Announcing the Impact Foundation, a Women's History Month Request (and Jazz with me on Friday!)

A new nonprofit to support NYC restaurants and workers!

Photo by Dave Photoz on Unsplash

Good morning friends!

Today I am excited to share a bit of personal career news. As most of you know, I’ve been writing about the restaurant industry for a long time now….about 20 years now. Before that, I worked in Front of House, and before that I was an attorney. (Clearly I started working when I was five.)

While I have done a lot of different things, advocacy has sort of always been humming around in the background of my life. Back in 2006, I founded Dining for Darfur; in 2018, when my kids started public school, I founded the NYC Healthy School Food Alliance and wanted to make the food better; and in 2021, I became the first Executive Director of ROAR to support our industry after the pandemic.

Now I have a new mission-driven project I am thrilled to share with you all! Over the past year I’ve been working closely with the inimitable Andrew Rigie, the Executive Director of the The NYC Hospitality Alliance, to create a new nonprofit that would work to support the hospitality industry with a variety of innovative and uplifting programs. 

Last week we announced the creation of the NYC Hospitality Alliance Impact Foundation, a groundbreaking 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that will complement the work of the Hospitality Alliance by focusing on three major programs and initiatives to help alleviate hunger and hardships and support workers and owners in the hospitality industry. 

Our three core programs include:  

• Emergency Meals: Disaster response is ad-hoc and underfunded. That’s why we will create a fund for restaurants to provide emergency meals and community engagement programming 

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: Minorities remain underrepresented in restaurant leadership positions. That’s why we are funding culinary school scholarships for young New Yorkers to amplify diversity, equity, inclusion in our industry. 

• Workforce Development: To tackle the citywide restaurant staffing crisis and high rates of un and underemployment in NYC, we will fund a unique (and free to attendee) workforce development and job placement training program for marginalized, unemployed, and underemployed communities

We plan on beginning our charitable and mission-based operations in the second quarter of 2023, after we close an initial round of seed fundraising, which is now open and accepting donations. To learn more, you can contact me, or Alliance and Impact Foundation President Andrew Rigie.

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Who Inspires You? Submit Your Story for Women’s History Month!

In celebration of Women’s History Month, we are also looking for all people working in the New York City hospitality industry to share with us the name of a woman who inspired their career and/or mentored them. Then later in the month we will publicly share the submissions we receive to recognize and highlight these wonderful women and their stories during Women's History Month!

What to prepare when submitting?

• Name and (associated business or their relation to you) of the woman who inspired and/or mentored you

• 1-3 sentences explaining how this woman inspired and/or mentored you

• Your name (and associated business or relation to the hospitality industry)

The deadline to submit is Friday, March 17^th at 5:00PM. We’re excited to hear and share your stories! Submit here. 

Thanks everyone! 

Jazz in the Parlor with The Strong Buzz

A reminder that this Friday March 10th beginning at 8:30pm, I’ll be hosting a night of jazz, natural wine, and restaurant trivia with Toussaint Stackhouse and Darby Wagner at &Holiday, the natural wine parlor on Gansevoort St. Tickets are just $10 and paid Strong Buzz subscribers get a free glass of bubbly!!! Tickets here.

I hope to see some of you there!