This Is A Difficult Day For Many

It’s Thanksgiving day. We’ve devoted the last few newsletters to sharing our recipes and gift ideas, and, normally, we never send emails to you all on Thursdays (holiday or not). This year, we wanted to share something that (as we’re missing family and feeling generally anxious about what the next few months might hold) has helped put some things in perspective for us.

It’s a recording of a Zoom call I recently had with Saru Jayaraman, a friend and the President of One Fair Wage, an incredible organization seeking to end the subminimum wage in the United States. Saru covers a lot of interesting things in this video (including how the subminimum wage dates back to emancipation, the absurd power of “the other NRA”, and some absolutely infuriating political maneuvering in Michigan), but here’s the bottom line: This Thanksgiving, as the pandemic continues to rage, many millions of food workers who rely on tips to survive are struggling significantly. Many have been denied unemployment insurance, many are homeless, many can’t feed their kids or pay for heat, and many are forced to endure sexual harassment from restaurant customers who make them take their masks off to see how they look (in order to decide how much to tip). It’s maddening.