metro
Behind The Kitchen Door
Jewish groups learn about the on-the-job problems of food workers.
I
Barbara Lewis
support restaurant workers displaced by
the 9/11 World Trade Center attack. ROC
United now has 15 state affiliates involved
ou're enjoying a pleasant res-
in workplace justice for restaurant work-
taurant meal. The ambience is
ers, research and advocacy, and "high-
pleasant, the waiter is attentive,
road practices:' which include equitable
the food is tasty. But do you know what
wages for food workers.
goes on behind the kitchen door?
For the past 22 years, the national
That was the question a number of
"tipped wage" guaranteed to wait staff and
congregations and Jewish organizations
bartenders has been only $2.13 an hour,
set out to answer at a program April 12 at
Farris said. As of September, Michigan's
Colors restaurant in Downtown Detroit.
minimum tipped wage will rise to $3.10.
"This event, 'Behind the Kitchen Door'
Managers assume the staff will make up
was designed to look at working
for low wages in tips, but that's not
conditions for food workers in
always the case.
Metro Detroit:' said Steve Merritt
One of the panelists, Zachary
of Farmington Hills, one of the
■ --;- Montgomery, described working as
event organizers.
\4 a busser at a buffet restaurant. The
Those who work as dishwash-
wait staff, who only served drinks,
ers and food prep staff usually
could earn up to $400 a night in
earn much less than those who
t tips. Management didn't have a
work in the front of the house as
system for sharing tips; the buss-
Steve M erritt
servers and bartenders and who
ers, who worked hard to keep the
have the opportunity to earn
tables clean and were also paid the
more through tips. But servers also suffer
tipped wage of $2.13 an hour, never made
when managers cut their hours or skim off more than $30 in tips for a night's work.
some of their tips.
Montgomery suggested that restau-
About 40 people attended the event,
rant patrons give their tips directly to
which began with a vegetarian soul-food
their servers instead of on the credit
buffet provided by Colors, a training res-
card because restaurant managers do not
taurant run by Restaurant Opportunities
always pass along the full amount of the
tip.
Center (ROC) Michigan. Lunch was fol-
lowed by a discussion of food workers'
"If you want to put the tip on your credit
problems by Alicia Renee Farris, state
card, ask your server if they will get the
director of ROC, and three ROC students.
full amount of the tip if you do:' he said.
The event was sponsored by the Ann
Work schedules are also an issue for res-
Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation,
taurant workers, she said. Few restaurants
Congregation T'chiyah in Oak Park,
pay overtime, and some make their staff
Detroit Jews for Justice, the Isaac
clock out if the place is empty but won't let
Agree Downtown Synagogue, the
them leave, so that they have to be there
Reconstructionist Congregation of Detroit, physically without being paid.
Repair the World and Temple Kol Ami in
Many restaurant workers are so poorly
West Bloomfield.
paid that they qualify for food stamps,
ROC Michigan is an affiliate of ROC
even when they work 40 hours a week,
Farris said.
United, which grew out of an effort to
Contributing Writer
y
Shemitah Year Program
It's shemitah year, the Torah-ordained
"Sabbath for the land." Every seven
years, agricultural land in Israel should
remain fallow.
Examining the meaning of shemi-
tah year in today's world intrigued a
group of congregants at the Ann Arbor
Reconstructionist Congregation. They
pulled in members of other area congre-
gations and formed the Jewish Alliance
for Food, Land and Justice. The group
has held several programs about food
justice and the shemitah year.
On Sunday, June 14, from 10 a.m.-
2 p.m., they're planning a Farm
20 April 23 • 2015
JN
Education and Sustainable Food Fest in
Ann Arbor at Green Things Farm, 3825
Nixon Road, and Mattaei Botanical
Garden,1800 N. Dixboro Road, both in
Ann Arbor.
It will include tours, lectures and
demonstrations at Mattaei Botanical
Garden and tours of Green Things
Farm, a community-supported agricul-
ture (CSA) enterprise owned by Nate
Lada and Jill Sweetman. Shuttle buses
will run between the botanic garden
and the farm.
Participants will learn about soil,
bees, fair trade, eating seasonally and,
of course, the shemitah year.
Rena Basch of Ann Arbor and Harry Reisig of Detroit at Colors Restaurant
Most restaurants also do not offer paid
sick days, forcing many workers to come
to work when they should stay away for
the sake of the other staff and the custom-
ers.
ROC Michigan trains people for "front-
of-the-house" jobs as servers or bartend-
ers. The 10-week program offers four
weeks of instruction in bartending skills,
safe food handling and service skills fol-
lowed by six weeks of work at Colors, a
full-service restaurant at 311 E. Grand
River in Detroit that is open for lunch
Tuesday through Friday. Colors also caters
private parties and special events.
The Colors servers are paid $10.10 an
hour, and the staff split the tips.
ROC Michigan's program is funded by
foundations and by other nonprofit orga-
nizations that send their clients there for
training.
The organization also runs the Colors
Co-op Academy to train teams how to
The free program is supported by
a generous grant from the Jewish
Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, said
Rena Basch, one of the organizers.
The grant will deepen the work of
the Alliance to connect Jews to proj-
ects and programs that match deeply
held Jewish values toward creating a
fair and sustainable food system.
Programs will include a community
database of everything food, land and
justice related; farm-to-institution
program development and support; a
farm-to-shabbos table initiative; and
a partnership with the newly located
HAZON Detroit for the creation of a
open worker-owned, cooperative, good
food businesses.
Steve Merritt, a member of Temple
Kol Ami and the Isaac Agree Downtown
Synagogue, said he learned about ROC
Michigan when he became interested in
food justice and the "invisible" problems
of restaurant workers.
"Lots of people are concerned about eat-
ing organic and locally grown produce:'
he said. "The condition of the people who
pick and prepare our food does not get the
same attention:'
Jews need to be concerned about food
justice because we are commanded to care
for strangers and for the weak and vulner-
able in our communities, he said.
Deb Kraus of Ann Arbor said she found
the April 12 program "validating:'
As a former waitress and the mother of
someone who is now working as a wait-
ress, I am very enthusiastic about what I'm
hearing; she said.
❑
2016 Jewish Food Festival.
Tables at the June 14 event are
available for vendors and organiza-
tions. Nonprofit organizations and
businesses that demonstrate their
food processes will pay $18; the fee for
other vendors is $36.
The goal is to engage and educate
people in creating a more just and sus-
tainable food system and empowering
them to take action in their own lives
and in their communities, Basch said.
For details about the event or tables,
contact Idelle Hammond-Sass at (734)
741-4441 or Rena Basch at rena®
locavorious.com .
❑