How to Fill Your Cup

Dear Pros,

You've got Hunter and Kat tag-teaming this week. We and our Food & Wine colleagues love food, drinks, hospitality, and the people who devote their lives to serving others. So we're using today's newsletter to shine a light on the folks in the restaurant and bar world who are using their time, talents, and resources to support their colleagues in need right now due to disasters both natural and human-made.

Here are a few of them in addition to our guides to helping out after Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton:

On Sunday, November 10, Nashville-based chef Sean Brock of Audrey, June, and Joyland is teaming up with Food & Wine, our sister brand Southern Living, and Pihakis Restaurant Group at Rodney Scott BBQ in Birmingham for an event billed as a Cookout for the Carolinas. Proceeds from the event will go to Southern Smoke Foundation, the organization co-founded by 2013 F&W Best New Chef Chris Shepherd that offers financial assistance to hospitality workers in crisis as well as free mental health resources. To date, more than 3,000 food and beverage workers impacted by Hurricane Helene have applied for assistance, according to Southern Smoke. Donate or buy tickets here.

The Atlanta-based organization The Giving Kitchen also provides emergency assistance to food service workers. Hospitality workers who have lost wages, evacuation expenses, and/or damage to their home and belongings due to recent hurricanes can apply for up to $500 in the form of a Visa gift card. Start by submitting this form, and if you're in a position to donate, you can do so here.

Hunter recently attended the Southern Foodways Alliance symposium in Raleigh where representatives from Southern Smoke, The Giving Kitchen, and Ben's Friends — which supports food and beverage Pros dealing with substance use disorder — took the stage to share how their organizations rooted in the South are helping Pros in need on a nationwide basis.

Restaurants in New Orleans — a city that is no stranger to devastating weather events — have banded together to form Cooks for Carolina, hosting lunches, dinners and events that will benefit the Always Asheville Fund. Restaurants including Commander's Palace, Cochon, Galatoire's, and others will host visiting chefs from Asheville, throw block parties, and otherwise show solidarity with a city that, like New Orleans, heavily relies on a tourism economy to survive.

Nonprofit The Lee Initiative announced that for the month of November, all donations they receive are going to AIR Asheville, an organization that supports local restaurants and artists as they rebuild. Additionally, founder Edward Lee wrote on Instagram, "I am donating the profits from the entire month of November from @610magnolia and I will personally match that amount to give to small independent restaurants that need grants over the winter. We will also be donating funds from @succotashrestaurant here in DC."

2020 F&W Best New Chef Camille Cogswell is taking Walnut Family Bakery on the road with a series of traveling bake sales to support her small, rural town of Marshall, NC. Follow Camille on Instagram @camillecogswell for future dates, or donate directly to recovery efforts via GoFundMe.

And if you happen to be in the New York City area and have opportunities for 2024 F&W Best New Chef Silver Iocovozzi over the next few weeks, Kat guarantees that you and your guests will not have a better meal or party all year. Silver and his husband Cherry own Neng Jr.'s in Asheville, NC, where necessities like clean water are still in short and prohibitively expensive supply. While their employees have been able to obtain grants and emergency relief, the restaurant can't currently reopen. He writes:

"As we enter our 6th week of closure we have decided to temporarily relocate to NYC for the month of November to early December to seek out work. We have a couple of pop-ups lined up, but we're hoping to book additional event work of any kind. If you hear of anything that we might fit the bill for, we would love it if you would pass our names along to people in your network.

We are extremely passionate about the work we do, the food and wine we share, and the hospitality experiences we are able to create. We have hosted many gorgeous dinners, parties, drag shows, tasting menus, and whole hog barbecues. We're malleable, hard working, and live to curate experiences that bring tears to our diner's eyes. We're hoping to put those skills to work until we can return to our beautiful jewel box of a restaurant."

Reach out to Hunter or Kat and we'll put you in touch with Silver. If you hear of any more efforts, please let us know.

However you choose to use your time and resources in the coming months, please remember to take moments to check in on yourself and make sure you're getting the rest, nutrition, and community connection you need to keep going. As the saying goes, you can't pour from an empty cup, and the thing the hospitality community does best is keeping an eye out for the people who need a refill.

Be well,
Hunter, Kat, and the Food & Wine team