Last year, Bar & Restaurant Expo invited Southern Smoke Foundation to be a charity partner at the show, alongside our longtime partner CORE: Children of Restaurant Employees. We’re delighted to announce that both organizations are returning to the show.
Southern Smoke Foundation launched in 2015 as a fundraiser for the MS Society. Since then, the organization has developed into an industry powerhouse, distributing over $9 million to service workers in need.
Bar & Restaurant spoke with Kathryn Lott, Executive Director of Southern Smoke Foundation to hear about what’s changed since we last saw them at Bar & Restaurant Expo.
How is Southern Smoke feeling about coming back to Bar & Restaurant Expo this year?
We are so thrilled to come back to the Bar and Restaurant Expo this year! We learned so much in our first year and we really feel that we know how to navigate the convention now. Last year proved to be the start of some very valuable friendships for us and we look forward to building on those and getting to visit with new friends. And generally, we are curious to hear how people are operating and what struggles they are facing so we know how we can best help.
How was your experience at Bar & Restaurant Expo last year?
Last year was such an out of body experience! We hadn’t traveled since the start of COVID-19 until the convention—we had barely been out of our houses. And for the first excursion to be Vegas!? It was stimulus overload, but a welcomed change to our daily routine. The seminars were just fantastic. I have used a lot of the information that I gathered throughout the year—in fact, a lot of my staffing decisions were based on the great advice that was provided.
What’s changed since we last saw you?
There have been countless changes since last year, yes. We have hired a Director of Philanthropy, a Director of Advancement, a Content Manager and we are currently hiring an Events Manager. Our fundraising can finally include in-person events again, so we are very busy planning our annual food and wine festival in Houston. And we are trying to navigate what we will do for office space now that we don’t have to work from home and kids are back in school. We have experienced exponential growth over the past two years, and we are so proud of the work that we have been able to accomplish—we have helped thousands of people in crisis and distributed over $9.4 million to those in need. We have also begun to expand our free mental health program outside of just the state of Texas. We are now in Louisiana and will be in California shortly.
How have the needs of the F&B community changed over the last few years?
We find that the needs are much greater now than they were in 2020 and 2021. There is no longer a safety net of unemployment benefits, stimulus funds, moratoriums, rent forgiveness, utility payment plans, etc… Restaurant and bar workers have sent their children back to school, but classes are cancelled or the family has to quarantine due to COVID-19 exposure fairly regularly, and that leads to missed shifts and financial setbacks. Also, we have found that those workers who were experiencing minor health problems in early 2020 never made appointments with medical professionals and are now finding out that their health has suffered from the lack of care they have received.
In addition to donations, how can people support your work?
We love for people to get involved on behalf of the food and beverage workers who need help! And you don’t have to have money to do so. You can participate in a marathon and get sponsors, have a fundraiser at your home or place of work, have a fundraiser on Facebook for your birthday—and ultimately help spread the word so that people who are in need know that we are here and that we can help.
Make sure to say hello to the Southern Smoke Foundation team at Bar & Restaurant Expo. Bar & Restaurant Expo (formerly Nightclub & Bar Show) is a live, in-person event held March 21-23, 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Click here get your tickets now!
For sponsorship opportunities, contact Fadi Alsayegh at [email protected], Veronica Gonnello at [email protected] or Tim Schultz at [email protected].
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