Help the House Foundation launches to bridge resource gap for hospitality workers

NINA MOINI: A new nonprofit has launched to help fill gaps in support for hospitality workers. Help the House aims to be a safety net for the front and back of the house restaurant workers. That includes anything from providing resources to help with employees' physical health, mental health, to their general well-being.

Its founder, Kate Meier, recognized that while the hospitality industry is built on care and service, those who make it thrive often face challenges in silence. She's also the owner of Craftmade Aprons in northeast Minneapolis, and she joins us now. Thank you for being here, Kate.

KATE MEIER: Thank you. What a beautiful introduction. I love that. That really encompasses everything that we have going on.

NINA MOINI: Oh, well, you can thank our producers [LAUGHS] for writing that up for us. But we also are very happy--

KATE MEIER: Beautiful job, producers.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, they're the best. Well, we also have on the line now, Nettie Colon, the owner of Red Hen Gastrolab Concepts. She's a board member at Help the House. Thanks for being here as well, Nettie.

NETTIE COLON: Thank you for having us.

NINA MOINI: Well, Kate, I want to start with you. I can hear that you're very passionate about this, and this means a lot to you. What inspired you to create Help the House?

KATE MEIER: Yeah, well, a little backstory on me is that I have four children that are all working in this industry, three sons that are chefs. One, my oldest, is nearly 40. So I've watched this industry very closely, the work that they've done. This is the profession of choice for my children. So I've watched this with all of them, including my daughter, who's a front of house manager. So I've seen the ins and the outs and the depth of what goes with this.

And then when I started with Aprons and going into these restaurants, meeting the whole staff and team-- which they all love their jobs. And I was like, the challenges that they faced weren't just what my children are facing. It was what a broad spectrum of individuals, they were all kind of having similar experiences.

And some of them, they don't have family like my kids have. They support each other. They have one another. And they've got me. They've got my husband. So they've got a team that's looking out for them. It's really that simple as I was hopeful we put together a team of individuals that know this industry so clear, that they can also help aid and fill in those gaps.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, if you don't have a family for a safety net, that can be really difficult and just for everybody. Nettie, from your perspective, why is it important to have an organization like this for hospitality workers?

NETTIE COLON: The reason why it's so important is there are so many needs out there. And they're just not physical, but there's, more importantly, mental and general well-being. We are an industry that provides nurturing through a plate of food, but sometimes from that front pass to the back of the house, there's not much of that because of the conditions or whatever stress is happening on day-to-day lives and in the individuals.

So this is something that we have to preserve. We have to make that plate of food not only nurture the people that we're serving, but also nurture us in turn.

NINA MOINI: Yeah. And it feels like in recent years, since the pandemic, really, in 2020, there's been a lot of conversation and sometimes debate around, how do we nurture the people in our service industry or hospitality, whether they be servers or other people? Areas like paid time off, health insurance, when do we tip, when do we not tip. So I'm curious, Katie, how did you zero in on which resources to provide through Help the House?

KATE MEIER: That is such a beautiful question. And what you've just said right there kind of encompasses it. It's been a shifting, moving space. And it's not just for all of the staff, it's also the owners. They've got questions. There are needs there.

Like, how do we navigate this? We're looking at partnering in bigger, broader ways of, can we get people that are willing to provide education to even the restaurant owners? How do we deal with these contracts? What are the challenges that are facing there?

So it needs to be looked at as a whole, broad spectrum of this industry and not just like-- the challenges of industry workers are so loud and clear and understood, and we were kind of raising awareness to that.

But also, how do we help larger-- if you're helping those leaders, those top leaders, in those restaurants, and you're giving them some awareness, some input, some support, allowing them to be seen and heard as well, providing assistance there, you're going to start from the top and build that whole bigger picture piece of what's missing.

And we can be there to voice. When people come to us, especially when people come to me in the safety of the space that we've created at Craftmade Aprons, they can come to us with sharing truthfully, honestly, the challenges and depth of what they are asking for. "Hey, Kate, here's what I'm really going through. And if we could have this, it would help us."

When those moments are shared in a very trusting space, we can look at that holistically, share that with our leaders that are really-- they want success. I mean, they want a healthy, happy staff.

And if we can help provide all of those details in one, like here's what we've learned, here's what we can see as positive-- there are some leaders in this industry right now that are running restaurants that are like-- staff come into my shop, and they're like, Kate, I've just got to tell you how incredible XYZ owner is treating me. It's changing.

It's not just like, oh, my gosh, my life is so hard. This is what it is. It's like, there's excitement and joy in some of the ways that people have pivoted and looked to care for their staff, because healthy staff means a healthy restaurant. When you're getting that, you're like, OK, we've got to take and learn from this, and share it bigger and help others that are struggling. Be a resource.

NINA MOINI: Yeah, and Nettie, from your perspective, I wonder if this industry has also seen a staffing shortage, not unlike many other industries, in recent years. Is there also a need to give more to employees? A lot of employees in different fields have said, well, we want this, or we're going to need this, or we're going to move on. I assume this is a hard career to make a lifelong career in hospitality.

NETTIE COLON: That's a great question. Yes, this is a career that you do because you're passionate about it. And for many of us, it's a connection to our path, it's a connection to our traditions, our culture, and it's a way to have that chosen family that you do by proximity in the restaurants.

I think that realizing that the biggest asset that anybody who has a restaurant or works in the hospitality industry is your employees. Without your employees, you just don't have the ability to execute.

So there's conversation that needs to happen. And like Kate said, there's XYZ restaurants that firsthand basically have some great models of how they treat and how they're working with their employees. Great places to work, and it just needs to be shared more. But yeah, there's definitely a staffing shortage because it is a hard industry to be in, you know? Again, passion doesn't pay the bills, you know?

NINA MOINI: Sure, yeah.

KATE MEIER: Nina, there's also a really important piece that Nettie will bring forth and that she's very passionate about, is that we're fostering those that want to come up in this industry now and that are just starting out and provide a healthy space for them. And Nettie's all about, how do we educate them? How do we make them feel that they can thrive in this industry? That's something she's very passionate about. We've talked about that. And she's a very big beacon for that.

NINA MOINI: Absolutely. I can feel the hard work that you're all doing. We have a minute left. I do want to make sure, Kate, that we share with folks, how could they request assistance? How could they get help? How do you get help from your organization?

KATE MEIER: So we're so new into everything that we're doing right now. I ask that everybody email either kate@helpthehousefoundation.org, or nominate helpthehousefoundation.org. We want to hear from everybody. Either you need help or assistance or you want to just share a story, or people that are looking to donate, fundraise, help in any way, partner with us, ideas that they may have of, like, wow, I really want to get involved in one way or another.

We've had such a warm embrace, as we've launched this, that people are raising their hand, asking, can we do an event with you? Can we do a pop-up with you? So there's an excitement within this industry.

So we're going to also have a list of calendar of events that are coming up and the ways that people are fundraising, if you want to get involved that way. But emailing us is very important. Helpthehousefoundation.org is where you can reach us and read more about us on our website.

NINA MOINI: Thank you both so much for coming on and sharing about it. I hope you'll come back. And we're excited to see where it goes.

KATE MEIER: Oh, my gosh. We can hardly wait.

NETTIE COLON: Thank you so much.

NINA MOINI: Aw, thank you. Take care. That was Help the House founder Kate Meier and Chef Nettie Colón.