Kevin Finch and Jen Seger

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City! Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. I will be joined with Jen Ichikawa as soon as we start our episode today with Big Table. What is Big Table, you ask? Big Table is a non-profit that is here to help people in the hospitality industry. Today we're speaking with Kevin Finch, who is the president of the entire non-profit, and Jen Seeger, who runs the Nashville office here in town, and what an amazing company.

01:01This is exactly what I wanted to do this show for. I wanted to be able to help and really do something to give back, and these people are doing just that. So I'm excited for you to hear this show today because I think that this affects every single person who listens if you work in the industry. This is an amazing non-profit and I'm honored to be able to speak with them here today. We had an episode last week with Sarah, the bread lady, Gonzalez, and that episode did fantastic. You guys love bread and talking about bread. This is crazy how well that episode did. Some good feedback too on it that you guys really enjoyed her stories. You know who the original bread people are in this town is Sharpier's Bakery, and Erin Mosso, who's my bread lady in all of our hearts here, her dad in 1986 started Sharpier's Bakery and they've been delivering bread six days a week in Nashville for over 35 years. They have over 200 different breads that they can produce for you.

02:06It's not just burger buns and bread rolls. They have everything you possibly need and they can deliver it for you. They can even make your recipe for you. You don't have to spend all that time and energy in the kitchen. Deliver it daily. Hey, why not? Support a local company. Give her a call, 615-319-6453. That's Erin Mosso and she is the owner over at Sharpier's. You can visit them also at www.sharpiers.com. That's C-H-A-R-P-I-E-R-S dot com. If you're looking for a solution to fantastic bread daily, Sharpier's is your best bet. Follow them on all the socials too, Sharpier's Bakery on Insta and Facebook. We are going to be coming in this week. Next week we're bringing in some more chefs we have. We're hoping to do a victory speech episode for the best of Nashville, Nashville scene.

03:07I just got back into town from being at the beach with my kids for fall break and my dad who's celebrating his 70th birthday today. Happy birthday, John Still. We had a wonderful time spending time with you. We wanted to publicly say it. You are an amazing role model, an amazing guy, and I am honored to have you as my father. Happy birthday, Big Seven Zero. All right, let's jump in here. This is going to be a fun episode. Big Table. We are super excited today to welcome in Kevin Finch and Jen Seeger from Big Table and now Big Table Nashville. How are we doing today, y'all? Great. Excited. Absolutely wonderful. Glad to be here. Good. Well, I'm so excited to have you here. There's so much to unpack, but Kevin, you're from the West Coast. How long have you been in now? Are you just visiting right now in Nashville? You guys are in Nashville.

04:08There's no way I can claim to any Nashville roots. I can't do that. But since half of Nashville now has moved from the West Coast, other than the fact that in my rental car, which had a California license plates, I had someone on Second Avenue yell at me to go back to California. Oh, that's what feather and hospitality you hear about. That's not Nashville. It was probably from someone who came from California about five years ago that just didn't want anyone else to come. Yeah. Like I'm local now, I promise. So I'm excited to talk about what Big Table is and I will tell you a little bit about my beginnings because I'm a recovering addict. I'm an alcoholic. I celebrate two years sobriety in like 16 days, the 20th of November. Thank you so much. And mental health in the restaurant industry is one of those things to me that the group of people who work in the restaurant industry has been described in so many different ways.

05:15I think the land of misfit toys is one way to put it, but the ability to make cash that day and go out that night I think is part of the history. Some people say it's like a pirate ship and I want to be more kitchens run like a pirate crew and there's all these different simulations and analogies for what a restaurant is like. But inevitably with that comes a lot of crisis, a lot of pain, a lot of mental health, a lot of food insecurity, a lot of financial insecurity. There's issues everywhere and I love being a part of that community. I love being just of the people I've worked with over the past 30 years in this industry are some of the most special people in the entire world. And one of the reasons why I started this podcast was because we were going into a pandemic. Pandemic had just started like that day. It was March 12th, my first episode. And one of my thoughts was if we go into a lockdown, there's all of these people that are in this community who is so vulnerable are going to be alone.

06:23They're going to be at home. They're going to be alone. And there's really not a medium that connects all these people besides like social media. So I wanted to create something where people were able to talk to each other. They could hear their friends' stories, they could hear what people were going through. And Nashville has so many different boroughs. There's downtown, there's East Nashville, there's West End, there's Brentwood, Franklin, Hendersonville, Mount Juliet, the nations, West Nashville. There's all these different areas. And if you kind of live in one and you work in one, you stay in that typical area. I wanted to tell stories from all over the city for people to say, oh, okay, I'm not alone. This is okay. And I really wanted to partner with somebody who worked towards helping people. And when I learned exactly what Big Table did, I was just like, this is you guys in the Giving Kitchen too, are two people that I absolutely love. So I am excited. All that being said, I would love for you guys to give your 90 second kind of your elevator, your elevator pitch.

07:30That's exactly what you do. And then we'll jump in with a whole bunch of questions after that. How does that sound? That sounds great. Yeah. And just so you know, we're friends with the Giving Kitchen and have worked with them already some because we're slightly, we're the same and different. And so it's incredible that Nashville's getting both. Yeah. I'm over the moon that we are going to have both of y'all here. That you're both actually, you both are here. It's not that we're going to. You're both here now. Right. Yeah. We both started this summer. So yeah, it's really, it's kind of cool timing. You can do the elevator pitch. I'll do the elevator pitch. Because you've perfected it. And then I can do some of the Nashville stuff because I've been here almost 30 years. So this is new to Big Table, but not new to Nashville. So. Okay. Yeah. So Brandon, what we do is we care for folks in crisis in the restaurant hospitality industry. That simple. My sense was that, and when we say that, interestingly, as you described starting this podcast, it was partly to do, you know, build community, to create community for folks that were losing community.

08:40Our sense of the restaurant hospitality industry is that the way you care for this community is through community. These are people that are used to that everything is done relationally. So for us, there's literally a big table and we do dinners where the folks at the table are those in the industry, the folks who would normally be cooking and serving and caring for others. They get to be guests for a night. No charge, no strings attached. An amazing chef cooks a five, six, seven course dinner. It's just a way to build community. But out of the community that gets built, we say, who do you know that's hurting? And then we jump into care. A lot of nonprofits are organized around doing one thing. Instead, we care for one group of people. So we end up doing everything that can be helping folks with getting transfer, reliable transportation to get back to work. It could be helping with medical or dental issues, with therapy, with mental health issues, which is huge right now.

09:47It could be walking alongside someone going through a brutal divorce or dealing with a child that's sick or their struggles. It can be basically anything for folks in the restaurant hospitality industry, which has been such a delight, but means we kind of end up being jack of all trades. And we end up partnering with the best organizations in the community that do various things, whether that's addiction recovery or whatever that is. We're not going to be pretend to do more than we can, but we can be the person that connects them to the resources they need and then walks alongside them, whether that takes three weeks or six months or several years. Our commitment is to stay there in their life and be community for them. How did you guys begin? Like, what was the genesis of whose idea was this? Like, are you the original, are you the guy, Kevin?

10:48Yeah, so I can't claim to be a Nashville OG, but BigTables started in Spokane in Washington in 2009. I was moonlighting as a restaurant critic at that point and writing about the industry. I think I had a pretty good reputation. I didn't throw anyone under the bus unless they really deserved it. And then I did it somewhat graciously. Yeah, which is an art. There's an art to that, by the way. There is, right? Yeah. It's kind of what you don't say, like, gosh, huh. But anyway, I was writing about the industry and my spidey sense went off that it felt like that behind the smiles of the folks who work in this industry is more concentrated need than any industry that I'd seen. And I started, this is probably a couple years before that, about 2006, just starting to poke around on the internet and look around and say, is there something to this sense that I've got?

11:49And it wasn't as bad as I thought. It was far worse. At that point in 2006, there were a million and a half nonprofits registered with the IRS. There wasn't a single nonprofit in the nation that was organized to care for the restaurant hospitality industry. And this was the industry at that point that was the largest industry in the country, was posting the highest rates of drug and alcohol abuse, massive broken relationships, stress levels off the chart, no safety net or limited safety net. You just, you could basically tick any risk category and go, this industry has the highest. And there wasn't a single nonprofit out of a million and a half that was organized to focus on that. And in that number, there were 20 to 30,000 that were organized to care for dogs and cats. Now, if you think about it, out of a million and a half, totally we should have 20,000 caring for dogs and cats.

12:53But then we should have 50,000 caring for the group that's most vulnerable. That owns them. That owns those. That's a good point. So it was just this kind of emperor's new clothes moment for me of, isn't anyone seeing what I'm seeing? And I think it's a credit to our industry that no one had noticed because when you care for people, if you work, you've got a smile on your face, you're taking care of them. You are embodying hospitality. The scary part was that the rest of the community had not noticed that the folks most hurting were the folks serving them. And once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. My day job, here's the funny twist in the story. My day job during that time was I was a pastor at a church. But anytime I mentioned that to anyone in the industry, I could clear a table in about 30 seconds. Literally no one wanted to talk to me. So yeah, well, and that's actually kind of an indictment of the church.

14:03That if the very folks who are most hurting don't want to talk to Christians, we've got a problem. And it's not just a messaging problem, it's a heart problem in terms of. So there was that piece. But in my story with Big Table, it was, okay, if my job's a problem and this is a need, I'll quit my job. And I did that to start Big Table. And we said, what's the way that logically makes sense to care for folks in the hospitality industry? It's probably going to be by providing hospitality. Hence the name Big Table. Hence the idea of gathering people around a table because that's the place that we all feel safe. That's a place that hopefully everyone can be welcome. And the table is 45 feet long. Like, he's not telling you about the table. That is a big table. It is a big table. I know. We're having one built here locally right now.

15:03So I've learned a lot about it. Six sections of seven and a half feet. But what's also, I think, really special about it and something that I had thought is that because it's one table and the way that it's built, you can't tell where one section ends and the next starts. There's no specials. There's no VIP. I mean, it's literally a table. And so not only are you bringing people to be around it, it's level. And so, I don't know, I just thought that's a really nice picture of the way that we're gathering people regardless of where you're coming from and what you bring to the table. Anyway, I just, again, I'm really new. I've not even done one of these dinners yet that we're talking about. Our first one's in December. That's exciting. Wow. Okay. Go ahead, Jen. No, that's really exciting. I love this. I just love this mission. So I assumed you had something to do with the church just based on your persona, which is lovely.

16:04How did you get restaurant employees to come around to you? Did you literally just quit your job and you were like, hey, look, I'm willing to do this for you. I want to be helpful and serve you. I did. That's kind of what I did. I leaned heavily on my... Most of the folks in the restaurant hospitality community didn't even know I was a pastor. I was just a food critic. So I leaned on that food critic piece to say, hey, here's what I've seen as a food critic and a restaurant reviewer. Let's do something about that. So I think the best thing I ever did was get rid of my title in terms of caring for folks. Well, and I don't think it... I think for some degree, it doesn't matter. If you go to any restaurateur who cares about his team and you walk in and you say, hey, I want to help everybody here, they're going to go, yeah, Johnny over here. Everybody knows the people that need some help and they'll jump right...

17:09You're a pastor, oh, you can't talk to my people. I think people would be excited that anybody was willing to spend that time and energy to help their crew because every restaurant has people that need help. I've never worked in a restaurant where there wasn't people that needed help. Yeah. No, I do think that... And what we've seen is that time and time again, what happens when Bigtable gets to come in and say to an owner, to a manager, hey, we'd love to care for your people. They go, I care for my people so much. I just am limited. I can't do that. And just the hope that someone can back me up on this means that manager, that owner can care even more. They can say, put in a referral to Bigtable for someone that they know is hurting. Sometimes they go, oh, I want to help too. I just know I can't do all of it. And a great example of this early on was a restaurateur who came and said, I've got this amazing prep cook that's worked for us for 20 years who grew up in El Salvador and has never been back in 20 years to see his family.

18:23He's got grandchildren he's never met. Is there any chance Bigtable would pay for a plane ticket? I mean, I know that's not normal, but would they do that? What we said was, don't see why not. Let's try it. Just the fact of us saying we'll do this, he got so excited he went back and told everyone else at the restaurant except Romaldo what Bigtable was going to do for Romaldo. The folks in the restaurant said, well, I want to be part of this. They raised half the price of that ticket in three days because people just started giving. That never would have happened if someone hadn't said, we'll take the lead on this. Brandon, you mentioned how amazing the community is. I have never been a part of a community other than the restaurant that's more generous, more giving. If your buddy's rent is due today and can't make rent, you'll give him some of your tip money.

19:24Even if your rent's due tomorrow and you're short too, it's just phenomenal. Well, it's interesting to think that this is an entire community of people who live more front of the house people, but who live on the generosity of other people. When you make your money via tips, you make your money by people expressing their gratitude to you for service that you've gone above and beyond or regular, whatever it might be. I talk about love languages a lot. Spirit of service and acts of service is really what people in this industry, it's how we show love. That was the big fear when this whole thing happened was that, well, the people in this industry, the way that I'm able to give love is by doing something for you to be around other people. The way that I receive love is you accepting that. I interviewed a woman named Margo McCormick here in town and she said, the way that I give love, I create this food and I put it out there.

20:30That's how I give love and then people enjoy it. They eat it and that's how I receive love. My restaurant's closed and I can't do that. There's a void in my life and it resonated so hard with me because it was like, there's people all over this city right now who that's the way they function. This is how I function is I need to be able to provide service. That's the way I'm able to show love. If I can't do that, I can't receive love and if I'm not able to do those things and I'm alone, all of a sudden fear and I need to start drinking or that's where all these things happen because how do you deal when you're unable to do that? It's just there's so much involved there. The question for you, this big table, you said the first one's going to be in December. Who do you invite to that? If I'm listening to this right now and I'm like, hey, I would love to be at that dinner, A, because it sounds good, but B, I want to learn more about this and I have a bunch of people I could possibly refer.

21:33Do you send invites out or is it just random? How do you get people at that table? It's relational. It's connections as Jen and Kevin and Ryan, the team here in Nashville are just out. They're saying, hey, we got a dinner coming up. You want to come? It's that simple. And people we've offered care, we're already working with a half dozen or more folks in care situations since we started, so they would obviously be some of our first invites and when you invite someone, you're inviting them with the option of having a plus one. Some of it is seeing who can come and then seeing what spots because it is just 48 seats and so it is a specific number, but the people that we've been partnering with in different ways as well as helping would be some of the folks, but then also people in roles like yours that can be cheerleaders for us, we'd love to experience it as well. We'll do them three times a year and it's not a fundraiser.

22:38It's not anything, it's not brought up at all, but the only thing we're kind of asking for is referrals, which one thing I did want to make sure that y'all know is that that is the whole way that we operate is on referrals and what that means is on our website, somebody can go on, it takes about three minutes and just refer a friend or a co-worker and the person referring doesn't have to be in the industry. The only stipulation we have right now is that the person being referred is employed within Davidson County, a restaurant or a hotel in Davidson County. That can include a food truck, that can include concessions at Nissan Stadium. I mean there is some broad ways of interpreting restaurant, but Davidson County is the footprint and part of that is because of just the way Nashville's set up. You have to figure out where your limits are to start because obviously we are doing this off of fundraising and dollars and everything, so Davidson felt like the best start and then the hope would be maybe within a couple years we'd have a satellite in Williamson.

23:41We've got all these counties around Davidson that also are thriving. But the other thing that's interesting about that is because of the referral process, we have found that people are less likely to scam you on behalf of someone else. In other words, where somebody might put themselves in, somebody who's trying to work the system might self-refer, we don't see a lot of that happening. It feels like the people that get referred are the people that those around them say, golly they've got a lot going on and look how hard they're trying to keep showing up to work and they want to help them. And so because of that, we don't have intake forms, there's nothing social service-y about it, we're not really overly verifying, we're just trying to kind of walk it out and see and that also keeps it very relational. And so that is a huge part of our referrals are just as important as our fundraising. We need both.

24:42We need dollars and we need people to care for, so it all works together. That's an interesting point. I guess that's the next logical question is, right? How do you afford to do this? Where do you generate money? Obviously that's a big part of running a nonprofit is people being generous and taking care of it. How are you funded? I jokingly say I rob banks because no one suspects the former pastor, but it's actually generosity from similar to the way that we do it. It's relational. We've got in the cities where we've existed for a while, we've got hundreds of people that are giving monthly and that could be anywhere from five bucks, 10 bucks a month to 1500 bucks a month that just say based on their amazing number of folks in the industry that say, you cared for me. I don't have a lot, but I want to give a little. We have restaurants and hotels that do kind of a payroll deduction where they say, hey, if you want to totally voluntary, we're going to give 25 cents from your paycheck.

25:56If you want to big table each month or each paycheck or so things like that. You've got companies like a performance food group here in Nashville that has stepped in big to support saying you're caring for the people that keep us in business. We want to support that. Wow. Really? Biscuit Love as a company just signed up to be a major sponsor each year because Sarah and Carl just love the idea. And frankly, they as a company have done amazing things to care for their employees around mental health that I've not seen anywhere else in the country. That's a place where Nashville is leading the country in care. Yeah, Sarah and Carl are amazing. My husband's also an addict and he relapsed during the pandemic. But prior to, we're on the other side. He's 117 days. So he's doing really well. But yeah, we're very proud of him.

26:56But six years ago, he was working for Biscuit Love and they helped pay for a rehab for him then, too. They're incredible. Exactly. Yeah. Well, I love the idea that I think that's the main thing. I think a lot of restaurants out there pay for insurance and they pay for all kinds of little things. But I mean, if there is a way to raise money, we do it Mondays, Monday nights. We'd like to do a community night where we come in and we donate 10 percent. This month, the whole month at our restaurant, Mayor Bowl, every Monday night, we're donating to the Tennessee Breast Cancer Coalition, 10 percent of our sales for the entire day on Mondays. I mean, restaurants around the city could do small things like that and any kind of donation. You have to pay for insurance. They pay for all these benefits. This is a benefit that will benefit every single restaurant and anything that they could give helps, right? Absolutely. We're going to learn all about how you can give right after these words from our sponsors.

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31:06How would I do that if I was a restaurant? How would I sign up to give you guys money? Just talk to Jen. I mean, that's it. Or, I mean, go on the website. Bigdashtable.com I mean, just literally send us an email and say, hey, how do we do this? What we've had is so much fun being creative. And again, that's another area where the industry excels in kind of creativity. How do we help this person and or help each other? But it is important to know that we're really focused on no strings attached. So we'll work with restaurants that never give us a dime. You know, the hope is that we're creating kind of an echo ecosystem where there's a desire to help us because they know it's good for everybody. You know, like that's the hope is that there's an enthusiasm behind giving because not because, oh, this is going to get me this, but because, you know, what is it? The rising tides lift all ships. You know, that we're kind of coming up just because we are creating a culture of care.

32:09And so that's kind of the hope. But there's not any kind of stipulation to refer or to be cared for. And so a lot of what we really do is we care first. We build some credibility. We build some trust. And then the hope is that partnerships, because what I'm really longing for is restaurants to partner with us partly because I'd love to get their logo on the website to show credibility. I mean, you know, local credibility. So like so Biscuit Love will be on there and Performance Food Group, like that's great because they've got name recognition around here. And so that is kind of important, but it is it's tied to relational. It's not like, oh, we need this. This is my quota or this is the number of, you know, it's a different way of looking at it. It's how can we kind of just have fun helping each other and then where does that work? The funny thing is, is what I've learned since coming on is some of the largest donors are alcohol companies because they got a lot of money and all of their stuff is served in hotels, bars, rescue, or in the places we're caring for.

33:20And so it's just interesting coming out of, I've got a church background as well. Those were never our big donors. They're the ones creating a lot of, they're the ones, you know, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, right? They're the ones like, hey, we'll help you out there with a bunch of alcoholics. You're helping great. We'll throw a little bit in there. But we're here to say, we'll take it. So why did you all choose Nashville as your first away from the West Coast? Great. And then let me come, I'll tell you, I'll answer that question. And then let me come back to one cool story of how that kind of the circle of care works. Nashville, in talking to the vision has always been this is a need across the nation. How would we grow if the doors open up? And at that point, we had cities in Spokane, or care teams in Spokane, Seattle, and San Diego. A consultant that knows Bigtable from years said, well, you know, if you're really serious about growing nationwide, you need to be somewhere else in the country, different time zone, different culture.

34:28And you're going to learn a lot faster that way. So we just started paying attention to what cities kind of had huge restaurant hospitality community. Also looked at what cities were generous. There's a difference I see nationwide between cities that are wealthy and cities that are generous. And Nashville totally fit the bill of a city where people are generous. I just think you get much more track. It's not that the need isn't everywhere, but boy, it's a lot easier to help people when you have people that want to help. Yeah, and if everyone wants to jump in, and it seems like that national time and time again through all of the crises you've been through, everyone just kind of shows up. So that was a huge part. And it's a very special place. And we said we'd like to be somewhere in the south, somewhere different time zone. How does this work? And we had some connections here that just kept bubbling up. So that's kind of the answer.

35:29Again, following the relationships. Jen, you said you've been here for 30 years. What did you do prior to this? I actually was over a care department at a large church, Christ Presbyterian, that's kind of right in between Williamson and Davidson. The property actually goes across the line. Christ Presbyterian, is that in Franklin? No, it's actually south Nashville. It's across from Steeplechase, and it's over on Old Hickory Boulevard, kind of close to Edmund Warner Park. It's got the school CPA, Christ Presbyterian Academy. I'm like, Christ Presbyterian? No, no, no, I know exactly where that is. I live right over there, so that works. That's why it sounded so familiar. Yeah, it's a great church that does amazing things in the city. But I actually was the director of care. So I've already been doing the care piece of this. What's new to me is the fundraising and some of the other, and the industry's new to me. I've only just been a patron, someone who just shows up and tries to tip well, and that's about all I do.

36:33So that part was new, but the care part wasn't. As far as resourcing with counseling, or with paying bills, just navigating crises, whether it's losing a job, an illness, an unexpected illness that just upturns everything. And then that also has afforded me all of the networks of counselors I've worked with for years, who I know are willing to do things at reduced rates for situations that warrant it, and things like that. So that's a huge part of what I think we actually offer. And with the care situations I've already been involved in, I realize a huge thing that we have is just a network that a lot of these workers do not have. Exactly. I might not know exactly how we're going to meet it, but I can call one or two people and they will either help or point me to someone who helped. It's just, I'm reminded regularly of the access that I have, and that Big Table has, just because we're working on behalf of other people, but we know the people we can ask.

37:36And so that's a part of it. But anyway, so the care piece was that. And yeah, just being, I mean, knowing the city, I actually live in Franklin. So I was living in Franklin, worked in Nashville, and so kind of got the whole gist of it. I don't cook, so I eat out all the time. And that is real. What's your favorite restaurant? Oh my God, I don't even know, because I love them all because they mean I don't have to cook. All right, give me a top three, just places that you eat the most. I gotta put you on the spot. I have to say, well, I have to say Mary Bowles now. You could say Mary Bowles if it's true. I have eaten there a few times in the last six months. We actually went to a wedding reception there also during COVID. We were spread out, I mean, not COVID, but when we could go. It was during lockdown. We had a wedding. Let's get it out there. We were doing these speakeasy weddings during. We do love Cork and Cow in downtown Franklin.

38:42That's really good. One of Jen's favorites. Gosh, let me think. We've been to Perry's recently too. That's a newer one. How was that? It was good. It was very good. That's new to Franklin. Obviously, I'm saying a lot of steak places, so I'm giving away that we are quite the meat eaters. We're carnivores too. I'm not kidding when I say we go out all the time. Every Friday night is like date night, but then also the other nights are we just eat out. So. I'm with you. It's definitely a thing. Can we role play a little bit? Because if I'm out there right now and I'm listening to this and I'm like, okay, I like what you're hearing, but I'm not going to be invited to that table. Nobody I know is going to be invited to that table. There's a million people in this city. There's 48 people at a table.

39:43I'm not going to get referred. Right? So you don't have to be at that table to refer somebody. If I'm sitting here right now and I don't even have to work in a restaurant, but let's just say that I'm going to refer this guy named Brandon who works in a restaurant in the Green Hills area. How do you guys reach out? If you were to reach out to me and you're making an initial contact, what do you say? Well, so the referral would come in onto the website. I would get it. So they all come to me to start. We have a male care coordinator and then right now I'm the female one. So we typically try to divide that way just because it's better for meeting and all that. But what would happen is I would reach out to, well, if it was Brandon, I'd probably pass you off to another Kevin. But let's just say the person's name is Jen. We'll do this. Jen can be the person. So what I would actually first do is reach out to the referrer.

40:45So reach out to Jen. Yeah. Jen would reach out to Jen and try to learn a little bit more. Find out if they're willing to be identified as having made the referral. I would encourage them to if they're open to it only because it gives us credibility and can make it a little less creepy and feel like a scam that somebody calling to say we want to help. That's a little risky. But if the person really feels strongly that they need to be anonymous, then we'll figure that out. In that instance, we just say when we reached out to them, text, phone call, just say, hey, a friend of yours noticed that you were going through a tough time and wondered if we could help. Yeah. And then once we've sort of gotten any kind of background or any kind of info on that and also the permission to identify or not identify the referrer, we would reach out directly to the care recipient. And so it might be a phone call. You know, most phone calls with unknown numbers will go to voicemail.

41:47So what we might do is leave a voicemail but then also text and just say who we are, you know, give a little info, throw in any information we felt like we needed. But the very first thing would be to see if there's a way to maybe get coffee, you know, just to meet and hear. And then because the whole idea is to connect with them and let them tell us what their biggest need is. A lot of times what their need is, is not what the referrer thinks it is. Or what's maybe causing them the most stress. Let's say it that way. And so they say there's an alcohol problem and they go, well, that might be that's a symptom of a bigger problem as to why they're drinking, for example, right? Yeah, and so, I mean, I will say our first two referrals were people working in restaurants, sleeping in cars. So housing, you know, was a thing. And so that is, but they had- What do you do in that scenario?

42:51You call them, you say, hey, let's have coffee. And then they tell you, I'm living in my car. You didn't say, well, why don't you work more hours? Like you're only working 12 hours. Get your ass up and go to work. Or do you then say, hey, I want to help find you a hotel or do I help? What is the next step in that? Because there's so many things you can do. So in each of those situations, it was different. So with one of them, it was, we did help one week with an extended stay. But, and that person has actually found someone to rent from like a friend that he works with for now. But what we're needing to do is navigate getting through any kind of barriers with background checks or kind of getting, helping to get him in. And that's where the networking may be us seeing if we can kind of rise above the system that just automatically flags people for certain things. And so it could be more advocacy because the housing piece has been more stabilized. So like that, so that one has become a situation where some of it is just problem solving, multiple things.

43:57The other one was interesting because, and this would be, go back to what Kevin is talking about with collaboration. So there's another new nonprofit called Shelters to Shudders that has expanded to Nashville as well. And what they're, they focus on situational homelessness and have a relationship with Freeman Web that has apartment complexes all over. And they have a pathway that if you are referred and you are approved, they feel like you're a good candidate for one of the four jobs at an apartment complex that could put you on a pipeline to get a job that will include very, very reduced housing for a year to rebuild back. And so with the other person that we were working with, she actually had a desire to become a real estate agent. And so she was on, you know, with our help as far as getting her in the pipeline, she herself earned a job as a leasing agent and now is working at an apartment complex where she's able to live at a reduced rate.

44:59And so what was cute about the guy that was that I mentioned, I told him about this possibility and he was like, oh, but I have a job. He loved his restaurant job. He didn't want to leave that family. So he wasn't interested in changing industries. This, the gal actually wasn't, was working in the restaurant industry, but actually had dreams to be doing something different. And so that, so you can kind of see how it's almost casework. It is totally casework. Like, I mean, that's so, I don't know that I'll have the exact same experience again, but because I had met with the executive director of shelters who's literally started a week before I did, and we both came out of churches and we connected and we're, you know, it's just, we can offer them referrals. They might offer us some housing pathways. Like you could see where we're working together to eradicate issues for an industry, but also a specific issue. So anyway, that's just two examples of how we just kind of get in the weeds.

45:59And I think that might be our specialty, you know? I think as Jen's describing, I think what we do best is meet people where they're at, rather than, you've probably heard the phrase to a guy with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you could only do one thing, if you only do gift cards for this or you do that, you're going to try to fit everybody into that issue. Instead, we're saying, tell us what's going on in your life. And in this instance, Jen, if you referred Brandon, and we sit down with Brandon and say, tell me what's going on in your life. It may be that what comes out of that conversation is, I can't afford my apartment, but I never could. I should have never signed that lease. How do I get out of it? How do I get out of that lease? You know some people that have self-negotiated for you. I've got someone I can sleep with on their couch. What I really need Bigtable to do is pay my cell phone bill, because if my cell phone gets turned off, the second job that I'm waiting to hear back from, I won't hear.

47:02My kid won't be able to call me when he gets out of school and needs a ride. That's the biggest need. All right, well, right at that moment, let's go to the store, let's pay your cell phone bill. But then let's have coffee next week and see what we can do next. It sounds like it's just help. You know, it's help. And when people who need help, sometimes it's hard to ask people that you care about. And then there's, what is your motive? What is this? And it's like, we just want to see people in this industry succeed. So we're here to help you do that. Whatever that might be, it's not just, here's 50 bucks or here's a hundred dollars. It's, let's come up with a plan. We have lots of resources around town that could be specific to any individual person. Hey, look, I'm having problems with this. We know people here. We can introduce you to this. I can help negotiate this. That's really great. I mean, that's something that a lot of people have the luxury of.

48:03I have that luxury. I know a lot of people. I know that if there's a scenario of something, I can call somebody that I know that can probably help me. A lot of people don't have a podcast that they talk to hundreds of people and can have that needs somebody who has those level of connections. It can just help them get, like you said, kind of out of the weeds. Yep. Yeah, no, we have a net. I mean, I think, you know, many of us have a net. I mean, one of the things that's been kind of interesting to me with the care situations, not all, but most of the ones I've dealt with so far is that if my, I have three kids in their twenties. Wow. If they got. But well, I had three and three years and four months. They're like really close in age. So, but she had to really close in age. Yeah. But what I realize is we're there. We're their phone, a friend. We're their first call when something gets bumpy.

49:03You know, we are their net in so many ways. And several of the folks I've interacted with, no mention of parents. And that's okay. Like I'm not, but it made me think they are on their own. Like they don't have some of the built-in things. Or the people that are in their lives are in the same situation they're in. So it's like, well, who do I call? Well, everybody's about to get evicted. Yeah. Or who do I call? I need help with recovery. Everyone I know is the folks that I drink with. Each night. They're probably not the ones that are going to help me figure out how do I get clean. Yeah, exactly. And so it is, I think it's almost just like a fresh group of people to come alongside. You know, it's just interesting because it's not like we have every answer. We know what we're going to do. We just are kind of our mantra is, I don't know, let's figure it out. Well, and honestly, that's really true. Every day sounds like life to me.

50:05Yeah. Let's see what we can do. And usually within, you know, a few days ago, oh, we can do this. Early example, really fun story. This woman by the name of Nicole, who's given us permission to use her story, was interviewing for a bartender job at this event venue. The manager knew about Big Table. And after she'd offered Nicole the job, she saw Nicole out in the parking lot, pushing her car back out of the parking spot. Went out and said, are you okay? She goes, oh, yeah, it's okay. My car doesn't have reverse. I didn't see a parking spot that I wouldn't have to push out of. So I just parked the car. This is this is the Northwest and it's a convertible in the top gets stuck. So it doesn't go up and down. So this is a single mom with three little kids who's got a car that has no reverse and a top that any time it rains or snows turns into a bathtub. Wow. So Desiree, the manager calls as as Nicole's driving away, calls me and says, Hey, Kevin, I just hired a new bartender.

51:10Can you get her a car? And I'm like, nuts, we were shoestring budget, didn't know what to do. But instead of saying, I don't know, I said, well, let's see what we can do. Give me a give me a day or two to think about this. Um, literally a day later, I get a phone call from a woman who says, Hey, Kevin, I've got a car that I'd like to donate. Any chance Bigtable could use it. God works in mysterious ways, guys. So that's kind of the, the, the joy of what we get to do is say, well, let's see what we can do in this situation. And what our kind of tagline is that we serve hope. And when we, when we describe that, it's for people. And Nicole specifically said, you know, the car that you gave me allowed me to keep working, stay in school, take my kids to school. But I would have traded that car in an instant for the chance to have been in relationship with Jill. Where the hope comes in is that someone's going to get to spend time with Jen or Kevin.

52:18And that person's not going to go away. There is a phone, a friend, there is someone that's like, Hey, let's get together for coffee next week too. How can we kind of be part of your life? That's where we see the real long-term change and transformation. That's where we see capacity being built into people's lives who didn't have it before. How would I get involved? Is there a way in which I can donate my time or energy? I'll figure out a way. I think that both of our restaurants would be fantastic to work with you guys. And I'm pretty much booked up through the end of the year on my Monday night events where we donate money with Breast Cancer Awareness Month, then next month with Men's Health, and then obviously the holidays. But I'll be happy to commit to you guys, you know, a Monday at each restaurant every quarter or something. And that would be something we can help out with. I would love to help support you guys. But if I want to donate time, you're feeding 48 people at this big, huge table.

53:22How do you get people to serve that table? How do you get people to cook that food? Like, are you accepting volunteers for that? Like, how would I get involved? There's a form on the website that's kind of a volunteer form where you basically say, here's what I'd like to do, or here's things that I'm good at. Because it may be that you say, well, this is my job, but what I'd really love to do is this. We want to know that. In Spokane, we have, where it's just the oldest city, we have like over 400 folks that are on that call list for serving at dinners. Now, we're not going to... Yeah. But the second we post it, hey, we need a couple spots for this dinner, it's like, you know, within 30 minutes, all those spots are filled. But we also do something called, we have these sheets called How to Care While Eating and Sleeping, which anyone, anytime, ways you can begin to care for people in the industry on your own, whether you're in the industry or not. We have this really cool thing called an Unexpected 20, which...

54:26It's a little tip envelope. So it looks like this. And it says, see if I can do this with that. I'm having trouble with the screen. So it says, big table, we serve hope. Yep. And on the back, it's got a little gift, you know, a small gift for all you do. To share your story or find out more about this Unexpected 20, visit big-table.com. Yeah. So if you put a $20 bill in there... You got it. Put a $20 bill in there, carry it in your wallet or purse. When you're in a restaurant, when you're in a hotel, look for the person that's invisible to everyone else. And then just walk up as you're leaving and hand it to them. First, I flew into Nashville late Sunday night. The only place still open was Burger King, the drive-through. The guy was just at the end of his rope. And when I went through and grabbed a burger, I handed him an envelope like that and just said, hey, make sure you look inside.

55:30More powerful than what 20 bucks does to someone that's not a tip, it's just a gift, is for the person that's giving it, is it makes invisible people visible. I would describe it as a magic envelope because when you have it in your wallet, when you have it in your purse, you start to see people you never would have seen before. So for folks not in the industry, they start to see people in the industry in the ways that they never have. If you're in the industry, you've always noticed those people because you were one of them. And you see what no one else sees. But it's just an amazing, simple way to begin to build community. We've got all kinds of ideas on the website to do that. So volunteering for specific big table events, awesome. And chefs, we're always looking for chefs for different events, that are willing to donate their time. And we'll have a couple of events on top of the industry dinners in 2022.

56:33And so that's another way to volunteer. And again, it's so much fun. Some people come to us with ideas and go, hey, what about this? We're like, let's try it. Let's do that. OK, I have a potentially dumb question about the table. Oh, yeah. No, no dumb questions. Where do you host these dinners that a 40-foot table fits? Yeah, fun story there. So Biscuit Love was so sweet to offer us their space. And we went and measured, and we are longer than Biscuit Love. And then in one of their locations, it's long enough, has tables that are bolted to the floor. So there is no way to clear a path. We're finalizing this week. But I think we might have a local hotel that is graciously sharing their banquet space with us and kitchen. And as soon as we kind of know that that's locked in, we would definitely give them major shout outs, because that's super generous.

57:38Because we do focus on hotels as well. And so even those unexpected 20s that Kevin was talking about, we will do what's called care blitzes, where we might go at the end of a shift for house cleaners, or the housekeepers, rather. And just hand out unexpected 20s to all of them as they end their shift. So we're also navigating the hotel industry's areas of need as well, because it's similar. It's some of the similar pressures of being in an industry that is catering to people who are relaxing. So that means you're working when everyone else is off. It kind of puts you in that reverse time of the rest of the world. Of when your mornings are, and your evenings are, and all that. But anyway, so that the table will fit in a hotel banquet. That is one thing we've learned. Are you thinking living room, inside patio? I was. I was like, we can probably fit that somewhere. We can fit that in the, we have two rooms that will fit that.

58:43Yeah, that's awesome. No, and we've done them in barns. We've done them outside. We've done them all over the place. But again, the issue is can you, and because of the modular design of the table, it can take a turn and still be one table. Yeah, but we really like it to be long. It's wonderful. Because that looks so cool. I'm going to measure today. There's like a few areas for sure. They are so much fun. And on the website, there's pictures of past dinners, and you kind of see the table, and it just looks like it goes on forever. One of our cool fundraisers that we'll be doing in 2022 will actually be doing what's called Table 54, which is doing an industry dinner, but it actually be for people to pay. It'd be not a actual fundraiser. So to experience the big table. So yeah, let us know what your space looks like. Well, Kevin and Jen, thank you guys so much for joining us today.

59:44I've enjoyed learning about you so much. I think we need to make this like an annual thing or maybe more than that. Because as you sign people up and as you continue to grow, I would love to help support your mission and get the word out there for what you're doing. And hopefully, if you're listening to this right now, you can go to www.big-table.com. You can research anything you want, sign up to be a volunteer, sign up to donate whatever you can as a restaurant. We'd love to get this community completely involved in what you're doing. I think it's fantastic. Thank you for your heart. Thank you for being gracious. And thank you for helping a community that so desperately needs it. At the end of our shows, I let our guests take us out. Where I get to, that's what I said before. If you listen before, I like to say that if you listen to the show, you're not going to be blindsided by this. But Jerry's final thought style, whatever you want to say to take us out, as long as you want to say it, the floor is yours.

01:00:57Well, one of the fun things, Brandon, is that you mentioned like a restaurant, there was one restaurant that we had that said we'd like to give 500 bucks a month. At the end of the year, we tracked and reported back to them what they gave or what we were able to do to care for their people. And we actually cared for their own team and spent $10,000. So they gave six. That turned into care for their own people that represented $10,000. I think what happens when we do this work together is a little bit like the old story of Stone Soup, is when you put a little bit in, everyone puts a little bit in, the amount that you can care for is amazing. And we've certainly seen that in other cities. And if any city is going to do that wonderfully, I think it's going to be Nashville. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and we are so excited. It's just been so fun to meet this industry.

01:02:00And we really do just want to walk alongside and help and do this together. So come on, refer, give, do all the things. Thanks. Thank you so much for the time. We are honored to have you here. Thank you so much for doing it. Great. Awesome. Have a great day, y'all. Be fun next year too. Yes, we most definitely will. All right. Thank you so, so much for joining us today. Thank you for listening. Hopefully you can jump in and join Big Table. And maybe you can join at the Big Table. But if you have somebody you'd like to refer, go to the website, bigtable.com, big-table.com, and jump in. Let's support them. Let's do everything we can as a city. We hope that you guys are being safe out there. Please wear a mask and go get vaccinated. Love you guys. Bye.