Giving Kitchen GIVE Atlanta 2020

In just one weekend, Giving Kitchen received over 1,500 Asks for Help. Not just from Atlanta, or even Georgia. In just one weekend, our entire country's food and beverage industry shouted for help, a massive loss of employment and influx of fear: what the hell comes next?

All of us at GK did the same thing. What the hell DOES come next? There are a handful of us that handle cases. There is no way we could make 1,500 phone calls in our normal 5-7 business day turnaround. Even a month, or two, seemed farfetched. And even if we could make that many calls, how could we manage that many cases? 

An author I admire immensely wrote "we can do hard things." 

I remember reading Untamed in the beginning of quarantine. Late March. I remember reading it and applying it to all the other scenarios in my life where we do, in fact, hard things. I remember reading it and never thinking it would be the mantra that would get me through nearly eight months of a pandemic that continues to assault the industry I love and the people that work in it. But Glennon is right: we CAN do hard things. All of us have, and continue to, do hard things on a daily basis. Food service workers more than most. I watched my fiancée, a chef de cuisine at a local Atlanta restaurant, pace our home for three months, unsure if she would ever be back in a kitchen, if the restaurant industry would ever look the same, never knowing from one day to the next if she had a job or an income, and we are privileged. Be sure: the play is survival for food service workers. There is no gain to be made, only an attempt to make ends meet. To grit their teeth and ask for the help they never want to ask for, never needed to ask for, never felt worthy enough to ask for. 

We learned that in order to best serve our clients, we had to reiterate with certainty what our organization does and does not do, and give a new meaning to our Stability Network. From July to October, more than 45% of our awards of been given out to those either diagnosed with COVID-19, or medically ordered to quarantine. Our COVID-19 resource page received over 75,000 unique page views, granting food service workers access to resources across the country. Over 62% of our clients (and counting) have reached out due to unemployment, the loss of their job, their restaurant closing, or minimal to non-existent hours. 

With your help, we were able to continue to serve those in need, and because of your generosity, we will continue to serve those in need -- while other doors shut, other applications are closed, waitlisted, or take 4-6 weeks to hear from a case manager, while shelters are full and funds are diminished or restricted, YOUR giving allows us to propel forward and continue on; to clock in for food service workers; to pick up their shift; to aid them in finding the stability they deserve.