As Valentine’s Day approaches, I always call the locally-based, independent restaurants in mid-Missouri and ask for radio interviews, to remind people to treat their sweeties to a locally-based meal. When you eat at a restaurant that buys local, you’re getting a bonus … you can help your restaurateurs and help your farmers. It’s a win-win.
It’s never hard to convince good chefs to talk to the public. They’re excited about what they do, and they’re proud of what they’ve accomplished. In the last two years, they’ve remodeled their business plans to include more curbside deliveries, more chances to pick up food and take it home. Some are even putting together kits of sustainably-raised, fresh ingredients for home preparation. These “pivots” have helped restaurants stay in business while people are timid to eat out, and the strategies will stay with them as part of their services.
And, this year, I’m hearing something new from the independent restaurant group. With the hiring crunch, partially due to COVID-19, many restaurants appreciate their labor force in a whole new way. Some have had to cut back on services and hours. And along with that comes thoughtful appreciation for the help staff. While the chains and franchises might be able to get by with huge national advertising budgets, independent owners hope that their jobs will develop into a whole new system. Instead of “what-are-you-going-to-do-when-you-grow-up” jobs, the restaurants want to build careers. So, as a start, they’re offering more benefits. Meaning real salaries. Overtime for long days. Health insurance. Retirement plans. They’re even creating evaluations that bring promotions as workers develop more skills.
Yes, these things come at a cost for consumers, and we’ll get to that in a minute. But, in the meantime, the hope is that the benefits create a stable workforce in an industry that everyone uses — food service.
Let’s say you’re a kid that’s starts your working life because you need to help out at home. Maybe mom’s working three or four jobs to keep the rent paid and food on the table. You’re going to begin at a minimum-wage job, you know that, and your choices are babysitting, dog walking, mail room gofer, chain store stocker or dishwasher at a restaurant. All of them can lead to better things if you play your cards right, but which one will give you a chance at promotion? Nowadays, the restaurant owners want you to choose them.
The hope, for the restaurateurs I’ve talked to, is that they can train the dishwasher to become a line cook, tossing salads or mashing potatoes. Mastering a few simple skills and seeing how to behave in the kitchen, that person might become a sous-chef, learning a few more skills and being on track for more education and real status. And a 401K. Or, for the kid with good people skills, s/he becomes a waiter, handling the public and answering questions. They learn the importance of where food comes from and how it’s prepared. At that point they might get benefits—health care, vacation days.
Eventually, the thinking goes, the former dishwashers move into restaurant ownership. Maybe the restaurant takes them on as partners, moving into more spaces, or maybe they become chefs and open their own places. Whatever the path, their stores become valuable to the community, they become employers, and they get in a position to take more kids on the same path, but with better stories to tell.
When you ask restaurateurs if they have a model for the system they imagine, they point to restaurants in Europe. In those independent stores, workers often start their work day with a meal prepared by the chef. It might be tonight’s special, or treats from the menu, but the idea is that wait staff should be able to recommend foods that they’ve experienced. They should be able to tell consumers what’s in season, where the foods came from and when the ingredients came into the store. They should serve as a bridge between the kitchen, especially the chefs, and the consumer. Every restaurant has a philosophy on ingredients, and may insist on all-vegetarian, or all-organic, all-local. The national chains probably just heat up what arrives on the truck.
Now for the money part. Yes, someone has to pay for improved working conditions and benefits, and that someone is the consumer. But the stability of the workforce will save managers and owners money that will improve their bottom line. And, for consumers, the idea is that tipping will be unnecessary as businesses become more professional. This is hard to imagine, but as a part of an evolving society, paychecks will grow.
And how great will that be? If we don’t allow those changes to happen, we will be forever trapped in that zone of cheap food, underpaid staff, and the uncomfortable moment when you decide how much to tip. Many a Valentine dinner has been ruined by that embarrassing chore.
Margot Ford McMillen farms near Fulton, Mo., and co-hosts “Farm and Fiddle” on sustainable ag issues on KOPN 89.5 FM in Columbia, Mo. She also is a co-founder of CAFOZone.com, a website for people who are affected by concentrated animal feeding operations. Her latest book is “The Golden Lane: How Missouri Women Gained the Vote and Changed History.” Email: margotmcmillen@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2022
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