help people I mean absolutely right at that time gosh we had been building our capacity internally was 13 people pre-pandemic and then we have built our team now to around 25 people including someone here in Nashville and someone in Charlotte North Carolina that that the infrastructure alone was something that we knew was vital for us to be able to take on the gift that we received through action for hospitality in those initial days and it's actually it's pretty fascinating when when that we when we were doing this kind of quiet approach pre-september of 2021 I think I was trying to look at some notes here it we we served maybe five individuals I mean it was just a really quiet approach for people learning about giving kitchen and coming to us and then as soon as that hit we were able to immediately invest all of the dollars that action for hospitality raised immediately back into the community a little bit of marketing and like a hundred and fifty thousand dollars later in just a few months after we came here I mean it just all went straight back in because the need was so big by the time you guys have done your loud launch I remember we had someone there at War Memorial Plaza doing their proclamation who actually had been you know a client for a few weeks it was due to wait it was due to a dog bite right okay I love dogs and I'm sorry that I threw you guys under the bus but yeah

30:43yes it was a local bartender here funny enough it was back or before we did our loud loud launch our marketing director and myself came here to Nashville and we went to a local bar it's pretty awesome one of my faves and we randomly were talking about giving kitchen to the bartenders and left and no big deal but hey just in case we'll be here later in the year and lean on us and no joke a couple of months later this accident happened he reached out and then he joined us during during that opportunity and has been a wonderful advocate for giving kitchen since then he's done many speaking opportunities on our behalf to to show up for us so that's amazing yeah this whole thing is amazing I think it's I think this is like one of the most important episodes that we can do we talked to so many chefs and restaurant tours and people and we like to have fun but I sat down with an employee yesterday and she sat down with me and I'm I'm okay saying this but she said hey look I was diagnosed with breast cancer yesterday I sat down with an employee and she said I don't know what I'm gonna do I got to go to the doctor on Wednesday but I might have to miss some work I'm really scared I don't know what to do and you know we have insurance we have these things but it's like one of those those I immediately I didn't think immediately hey I'll bet the giving kitchen could be a really good advocate for you right now I it wasn't the first place my brain and then when I was doing just thinking about this last night and then I was relistening to our episode on February 22nd and I went oh my gosh this would be a great reason like I'm gonna recommend her for this because this is this exactly what you're here for exactly I mean that's exactly what and I'd love to actually take the opportunity to talk about what an intake process looks like those who might be listening I mean this is literally exactly what where we can step in and it's it's great because the person in crisis or a friend or family member could be the one to fill out a very simple ask for help form it's what we call our intake form through giving kitchen which you can find at giving kitchen org and we also have an app but yeah it's a really simple intake form

32:48you give us a little bit of your information your statement of need what's happening and if you have some documentation provide that if you don't have it yet don't worry a case manager will work with you over the next few days to obtain what's necessary but it's a very simple process our case to close time pre-pandemic meaning time a client giving kitchen food service worker will come to give me kitchen and ask for help and then receive financial aid used to be around 45 days in the grand scheme of life when you look at that wasn't horrible but today we've been able to get that to between 14 and 15 days so we were able to show up in the time that someone absolutely needs the help in order to help prevent evictions and homelessness and being able to keep food in the refrigerator those are real statistics so a client coming to give me kitchen can either go online go on our app fill in this intake form it'll pipeline directly to a case manager our caseworkers are our frontline workers at giving kitchen talking to clients every single day all day long all of our case managers can help anyone through financial aid or stability network resources in their community we have an interpretation service so if there's someone who doesn't speak one of the core languages that we do internally then we have an interpretation service that can be on within five to ten seconds and we can speak in over 180 languages to clients so there should be no barriers right and that's a partnership with RTT mobile in fact the gentleman who has RTT is here in Nashville so yay but there should be no barriers to entry and I think that that that example that you just gave is so common it happens all throughout our home I mean in Atlanta and you know that's the most saturated market we have it happened it you know nine and a half years ago giving kitchen and I'll still talk to people out in the community who have absolutely no idea and I think it's our responsibility when you think big picture here and what giving kitchen really hopes to be doing it is our responsibility to just to continue to share that word if you're out to eat hey

34:48do you know about giving kitchen they help they help you in times of need unanticipated crisis the really simple stuff because you say it once and then all of a sudden a couple weeks later you'll hear it or see it again and a couple months later something else and then they'll remember it and to be honest it's the moms and the aunts and the sisters and the brothers and the friends and the colleagues who are gonna step up faster than that food service worker who's in crisis so so those are the people that really they can go to giving kitchen org and they can fill out the form and kind of recommend somebody or ask for help for somebody and you know one of the conversations that we have in the studio a lot is people who are in recovery and the the idea of why is it so prevalent in this industry mental health issues alcoholism drug abuse drug misuse I don't know how you were phrasing it earlier but I think that there's just a level of trauma that happens I mean when you think about our business when you think about coming into work and it's slow and you're prepping and you're cutting lemons or rolling silverware and then all of a sudden lunch hits and it's this peak it's frenetic it's just just just mass pandemonium it's kind of this chaos and people are rude and people are angry and people it just it there's trauma that kind of happens so the shift and then it just dies again and there's no way to like reconcile that and then you do it again at nighttime and then it's 11 o'clock at night and you're wound up and it's like what do we do well we go we go drink or we and it's this it's just rampant in this industry so the ability to have somebody out there who's willing to help listen can we talk a little bit about what you guys are able to offer people as far as mental health services drug and alcohol recovery how do you guys help people that are in that situation absolutely we say yes is the bottom line and you're right this is an industry that often it's it's the second largest industry compared to the US government 15 plus million food service

36:50workers in the United States in Nashville alone there's roughly 78,000 food service workers which by the way Nashville is such an amazing food town and I love it so much thanks and you're right this is an industry that often suffers from suicide ideation and substance misuse often asked to check their feelings at the door and in fact that's a subject specifically that we we tackle from an educational standpoint in a stigma kind of related standpoint at Giving Kitchen and while those are areas that are real for this industry this is also an industry that are part of our everyday lives again we're all going to go out to eat later we probably have a favorite bartender or chef we definitely have our favorite restaurant I mean this these are the people who are allowing us to commune around a table to celebrate and to mourn and to just enjoy so why not help those who are serving us what Giving Kitchen was able to do at late 2020 by including substance misuse as a qualifying crisis allowed us to build a network of subject matter experts and build a campaign that we call mind matters we host it throughout the month of May which is mental health awareness month nationally and we've just invited in those who know how to speak on subject matters like HR suicide ideation again substance misuse and have brought in speakers and we just are our number one reason for doing so is to lessen the stigma of asking for help it is absolutely okay to not be okay first and foremost yeah and and just to talk about it here's what it feels like to raise your hand and go and talk to mental health counselor if you've never done it and you feel you're a little fearful here's probably what you'll experience in your first you know 20 minute session or first 45 hour you know session if you don't if you don't feel like there's a vibe or a click we can give you guide rails on like how to pick that up and maybe search for

38:53somebody else there's there's a vast amount so so if I'm out there and I think that hey look I'm having these thoughts or I don't feel okay being I'm not okay with myself my self-talk is really bad and I just I'm not in a good place and I don't know where to begin if I go to giving kitchen org I just type in have to type in my name is there anything that's anonymous can I kind of say hey look can I just talk like how do how do they initiate that conversation so we know that in order to serve more people it means we're gonna have to get we're extremely proficient with what we do so there's technically two opportunities on our website you can go directly to our stability network resource page and it's an automated web page you can type in literally anything housing dot dot dot alcohol whatever suicide blank we will give you top level resources to where you're located from an automated perspective if you feel like you want to dive in a little further and receive think of giving kitchen stability network almost like United ways you know two-on-one except for the fact that we have the availability for one-on-one case management so you can talk to somebody and say this I need I need these options and we can do kind of a deeper dive with you so I mean again it's a it's a pretty simple straightforward opportunity that that we present to do so I will say this to just I was telling Jen this yesterday just last week I got a text from somebody that we all know in this room that said hey one of my guys is going through it and you know there's some issues with mental health and substance and you know can giving kitchen help and I was like yep sent the link to the website it's clearly there I'm like we have you know we have this you can fill out the form if you'd like to work with a case manager or you can but it's happening every day and I'm so glad you brought that up to you I think especially with everything Nashville's been going through there's still some

40:55shame around that you know I think for you know so many different people but I love the fact that if you go to the website if you're just kind of at first like acknowledging that you have an issue or you need help you can just go like she said very easily click whatever you need and if you're good there if you're not ready to take the next step there you go you at least know it's there and then I saw the form I actually sent it over to our friend and she was like that's it like yeah that's it it usually takes you know less than two hours from start to finish to fill out the form so I mean it's not like a no commitment time it's a couple of hours but to know that there's gonna be somebody immediately there to help represent for you and advocate for you on the other than a phone and that this is it this is charity this is there is no you know pay-to-play this is a you don't you don't pay it back I mean this is just for you to make sure that again water is running lights are on put food in the refrigerator to make sure that you can live often times for us you know an average financial assistance package is around $1,800 and typically that will help sustain someone for three or four months out of time to pay for their you know yeah their living expenses and Marcia just brought up something we I mean we've been talking about the last few minutes but it just it made me remember that in 2019 we were recognized by the James Beard Foundation as humanitarian of the year which was really spectacular but it gave us a pretty I have a clap I've been wanting to use that for a long time I was unaware of this moment I got a lot of those by the way all right well play around with that later and it was it was amazing because because really what happened is you know you sometimes you get to these accolade type opportunities and you're like oh yay pat on the back clapping hands this is great we've done

42:56something and the real work really begins and in those moments it truly and especially forgiving kitchen we knew that there was an opportunity to share a bigger message and and we took that on and we told on a national platform that we have teamed up and this was back in 2019 with a QPR Institute Institute it's the question persuade refer Institute and it's essentially the the 9-1-1 or the suit CPR for the suicide prevention world and it's an online training 45 minutes you can take it online and what it does is prepares someone to feel confident in hearing the cues of someone else if they are struggling from suicide ideation or thinking about killing themselves it allows somebody to maybe just pick up on that a little bit and immediately say are you thinking about hurting yourself are you thinking about killing yourself very simple and if the answer is yes which it has been many many many times then they can refer to that person to a resource and that that has been really spectacular forgiving kitchen as a resource that is for everyone to date I gosh we've seen hundreds and hundreds of food service workers reach out to giving kitchen to be referred to that program there's a there's a special link for food service workers and we offer it free by the way to any food service worker in the United States it's typically maybe less than $100 or so to take it but we will offer it free to any food service worker who just goes to give me kitchen org you know type in QPR and we'll send you a code and you can take it for free so I have a question not to switch topics too much but let's say that I'm a restaurant employee and I test positive for COVID and I know that I'm gonna miss at least a week of work and I'm gonna need some help but I also don't have the resources to go to an urgent care and get a doctor's note and this type of paperwork you know are there any barriers for employees to you

45:00know what kind of things do people need to provide to get help I love giving kitchen I love that question so there I mean there's a couple of ways that we do have to mandate so to speak the you know the what we what we receive in we do ask for a doctor's note there has to be some sort of qualifying documentation that proves an accident happened an illness occurred a death of someone occurred you know in regards to helping in those crisis moments outside of someone passing we will we will oftentimes step up and pay all funeral expenses and wow yes and that's upwards of you know multi thousands of dollars to make sure that that somebody is not you know having to dip in or not even be able to bury their and we saw that a lot in 2020. The majority of the deaths that we were seeing come to us you know we're pushing off funerals and burials and those types of mourning opportunities until 2021 it was horrible it was horrible to see I will say during 2020 and 2021 we were at gosh at least as COVID is concerned somewhere around that 70 to like 75 percent of the cases that we were receiving were illness related and COVID-19 specific I mean it was outrageous but it was for everybody right yeah so yes I you know at the very least we do ask for qualifying documentation you know a note from the fire department to the doctor in order and a pay stub we do we acknowledge you know where you work do you work in food service it's a quick you know intake thing for us but it's a pretty simple few pieces of documentation that we require. So kind of to follow up on that I feel like this is something I should know but I don't do you guys work with Faith Family Medical here in town and if not oh well we'll have to make that connection so yeah Faith Family Medical is a they're a part of st. Thomas but it is a health care system for the uninsured we've before you guys came to Nashville we've sent many employees to Faith Family Medical they are a

47:00wonderful organization one of our partners at Nicky's is hugely was he has since passed sadly but was hugely involved with Faith Family Medical which is how we came to know about them and they do everything from you know annual wellness check all the way to cancer screening and you know x-rays all sorts of things so that's incredible that you mentioned that as a part of our stability network we will offer what we call a pop-up doc a couple few times a year and it's something that we are looking to extend here into Nashville we just need the right partner so this is actually really amazing right but I mean all we're doing again we're being we're being the resource of how to perform what we call a pop-up doc so it's free medical care for food service workers and we try to do it a few times a year because there are people who are uninsured and don't go to the doctor and they need a screening and they just need maybe a general shot or they need a prescription and so we've gosh we've been doing that for since 2017 or so and I would yeah I would love to learn a little bit more about that. Well do. Caroline this is that's all you right there I tell you you just did it right now I'm actually feeling bad I'm like how have I not made this introduction before sorry you know I'm gonna I'm you know I'm gonna make you bring this up cuz I I'm a stats person I love data like call me in her right data yes there's the claps um we met yesterday with our good friends at Connexion Americas because some of the I mean obviously a lot of black and brown people are in the kitchen and are up service but Jen can you share a little bit more about who you're serving because that those numbers are pretty yeah remarkable yeah you know and again I mean giving kitchen grew out of you know this the small little bubble and as is really meant to be for the food service population that is the truest of food service population the majority of the clients that we serve it's around 37% are black and brown 60% women oftentimes with at least two children at home so when you look at the total number of food service workers giving kitchen has

49:03helped since our inception which is nearly 11,000 we're looking at you know over 3,000 children in the households of food service workers and again oftentimes with other family members aunts uncles other caregivers are in the home and it's often we we do an intake form pre and post financial assistance check-in on our on the food service workers it's usually about a 45 day post check-in to see how they're feeling how they're doing what the mental health scores kind of look like and we have heard around 72% of the financial assistance clients that we serve say that we help prevent an eviction 68% will say that we help them from skipping a meal in order to pay bills and it's just it's kind of staggering from there and that's with just only you know 7.2 million dollars in aid so far since our inception and in 32 states I will mind you but again the focus right now is in is in here in the southeast so that actually leads me to something else I wanted to ask is this only for restaurant workers in Nashville let's say I live in Johnson City or Memphis and you don't have you know and headquarters in that city so our headquarters is actually in Atlanta Georgia and we have what we call kind of primary markets of course Atlanta here Nashville is a primary market because we have a teammate who works here and helps serve this community plus Marcia and then we also have someone we've just hired in Charlotte North Carolina and what that means is that right now giving kitchen is building what we call our you know the southeastern model our hope is to fully become a national branded agency helping food service workers what we learned coming into Tennessee with this focus in Nashville last year and going into 2022 was that the only thing disrupting the amount of work we really could be doing was a geographical kind of boundary this pretend black line you know that we would draw on a map and so

51:03immediately we again learning so much from coming here last year was that we said we've got a we've got a lesson that geographical boundary and not say no to any food service worker and what that has meant in 2022 is that we have now helped food service workers in 32 states more states than that if you include our stability network resources but again our focus right now is making sure that the South we are micro phoning that message marketing fundraising again hiring staff here in the southeast today amazing one more quick word from our sponsors and I'm going to tell you a testimonial today we had our friends over at Robbins come out proactively to to do a kind of an audit of all of our systems and one of the things they found was they said hey on your sprinkler system you don't have a tag that says when it was done or if it's done we don't know if it's up to date so we called our previous fire company the fire and safety company that we used they said yeah we did it we charged you to do it we we don't know we don't have any notes we don't know what we did I said well that's not helpful so now we're partnering with Corson fire and security and let me tell you the best thing so far that I love about Corson is their level of communication I'm getting phone calls I'm getting emails they're letting me know exactly what they're doing they're showing me what they're doing and I feel confident I feel secure that I know what's happening with my sprinkler system and my hood system and my fire monitoring system I mean these are all things that you just don't think about on a regular basis that need to get done and you know what I feel better going home at night knowing that every one of those systems works something were to happen in the restaurant I know those systems are gonna work now and I have the appropriate tags to prove that they've been done so this is really really exciting so my testimony is

53:05Corson is doing all of the things I knew that they would and not just because it's me they do that for everybody Kevin Rose is your guy he's the restaurant specialist you should give him a call at 615-974-2932 if you too would like that level of confidence in your fire suppression company give him a call right now I think one of the most overlooked things that you can do on a P&L which is your profit and loss statement is dish machine and chemicals it's just one of those things you don't focus on until it's too late let Jason Ellis from SuperSource come in and do an audit of what you're currently doing and why you're doing it his number is 771-337-1143 we believe here at Nash restaurant radio that every single thing that you do should be done intentionally in a restaurant and allowing some company to come in and just fix your dish machine without you knowing what's really happening is exactly what we're talking about the thing Jason does the best is he can help educate you on exactly what's going on with all of your dish machines and chemicals he can do staff trainings to understand why you're using what you're using again to be intentional they don't make you sign any type of contract they are week-to-week and can get you a brand new dish machine with three free months of dish machine rental you need to check them out go to Nashville restaurant radio comm click the sponsors tab and then you will see SuperSource click that tab for a special or give Jason Ellis a call at 770-337-1143 we absolutely love partnering with Sharpies bakery Aaron Mosso has been selling bread fresh baked bread to locally-owned and operated restaurants six days a week for 36 years yes her father started the company 36 years ago and Aaron took it over five years ago and it is doing amazing things I have so many guests that come in the studio that are like I love Sharpies they save me so much time and the bread is so good so we we've got round buns specialty round

55:10buns dinner rolls hoagies baguettes they do cheesecake they do flourless chocolate torts they do specially loaf breads and regular loaf breads and bullies bullies b-o-u-l-e-s sourdough long Tuscan wheat multigrain they got everything you should go check them out at sharpies.com that is sharpie as ch a-r-p-i-e-r-s.com or you should give them a call at 615-356-0872 supporting local is so damn important and Aaron Mosso and all of our friends over at Sharpies bakery do that daily give her a call right now she just mentioned a word that I want to talk about fundraising you know we talked about missing meals and food insecurity electric bills I have a therapist that I go to because I I need mental health work like anybody else in the world I think it's vital but every month I have to take a questionnaire and then that questionnaire says how many times in the last month have you felt insecure about your food how many times have you felt unsafe at home how many and it's it's November and it's Thanksgiving time and I feel a massive amount of gratitude every time I do that because I get to click no I haven't my electricity hasn't been cut off and I have I get to eat food pretty regularly but there's a lot of people out there who don't and if I'm somebody who's blessed and doesn't necessarily have a lot of those can I help donate how what is your major way to raise funds because I want to figure out a way like this doesn't happen for free like you have to raise funds and I want to touch on that because there's a lot of restaurateurs listening that are going hey you know I'm pretty blessed too and I've got employees that potentially could use this but can individual restaurants donate can I donate like and it's not that the fun thing I talked about but I think it's equally as important for people who are in a situation where they can to learn how to do it I totally agree and thanks for

57:14bringing it up I think we know that there's going to be a natural synergy in if we can help food service workers the money's gonna come that is true but it doesn't happen alone and in a silo it we need our community so in here in Atlanta and in Nashville and soon to be in Charlotte next year what we do is we focus on a couple of key signature events that are is was one opportunity for people around the community to step up enjoy a tasting event or a golf tournament and and help raise funds for gaming kitchen of course there's third party fundraisers as well so the people in this room the many hundreds of restaurateurs that giving kitchen now knows have stepped up in really fantastic ways and have you know donated month-long cocktails or portions of proceeds during a weekend or whatever that might be and those dollars are going back to giving kitchen participating in dining with gratitude which is a signature campaign that we host during the month of October several Nashville restaurants have participated in that and that's that's great because the onus is not necessarily on the restaurant outside of maybe helping market it putting it on social saying hey we're raising funds for food service workers diners participate you're coming to eat here consider putting dollars right back into the food service community and then again with other partnerships I know Dine Nashville you know they been a giving kitchen was a beneficiary last year and is again this year next year whatever those years are it's all coming together but there's just really fantastic opportunities like that and of course giving kitchen thrives off individual giving I mean we're coming up to the end of the year and of course I would love to say yes you're thinking of Thanksgiving and Christmas and you go out to eat consider the people who are putting the food on the table donate to giving kitchen to make sure that they have a resource to go to now after Christmas and into next year and then of course we count heavily on corporations and you know family

59:14foundations and trusts and grants throughout the community so for anybody who's out there listening and there are the means available and you want to help propel this mission forward you know I'm available we have teammates here available to speak but those are those are the primary mechanisms so when you guys first came in this morning you mentioned that you've been in Nashville for a few days you've had lots of exciting meetings with various people anything that you can share with us about what's happening right now and the future to come for giving kitchen in Nashville oh I love it I'm so excited about Nashville I'm so excited about Tennessee I'm so excited about our growth I got here and chef Philip over at Waltham Daughters they were celebrating their 10th anniversary so yay happy anniversary they are big advocates for giving kitchen and they have been for years and this was just a very special opportunity to share 10th anniversary but also giving kitchen was a beneficiary of a portion of those ticket sales so thank you to that community gosh yesterday we had a very busy day I run her ragged I was like oh you ready let's go as Marcia mentioned we met with our friends at Conexión Americas and they have been wonderful for the Hispanic and Latino community again our valuable Stability Network partner for us gosh we met with oh Chamberlain we did our dear friend Chris Chamberlain always spreading the gospel for the food community and beverage community and then how can you forget this we woke up and went to National Soccer Club yes awesome stadium we did a great tour yeah and it was really cool because they recently provided a grant to giving kitchen there you go go soccer and it was just a really great meeting because they are very invested in their concession workers and the people that make the stadium go and just talking about future partnerships and opportunities there too so yeah I had the chance to see Sarah Gavigan of Otako and then we were with the mayor

01:01:17yesterday and brainstorming with the mayor it was pretty cool they have stepped up in a great way to just again be powerful storytellers for for their community in our community so that was wonderful and then it gosh it kept going on from there then we had a happy hour where I was able to share some gratitude to many of the participants who joined in with dining with gratitude so that shout out to Bastion for hosting us we were a motley crew and then a dinner after that at Adele's so fantastic you've enjoyed your stay in Nashville you've had a good time Marcia says she wants me here every four to six weeks and I might I mean I feel like yes here fresh Caroline I'm gonna be the bane of your existence I'm just trying to think about like what other things we can put on the soundboard I know oh sound effects okay if you want to tell a scary story I could we could tell a scary story I do have to say this because I know you won't mention it because you were always just thinking about others but another reason for the applause button so obviously as you guys should lots of accolades but recently like this month actually Fast Company magazine the publication recognized giving kitchen as one of the best brands it was a 2022 brands that matter which is extremely big deal yes what's great yeah what's great about that is that it does it just it recognized the impact in a community and the establishment of a something foundational and something that is just a fabric it's a it's a name brand I mean you know for giving kitchen when you think about this I I know that giving kitchen will be a household name soon and I just think that yeah those

01:03:22types of accolades are just prepping us for that real work right after this podcast right exactly just thank you household name this is gonna be the springboard I can feel it no I just I think it's so important if you're out there right now and you own a restaurant you're a manager restaurant you work in a restaurant you know somebody who works in a restaurant you got to keep this front of mind I mean you know you we're so proud I think in moments like I can handle this I can handle this I can handle this me and my own active addiction when I was you know drinking I can handle everything and then finally when I went and got help I was like holy shit I needed this help so bad and I just was so proud I couldn't ask for it and now I can't stand on top of a rooftop and shout it enough that like hey there's somebody out here who wants to help you who's willing to help you if you work in a restaurant there is a solution you don't have to do this alone that you can go to the giving kitchen and you can you can reach out if you have had an accident or you don't know what you're gonna do you don't know where you get your next meal you've got you know in this particular my particular situation somebody who's being diagnosed with you know a cancer and they don't know what they're gonna do like this you've got to keep this front of mind if you're a manager a restaurant owner somebody who knows somebody it's just it's just getting the word out there it's just putting the keeping this front of mind when something that happens that you need to go to this website and you can get help you're not alone thank you for saying that I would love to leave you guys there's a few I was prepared with a few kind of examples of real clients that kitchen has helped here in Nashville and I just think it's really important I'm not I'm gonna keep confidentiality of course but I'm gonna give just tidbits because I think it's important for people to remember and myself included I get really passionate I get really worked up sometimes emotional because it is it's a personal story that I choose to tell and I get to tell but we are all

01:05:24human here we are all just people eating drinking raising a family going out enjoying our friends like this is really simple work and at the you know we talk a lot about data and stats and I think it's just really important to remember we are talking about humans and human interaction in Nashville specifically there was a client that was approved for four months of assistance her lung and brain cancer diagnosis there was a food service worker that faced mold forced them out of their home he and his wife they had three children and they had to evacuate their home and then a second time because of a knee surgery and this one makes me choke up there was someone who was really close to the organization about a year ago who had a wife who unexpectedly passed away at a hospital he became a single dad and was approved for over five thousand dollars of rent assistance and utility assistance I know that next year giving kitchen based off the data that we have going back to data giving kitchen will see anywhere from 270 to 370 asks for help from Nashville alone knowing that one to two percent of the food service population are in crisis at any given moment does mean that we are available to put dollars back in the community but we do need the community's help to do so so knowing that there will be hundreds of people right here in Nashville asking for help means that I want to make sure that we can say yes to them I love it I thank you for coming in today I mean I know you've had just a whirlwind time here in Nashville but I guess I don't think there's a more important episode that we do I mean when I first started this podcast going into the pandemic there was a tornado right there in

01:07:29March 13th I think was my first episode I mean so the day everything closed we're still reeling with all this stuff and I remember talking to Claire Crowell and she'd kind of put all this this huge email that there's this list of what resources were available to everybody and then Brian Lee Weaver gets on the phone with a Henry to read what's her name Julia Sullivan she gets an action Tennessee action for hospitality and then giving kitchen like there's the need is so strong in this community and I'm just so excited that you're here thank you so thank you for joining us today and anything else you got Caroline I just want to say you know you guys have helped at least three of my employees that I know of for sure and I just want to let everybody listening know truly how easy it is to get help from giving kitchen I think a lot of people a lot of times restaurant workers are hesitant to ask for help because they think oh I've got to do this and do that and do all these things but it truly is so easy and the help is there so if you need it please go please go get it thank you for being an advocate Marcia you have any we typically so Gordon food service sponsors that sponsors the the final thought uh-huh we ask all of our guests to finish with like a final thought like to take us out I always said Jerry's you know Jerry Springer like Jerry's final thoughts now but nobody knew what nobody knows what that means that's because we're all unfortunately I was like I always feel like you get to kind of take us out like Jerry's final thought for like what does that mean? Who's Jerry?

01:09:02Well Caroline needs to throw a chair at me first and then I will end with you know something like that you know Jen and I have had this conversation repeatedly Caroline you and I were definitely having the conversation during action for hospitality food service workers serve us day in day out they take care of us they bring smiles to our faces they console us sometimes you know and what we've noticed is they're always the last to ask for help like you said Brandon and and you know I think there's pride there but I think it's always just because they're looking out for others oh you know Jen needs more help Brandon needs more help you know save the resources and as someone who does a lot of philanthropic efforts in Nashville you all are always the first ones to step up whether it's to you know support dogs or women or anything that we're raising money for or hope for you are always the first calls are always the first ones to step up you give in such meaningful kind ways and a lot of times you all are the ones that you know are the busiest or I don't have as much to give as a major corporation but you're always the first and so here is finally over the last ten years a safe place for you to find the help that you need so I always just tell people when in doubt if you're in food service or you know someone in food service just go to Giving Kitchen because I will promise you they will find a way to help they don't they will not say no so final thought throwing a chair at Caroline that's how we roll beautiful Jen well I was gonna actually end with one of my favorite quotes here I go it is the is a quote from our founder Ryan Heidinger my late husband and he said in 2012 summer 2012 anything long-lasting or worthwhile takes time and complete surrender in order to do really great work just means we have to build a community it's the sum of all parts we have to do it together I believe in food service and I am just here to advocate day in and day out on behalf of our

01:11:05community thank you thank you for doing that you're you're a godsend to this community and just thank you for all of your efforts team effort go team do you want to use the applause again I don't know what the rest of them are there we'll test them out after we finish here alright guys hey have a safe trip back to Atlanta thanks for coming by today all right thanks Marcia all right wow thank you so much Jen Heidinger Kendrick so inspiring I know and Marcia for coming by I I love the girl power that was happening in this room by the way there was a lot of estrogen happening in here I love the fact that I got to kind of just sit back and you guys just ran with it like that is so much fun for me yeah it was it was just great energy with those two and you know I am so lucky that I already knew a lot about the giving kitchen going into it but I feel like I learned so much more even that I didn't know and you know as I mentioned when we were chatting giving kitchen has helped several of my employees and I just can't encourage you know other restaurant owners and managers enough to you know let your team know about giving kitchen anytime something comes up right away I want to talk a little about action Tennessee action for hospitality because we referenced Tennessee action for hospitality and I think there's a lot of people out there like what is that I don't know what that is you were the president of Tennessee action for hospitality briefly yeah so you know action for hospitality kind of came out of a text message that I believe Brian Weaver from Butcher and B and Chris Chamberlain writer Nashville writer friend of the pod you know I think that the two of them started texting and then started a big text thread with lots of different chefs and you know food people in Nashville and you know I think kind of tried to do different advocacy work for on behalf of restaurant workers

01:13:07during the pandemic you know I would say some things were really successful like all the fundraising that was done and the donations that we were able to you know kind of funnel into giving kitchen to help their launch in Nashville you know some other things were not so successful I personally was involved in trying to lobby for a place in the vaccine line for food service workers that was really unsuccessful but you're out there doing that I mean that's I think that's noble as anything that somebody was standing up for the people in this industry to get out there and advocate for them I felt really strongly about it you know just kind of quickly I don't know if you know this because most people that I talked to don't know this which is when the vaccine rollout started in the winter of 2021 there was a recommendation from the CDC from the federal government and they said these are the phases that we recommend for you to roll out your vaccine phase one is obviously you know healthcare workers elderly elderly people phase two is essential workers policemen firefighters you know the next bracket down of 65 and up as opposed to 85 and up whatever and then included in the second part of the second phase was essential workers which would be considered grocery workers food service workers bus drivers trans orders that sort of thing right so every single state in America with two exceptions adopted the CDC's guidelines for vaccine rollout and said this is the phases that we're going to follow and a wild guess what is one of the two states the other one was Indiana Tennessee decided to come up with their own system now thankfully it wound up not really being as much of an issue because vaccines came available much faster than anticipated but when the original rollout came about food service workers

01:15:11in Tennessee were not scheduled to get vaccines until the spring of this year that is that is real I had some conversations with some people in our state government and kind of some very influential people in the food world that you know I'm not gonna put them on blast right now on the pod as much as I would like to that were actively against food service workers having a place in the vaccine line was extremely disappointing so sorry I just got like real heavy real fast well I mean I think that that's you know if there's gonna be listening and they don't know you I think that's a major part like that's you and your core like that's your soul like you know that's you are an advocate for so many people and you're out there busting your ass not only for you and your restaurant like for this cause well industry that's nice of you to say so I will say I'm much less involved in that type of work now but at that moment that the vaccines in particular is something that I felt very very passionately about oh yeah we talked about it many times during that time and Tennessee action for hospitality the idea was hey look let's not let this happen again the pandemic started and was like we're screwed right us as an industry we're shut down what are we gonna there wasn't any unemployment they weren't giving us these we did everybody was hands up near like we have nothing we don't have a backup so Bradley we were sent this email and actually interviewed Brian on the show like a week after that and I said Brian tell me about this tell me about this text message you sent and he went through it Julia Sullivan kind of picked up the ball and ran with it and before you know it there was like 50 chefs on a phone call first person I heard about it was Margo McCormick told me in her interview she goes I was just on a call yesterday and this was at the very beginning of the pandemic we raised a bunch of money to support our own kind

01:17:15of like hey look if this ever happens again let's have something in place and then it became something that kind of was folded into the giving kitchen right yeah essentially we made the decision in 2021 I want to say kind of in the spring summer if I'm recalling correctly to take all of the money and resources and network that we had with Tennessee action for hospitality because I really felt like our network was kind of our best asset and take all of those resources and fold those into giving kitchen which was a part of their launch in September of 2021 so there's the big connection you're the president of it Marcia was doing all the PR for it she was a major contributor in it as well Marcia now works with the giving kitchen so you three were in here talking about kind of those times in action for hospitality and then giving kitchen so you have a lot of history I do with the company so but I didn't want that to influence the interview too much because I hopefully you know even though like I said I knew a lot going into it hopefully we were still able to do a hundred percent but I wanted to give some context because if you're out there listening you're like what is Tennessee I don't understand what and if you're thinking what is that I'd like to support that I want to learn what that that that is the kitchen now like so just to kind of put some clarity around that part of the conversation if you didn't know what that was that's what and a lot of things actually wound up branching off of action for hospitality there's a guy in Knoxville and I apologize I can't think of his name off the top of my head if anybody wants to know DM me on Instagram and I'll get you the info but there's a restaurant owner in Knoxville who's been lobbying the state to change our liquor by the drink tax laws because they are so oppressive in the state crazy anybody listening who doesn't know it's 25% which is like the highest in the nation and outrageous but you know that's something else that came out of action for hospitality was that that

01:19:18action to go drinks of yes let's yeah the to-go drinks and I think that that work with the state liquor tax is still ongoing but yeah it's all good stuff that's a good stuff so you had a topic you wanted you want to bring something on your mind yeah so I read a great article a couple of days ago and I wanted to know if you had read it as well it was written by Margaret Litman for the Nashville scene great great writer and Margaret wrote a really really interesting article about the Woolworth theater downtown and if you'll recall the Woolworth is a historic landmark in Nashville is the site of the sit-ins in Nashville that John Lewis was a part of and a really important historic site in our city and at some point it was taken over by Tom Katz hospitality Tom Morales who I know has been on the yeah probably my favorite interview you've ever done by the way was a fantastic interview phenomenal Tom's a great guy yeah but Tom took over the Woolworth they turned it into a cafe I don't know if you ever got a chance to go by there not been by there yet I think he sold it I'm sorry to say I haven't either and yes he wound up selling it so Tom's no longer the owner but what the article was about is a couple of weeks ago a event was hosted at the Woolworth theater with Kanye West and Candace Owens and really yeah I did I did not I didn't I know Margaret I have not I did not read that article yeah so this is in the Nashville scene it's from a few days ago so look it up but it was sponsored by the Daily Wire it was a movie screening and the article kind of talks about you know what's going on at the theater they asked the current owners for comment and essentially their response was you know we don't discriminate and we allow anyone who wants to do an event here to do an event here you know in a nutshell I'm really

01:21:19paraphrasing these are by no means direct quotes but I don't know I just I thought that that was very interesting and I was curious kind of what are your thoughts about that do you say hey across the board you know equal opportunity for everyone anybody who wants to come into my space can do so or do you have like where do you draw the line well wow I think that's a no because I have two different restaurants okay and they both draw different crowds Green Hills Grill is is definitely a more of a liberal crowd and then and I mean heart of Brentwood with Marable is much more of a conservative crowd so we get all kinds of people that come in so we do not we do not discriminate anybody that comes in we actually had an event I wasn't in the restaurant was not a part of any of this but Marsha Blackburn had an event at Marable like a fundraising thing and somebody on the staff found out who it was I think that it was booked under like a pseudo name like it was a it wasn't booked under her name somebody found out who worked there and leaked it and there was a protest outside of the restaurant oh wow we had a protest outside the restaurant for Marsha Blackburn doing it I was like I said I was not in the building I wasn't this was in 2021 I believe 2019 maybe just I wasn't in the building I wasn't working there I was consulting for the company at the time but I didn't know about it but yeah she hasn't that that was like a whole thing she was very upset about this thing we don't know who leaked it we don't know how that got out but I mean no I mean I I don't think that we endorse nor say you know anything about it we serve people and I think if I knew that it was something that was going to be spreading hate or hate speech or misinformation then I think I would have to have a really strong conversation

01:23:21about it yeah you know I mean like if I knew it was Kanye and Candace Owens doing a their screening a video that was from the day it was like I think that would be something we'd have to draw the line I think I'd have to have a real strong conversation I think we bring the leadership team together and we would all make a decision and I think that it hasn't been put in front of me so I don't know until I'm put in that position but me personally I would not before that I would definitely be against doing that yeah we Candace's organization actually reached out to us about hosting a private event at Nikki's and I can't recall the name of the organization but it's it's something kind of obscure I didn't recognize it as her organization right away when they emailed us and the date that they were inquiring about we actually already had another event booked so we weren't able to book it I responded and said sorry we have another event booked that date we can't accommodate you and then after that I googled and found out what the organization was and I don't think that I would have hosted them at the restaurant actually I shouldn't say I don't think I know that I know that I would not have hosted that at the restaurant I wouldn't have responded like hey fuck you but I would have just you know professionally said I you know I'm sorry I'm sorry that we can't accommodate you you know what that said I have had conservative politicians dine in the restaurant and they've been polite and kind people and we've been polite to them there's some people that I think I would draw the line with in terms of dining guests you know it's it's interesting though because we also had another situation recently where there's somebody who is very conservative and is distasteful to me personally somewhat we were asked to cook a dinner at this person's house and so it's an event happening outside of the restaurant it would be just me and Tony and maybe you know one other team member who wanted to you know make extra money doing a party and Tony and I had a

01:25:22real conversation about it and we said what are we are we gonna do this what what do you think because this is someone who their values and politics are like I said very distasteful the two of us and we said all right well if we don't do it somebody is going to do it and get the money so maybe we should do it and we'll donate 50% of what we make on it to the Equity Alliance there you go you know I don't know if that's a good strategy or not ultimately we wound up not doing the event for a variety of reasons but I don't know I guess I don't really know what the right answer is there but I think that I think that where I kind of stand and you just think you touched on something there is that our role in hospitality is to create you know service for is to serve people and where I may say I don't want that person in the building or I might not want to serve them it's also not all about me I mean I've got a staff of people who all have their own beliefs and their own things and they all have mouths to feed and when it comes down to turning down business I can stand and say I'm turning this down because I don't feel a certain way but also I'm telling my team hey look I'm not having this business which could potentially make you a bunch of money that's gonna put food on your table for your family and that's a tough decision to make sure because I have a responsibility as a leader to provide for everybody that works for me and to make sure that they are able to live good lives and turning down business and in the service industry it's hard to do that it's hard to do that because you never know what circumstance somebody's in of course I mean you know I would say is kind of a counter I don't think that you're wrong at all but as a counterpoint you know when I think about my business there's certain people who are politicians on a state level on a national level that have been very outspoken and actively worked against the the rights of trans people to exist in our society for example and do I feel

01:27:28comfortable with those people being guests in my restaurant I absolutely do not and I would not welcome those people even though they might be high-profile state politicians who were perhaps recently re-elected I'm not sure that that's someone who would be welcome in my space and that I would be comfortable with them being around my team yeah no I look I can totally see that too but it's also a hard it's a hard thing when you're a small business owner you're like oh here's this high-profile person coming in and how do I navigate this and Nashville's a you know somewhat conservative city it's I don't know always lots to discuss with you Brandon well this is the fun you're gonna get in recaps if you have an opinion about this you know hey send us a message let us know if you want to talk more about this topic one of the things we're gonna do going into 2023 is we're gonna talk about some hot-button topics and I love that you bring this up and I the more of this I think that better because these are the things that are on people's minds these are the things that are people like Margaret Lynn are writing about and are important to people and I think that we should be discussing yeah everybody definitely go visit Nashville scene comm or pick up a copy of the scene from last week and check out Margaret's article it's called Woolworth woes the debate over the historic site's current use awesome well Caroline have a wonderful Thanksgiving thanks you too Brandon and happy setup for st. Nicky's yes I'm not ready but we're it's coming for me we I don't know if we're gonna have an episode right after Thanksgiving we may we may not I don't know yet let's see if we get a wild heron just hop in the studio and start talking shop yeah I don't have anybody on the books right now just as a it's a holiday week you know it's that week in between Thanksgiving and week after Thanksgiving is always the kind of the ramp up to Christmas and and then we then we get going and then we're gonna have the whole month of December is gonna be kind of an advertiser month

01:29:30we're gonna be talking about setting you up for success for the new year how do we get you set up with the right people to make sure you're making the right decision so we're gonna kind of pivot in the month of December and then in January we're back at it full force lots of fun stuff come away yeah so thank you guys for listening help you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope you're being safe out there love you guys Caroline it sounded like it sounded like you were it's I thought you stopped recording happy Thanksgiving everybody I hope everybody has a safe and happy Thanksgiving and eats too much and takes a great nap bye