Atlanta-based nonprofit Giving Kitchen provides safety net for food service workers

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Atlanta-based Giving Kitchen helps food service workers across the country who fall on hard times.

Credit: GPB

Food service workers are the lifeblood of a fickle industry, one that expands and contracts with the economy. These workers don't always have health benefits, and a job loss can be devastating. Enter Giving Kitchen, a nonprofit based in Atlanta that's dedicated to helping workers in the food service industry when they fall on hard times. CEO of the Giving Kitchen, Jen Hidinger-Kendrick spoke with GPB's Peter Biello as part of a live broadcast of All Things Considered from Eventide Brewing in Atlanta.

Peter Biello: Tell us a little bit about the origins of giving — the Giving Kitchen.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Absolutely. You know, the story of Giving Kitchen really started around my late chef husband, Ryan Hidinger, and his terminal cancer diagnosis in December of 2012, when our food service community, restaurant community here in Atlanta rallied behind he and I in such an amazing way. Put together a fundraiser. Business mentors, family and friends from all over the city came together in support for a fundraiser. [In the] three and a half weeks after the time of diagnosis to the time of that fundraiser ended up bringing a thousand people together, 40-45 of Atlanta's most beloved restaurants and bartenders came together in a live auction and what was supposed to raise $15,000 to help us through that year ended up bringing together about $300,000 in a life-changing opportunity for he and I, which in turn became the spark light of Giving Kitchen. It was really those initial leaders in business who came together and created boundaries and guidance and support to leverage what is Giving Kitchen today.

Peter Biello: First of all, I'm very sorry for your loss. At what point did you know that this is more than just a one-off thing but worth founding or worth creating a nonprofit around?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Immediately. Back then and in January of 2013, there was really nothing that was a backbone of support for food service workers. And that was really what ignited the idea for Giving Kitchen. And we created our first core program, our financial assistance program, actually after Home Depot's Homer Fund — it's an employee assistance program, one of the nation's leading employee assistance programs here in the country — as a model for the way that we would do work. And it's — there's really two things that we do exceptionally well, and that is help food service workers in crisis through community resource referrals, through our stability network and through financial aid. So if you are a food service worker and you are sick, you are hurt, you lose a family member, there's a flood or fire in your apartment or home, that is when Giving Kitchen can step up and help pay the rent and basic living expenses to make sure that you can keep going.

Peter Biello: So how does someone ask for help from Giving Kitchen?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Any food service worker. So we deem food service workers as those who work in restaurants catering concessions, food trucks, cafeterias, bars, taprooms — looking at you, Eventide staff. 

Peter Biello: So it's a wide umbrella.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: It is. And it's to food service workers all across the country. So what started in Atlanta as an amazing idea and one of Atlanta's best ideas is really something that's providing life-changing crisis opportunity for food service workers across the country.

Peter Biello: I don't need you to give any identifying information, but I'm wondering if you have a story about someone that you've been able to help — what their circumstances were and how the Giving Kitchen was able to step in and make things right.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: There's thousands. In fact, there's over 15,000 of those stories.

Peter Biello: So pick one!

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Yeah, exactly. I'll give you one. Honestly, out of the clients that we serve, about 38% are people of color with children at home, oftentimes two or three children at home. So consider an apartment fire and a child had to jump out of a window.

Peter Biello: Wow.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: There's a loss of a child, a loss of a parent, a broken leg from a car accident. I could keep going. But these are real-life stories, life-changing opportunities for food service.

Peter Biello: Okay. So what was the pandemic like for you? I mean, I know the pandemic was tough on restaurants. I imagine people were flooding to you for help if they knew about you.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Absolutely. You know, we often say COVID for us, March of 2020 was a watershed moment for Giving Kitchen. It allowed us an opportunity to really take a look at what was working — what wasn't working, even more importantly — and hone in on those. For Giving Kitchen, we really honed in on our two primary core programs of financial aid and stability network resources. We were seeing 20 times the volume of clients coming to Giving Kitchen and asking for help. We were seeing more website traffic in the first few weeks than we did the entire year of 2019. We built a resource page online that offered automated resources to food service workers across the country. We honed in on our suicide prevention training through QPR. It's called the Question Persuade Refer program. We partnered with QPR across the country to offer free suicide prevention training for food service workers. That's just a little bit of what we did, but we really started to capacity build and we started to just really hone in on exactly what we did well and made sure that that was the story that we told by sharing stories of those we're helping.

Peter Biello: And how did the pandemic sort of change what you did?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: It offered us an opportunity to really seek out our technologies and that infrastructure that we had internally. Pre-pandemic, we had about 11 full-time staff members. Today we're at over 36. We've, from a service standpoint, we've been able to hone in on our case to close time from 45 days pre-pandemic — so if you consider a food service worker who's in crisis and really needs help today, imagine receiving some financial aid to help cover your rent in a month and a half time. Today we can do that in 10 to 12 days and oftentimes when someone's facing an eviction within 24 hours.

Peter Biello: Is that a function of having more people on staff, having better technology? All of the above?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: All of the above. You know, most of the funding that we receive today actually comes from outside of Atlanta, but really is concentrating on our infrastructure and our technologies and our process. We've taken a big step back and really honed in on exactly what we are doing in those processes to get to the end result. And the end result is a life-changing opportunity for a food service worker.

Peter Biello: I imagine being in this business for so long, you've been able to help people who have then gotten on their feet, stabilized their lives and then turned around and given back to Giving Kitchen. Is that been the case?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: We have absolutely seen that there are clients who are out there who have raised their hand, either share their story personally, they come around full circle to volunteer for Giving Kitchen at one of our events. They've been — they've been a wonderful asset to us.

Peter Biello: So let me ask you about the industry as a whole. I mean, what does it say about the restaurant industry that a nonprofit like yours is necessary, if there's no safety net built into the machinery of the industry? You're here to help, but there it is.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Absolutely. I think, you know, in a in a dream world, I think that's maybe what you're alluding to, Giving Kitchen wouldn't exist. But we don't live in a dream world. I think the reality is, is that every food service worker deserves an opportunity and opportunities for Giving Kitchen mean the resources that we are able to give them. Working in food service is a dignity-driven opportunity. Working in food — so I will say this: 1 in 3 Americans have worked in food service. 80% of us will go out to eat this week. We've worked in food service or we know someone who is in food service and it's important to us to take care of them.

Peter Biello: For sure. What changes would you like to see in the industry, though, to not necessarily work you out of a job but maybe make it less necessary?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: You know, I think it's just really important for the managers and the owners of anyone in food service to know that we exist as a resource. That is our No. 1 priority, is that awareness. Telling people about Giving Kitchen is No. 1. Referring them to QPR suicide prevention training is wonderful. Showing up and tipping your server big, going out to eat and supporting those who serve us every single day.

Peter Biello: You're based in Atlanta, but this is not solely for Atlanta. Can you tell us a little bit about your reach both inside the state of Georgia and beyond it?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: Absolutely. So, again, we started here in Atlanta, Ga., as community support. And we have grown. Our level of growth has really been over the last 18-24 months. We have now served food service workers in 45 out of our 50 states. We're really proud of that. We are working on serving those in Maine and Wyoming and Idaho and the Dakotas just in case you're out there and need some help. Giving Kitchen is here to help you.

Peter Biello: They might be listening.

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: They might be listening.

Peter Biello: So, I mean, a lot of nonprofits have labors of love to some extent. How do you feel doing this work for so long?

Jen Hidinger-Kendrick: I mean, for me personally, I share a personally driven story all day long, every single day. And it's empowering and powerful. I think at the end of the day, community can offer life-changing help one person at a time, one community at a time. And if you are a food service [worker] out there and need help, please support us and ask for help at givingkitchen.org.