{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"FULL COMP: Restaurant Tactics, Tools, & Strategies","title":"How To Do Well By Doing Good: Chef Chris Shepherd founder of Southern Smoke","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":1683,"description":"On today's show, we chat with James Beard award winning chef Chris Shepherd founder of the non-profit, Southern Smoke.\nMost of us in the hospitality industry wouldn’t consider ourselves needy or in need of assistance. We’re internally motivated, not afraid of hard work and resourceful as hell. But when the pandemic hit it decimated our industry and our livelihoods. Out of the blue Southern Smoke came to the rescue. To date they have distributed millions of dollars to hospitality workers in need. \nToday, it’s founder shares it’s origins, their mission and what they’re doing to ensure we’re all taken care of.\nClick to sign up for our weekly newsletter.\nClick here to book time on my personal calendar.\nClick here to download our Restaurant Recovery Guide.\nWant to streamline your front-of-house operations and increase sales? Head over to http://restaurants.yelp.com/fullcomppodcast to claim your free page and learn more about these powerful tools for your business.\nSHOW NOTES\n\n Beginnings of charity work\nStarted doing dinners to raise money for culinary scholarships\nLost a colleague to MS. Business partner also had MS\nStarted planning a dinner for MS which transformed into a festival\nRaised $181k for the MS Society year 1\nYear 2 raised $284k\nBeginnings of Southern Smoke\nHurricane Harvey devastated local businesses\nNo designated support for hospitality businesses\nEmulated The Giving Kitchen from Atlanta\nThe vetting process at Southern Smoke\nThat first year there were 250 applications\n139 families awarded $500k\nSouthern Smoke continues to donate to MS, remainder to hospitality workers\nSouthern Smoke during Covid\nOriginally has 2.5 employees\nNow has over 40 employees\nHire unemployed hospitality workers and trained them to be caseworkers\nOver 25k applications\nGranted over 1000 over $2million\nWilly Nelson concert donated funds\nReopening of restaurants\nRunning at 50% capacity does not mean that 50% of potential covers will come to the restaurant\nMany people still not...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/6OAanP6N7rKCCEP4OYgZT_i74QmCwgk2rH1cSWqhfvs/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8zYzkz/MGQ5M2Y5MWZmM2E0/NGM3MzFmNzQ0OGZl/NDhhYi5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}