About the Fund
The hospitality industry cannot become more just unless the white supremacy and anti-Blackness that animate it, are rooted out. That’s why RWCF launched the Restaurant Workers’ Racial Justice Fund (RJF), led by a steering committee of BIPOC hospitality professionals and industry activists.
Bronx-based Carlos Luciano is an artist, illustrator, and graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology. He develops vivid, hand-drawn prints for his venture Pastel Pony and, in 2021, began a DIASPORA series for which he paints Black and queer subjects. You can follow him on Instagram @lucianocarlitos
Info and Answers
We encourage you to explore this page or use the links below to find answers to common questions about the fund.
Restaurant Workers' Racial Justice Fund
RWCF is investing an initial $100,000 in the fund, which will work to address the specific injustices faced by Black, Indigenous, and other workers of color. Under the guidance of the fund director and the steering committee, RJF will partner with organizations that share RWCF’s vision of a racially just hospitality industry, and one in which:
People of color receive pay commensurate with their abilities, and even the lowest wages are enough to live on before overtime and gratuities.
Marginalized people receive credit for their contributions and sufficient, supported opportunities to grow, expand, and exercise their expertise.
Worker safety is prioritized, and clear, compassionate pathways to restoration are available in the event that harm is done.
Workers receive sufficient support and resources for the maintenance of their mental and physical health.
People of color making a living through food can do so regardless of the whims and trends of the industry at large, which, as it stands, is biased toward white tastes.
RWCF is fully committed to fund transparency and recognizes that the goals and aspirations of the fund will shift over time. The fund director and steering committee are committed to hearing and internalizing feedback on their work, and to making amendments to their plans in order to better serve their community. For full details about the fund, please download our prospectus.
Meet the RJF Steering Committee Members
RJF is led by a steering committee of BIPOC hospitality professionals and industry activists. Steering Committee members are recruited for their proven commitments to racial equity, industry reform, and social justice, and for their frontline experience as racial minorities in food.
Jenny Dorsey,
Jenny Dorsey is a professional chef, author, and speaker specializing in interdisciplinary storytelling that fuses food with social good. She left the fashion world and an MBA program to pursue a career in food—first in fine dining and now with her own consulting business. She leads a nonprofit and community think tank named Studio ATAO that creates content and experiences at the intersection of food, art, and social impact.
In addition to speaking at Charleston Wine + Food Festival, the ReThink Conference, Tiffany & Co, and the Museum of Food & Drink, Jenny’s food and work have been featured in outlets, including Food Network, Oxygen TV, Eater, Food & Wine, Bon Appetít.
Born in Milwaukee, Raeghn Draper began her hospitality career at 15, washing dishes in a local bakery. In 2015, she earned a pastry degree and moved to Chicago to pursue her dream of becoming a pastry chef, and while working in restaurants, she engaged with the greater Chicago community through organizing. In 2020, after being laid off from her full-time job as a server, Raeghn threw herself into community work, engaging with organizations such as Brave Space Alliance, Beyond the Bomb, Healthy Hood, and Defund CPD.
Frustrated with the lack of support for hospitality workers and silence from large restaurant groups, Raeghn started CHAAD Project with former coworker Leah Ball. CHAAD Project is a decentralized database that focuses on ethical business practices in Chicago hospitality and gives power back to the people who make the industry work. Raeghn believes in the power of mutual aid and imagination to shape a better future that works for all of us.
Raeghn Draper,
Lauren Paylor,
While Bronx-born Lauren Paylor was attending nursing school in Washington, D.C., she met Derek Brown and got swept into hospitality and bartending. She rose to lead bartender of Brown’s Drink Company and went on to roles at Kimpton Hotels, The Dabney, and Silver Lyan.
Along with Alex Jump, Lauren is co-founder and owner of Focus On Health, a consultancy focused on health and wellness for hospitality workers. She has placed in the top four at USBG World Class and holds the title for the Hardy Cognac Legend Competition 2019 and the Cognac Connection Competition 2020. Lauren also serves as a brand ambassador for Seedlip, a trainer with Safe Bars, and the social media coordinator for Speed Rack.
Paylor and her cocktails have been featured in Imbibe Magazine, Consumer Reports, NBC News, The Washington Post, Essence, Southern Living, The Bitter Southerner, Cherry Bombe, Southwest: The Magazine, Thrillist, Eater, VinePair, and Williams-Sonoma.
Clay Williams began photographing food and drink for blogs, newspapers, and magazines in 2006. In the years since, he’s hung off the back of food trucks in Paris, sweat it out in tight kitchens with Michelin-starred chefs, and wandered through cattle farms with a team of butchers. He photographs assignments for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The James Beard Foundation, and Imbibe Magazine, among others.
Clay is also the co-founder of Black Food Folks, a platform for Black professionals working in food, food service, and food media. Since its inception in 2019, the group has provided a space for members to meet, network, collaborate, and tell their stories.
Clay Williams,
Introduce Us
To Great Work
RJF welcomes recommendations for organizations seeking funding for their work, and the steering committee will focus its efforts on developing new initiatives with organizations—within and outside the restaurant industry—that target issues of racial injustice in hospitality. Grantmaking efforts will prioritize Black- and femme-led organizations.
The fund’s first grantees include
$10,000
A watchdog organization for Chicago-area hospitality organizations and their commitments to justice issues, CHAAD’s grant funded for mentorship, fundraising consultation, and general operating support through the end of 2021.
$10,000
A community think tank focused on revolutionizing hospitality industry practices in the Detroit area and beyond, the grant supported FoodLab Detroit’s Fellowship for Change in Food & Labor, as well as a collaboration with RAISE: High Road Restaurants to train a cohort of fellows on racial justice.
$10,000
A collective of indigenous food systems workers and activists that endeavor to change the narrative of Native cuisine,
I-Collective’s grant funded the development of Gathering Basket, their indigenous cookbook and community programming.
$10,000
A collective of LGBTQ+ food systems workers and activists building a network and support system for similarly-identified workers, Queer Food Foundation received a planning grant for general operating support.
$10,000
A collective of restaurants committed to creating more equitable environments for their workers, and administered by One Fair Wage, RJF’s grant aided in the dissemination of their Racial Equity Toolkit, as well as their collaboration with FoodLab Detroit to train a cohort of Fellows for Change in Food & Labor.
$20,000
A decentralized think-tank that targets its efforts on the hospitality industry, Studio ATAO’s grant went toward the development of The Neighborhood’s Table, a program that aims to combat gentrification by creating a responsible development framework for hospitality businesses in gentrifying areas to combat displacement and sustainably invest in their community.