The Industry Check In

We wanted to check in with those that have shared their stories at the height of the pandemic to update us on how they are feeling amongst this pandemic spin cycle.

To moving forward.

“I was very pregnant, and now I have an 11 month old baby.

Her grandparents on my side have only met her once, briefly, and the other side has met her twice in person. She still hasn’t met some of her aunts and uncles and she is terrified of strangers because of how few faces she has seen in her lifetime. I’m lucky enough to have spent this whole year safely quarantined with my spouse, our son in 3rd grade, our new baby and our dog, Dolly Parton. I’ve spent this time mostly being a mom, helping my son with remote schooling and more recently, going back to school myself. I figured it was time to remove myself from those competing for the smaller pool of restaurant industry jobs, so I enrolled in nursing school. So our house has had to contain a growing family and the constantly changing needs of one person working from home, two students learning remotely and a baby whose needs change on a daily basis.

I can say that I’m grateful for the time with my family. I’m not grateful for the sickness, the lives lost or changed for the worst and I’m not grateful for the constant hum of anxiety in the background of life. I’m not grateful that my son went a whole year without finding a best friend in his class or that my daughter has only seen six unmasked faces in her entire life. I’m not grateful that I can’t take her into a grocery store because I don’t know if everyone will have their masks over their noses.

There’s an end in sight. My spouse and I are lucky to have had one round of vaccinations already through a neighborhood program and I start clinicals in May. The sun has been out and I’m starting to move our lives out of the house little by little.”

Laura Lynch

“It's been a bit since times have seemed to stop, but race ahead anyway. I've had a lot of changes take place in that time, some for the good and some for the bad. My relationship with food changed a great deal. From being obsessed with making sure to hone my skills, to going weeks without cooking for myself because I couldn't stand the thought of going back to an industry that made me codependent on her services.

Mental health and physical health became my focus, and as such, most other things have started coming together. Pivoting wasn't something I had to learn to do. Chefs are well trained in adjusting in detrimental situations. It was learning to follow through for myself, and filling my own cup, instead of pouring myself wholeheartedly into things I only half care about. I think losing my livelihood and lifestyle through a pandemic taught me one thing: Be the change you want to see.

I don't want to be inspirational, I just want people to think a little harder about what they're doing, and how it affects the people around them.”

Nariba Shepherd of SNACKETTE x Terms of Service Podcast

“It’s been a tough, scary, and confusing year filled with eye opening experiences. I think we’ve all adapted pretty well to our new surroundings, but boy are they uncomfortable. I’m personally still struggling pretty hard. I have to remind myself daily to remain grateful for my health, and all the little things going well in my life. My mental health and my finances continue to suffer at the hands of the pandemic, but the prospect of change is in the air, as well as spring, and I’m hopeful that things will start looking up for us all soon!”

Josefina Aletky

“The experience has been the ultimate paradox. I opened my first restaurant in the fall of 2020 to find both a more forgiving and yet more entitled guest environment. For my team and myself it was both a very special yet very scary time, hyper bonded yet socially distant, and above all; uncharted. As a nation and an industry we still have not received the relief we deserve. Had I a choice in the matter, we would have not opened to begin with and seen instead rent & mortgage relief for both businesses & individuals. All that is to say, I am overwhelmingly proud of my employees and the service industry for continuously making the best with what we have been given.”

Ursula Siker of Jeff & Judes

“To start I want to recognize how incredibly lucky I have been - I worked the entire year, never got sick, and never had anyone close to me get sick; I didn’t really have time to process the idea of working during a pandemic and potentially risking my life to keep a roof over my head.

When we were carry out only in spring-summer 2020, we ran the restaurant with the management team only and all of us worked 6 days a week to keep the place afloat.

I feel I saw the best and the worst parts of the industry [that] year.

The outpouring of support and love we got from our neighbors and regulars was amazing and really kept us motivated when things got hard.
My position was eventually made redundant, and I was offered a lower position with a 40% pay cut, including the loss of my health insurance benefits.

I stayed on, barely able to pay my rent and bills. I was worried about getting sick and going broke, but at the time the extra unemployment funds had expired, not giving me any choice.
I stayed way longer than I should have, but the job market was in the toilet so I figured it was better than nothing.
Finally, a few weeks ago, I got an offer from another restaurant that will turn things around. It’s almost twice the pay and will put me back into a leadership position.

Overall, I feel like I got very lucky. A lot of friends and other people I know weren’t so lucky. I know people that haven’t worked regularly in a year. A lot of my friends have moved away. A lot of restaurants and bars are gone and will never come back.

I hope things will change for the better. I hope we can normalize sick days for hospitality workers - everyone who works in this business has gone to work sick as fuck (scary to think about now). I hope people will appreciate the places in their lives that make life in Chicago more beautiful, more delicious, more vibrant. Because those places can be there one day and gone the next. I don’t think people understood that then, but they damn sure do now.

I hope we come back bigger and better than ever - if there’s any city that understands transformation, it’s Chicago.”

Matthew Smith

Industry Resources

“The past year has without question been challenging to say the least. The ups & downs -. the highs & lows. The back & forth, and uncertainty...2020 was a year that truly tested us. But it proved that our industry is strong.
That our industry is resilient, and I honestly think that we are better off because of what we went through.”

— Tyrone Redic