Chef Chris Shepherd’s Southern Smoke Foundation Set to Double Its Aid to Restaurant Workers This Year
The Houston-based nonprofit has already awarded $1 million in grants this year — nearly double what it dispersed this time last July
Southern Smoke Foundation, the nonprofit led by Houston’s James Beard Award-winning chef Chris Shepherd and his wife Lindsey Brown, who is the foundation’s executive director, has awarded $12.3 million in aid to restaurant workers since its inception in 2015. Each year, the amount awarded increases, but this year, the foundation is likely to set a startling record.
As of July 1, Brown reports that the nonprofit has already awarded more than $1 million in aid to restaurant workers in crises — a stark contrast from 2023 when it awarded just over $1 million in total for the entire year.
For many within the restaurant industry, it’s a sign of the times. Brown says that some of the credit can go to more overall awareness: people learning about the foundation and its mission. “When somebody gets funded in a community, we receive more applications from that community,” says Brown, adding that word of mouth has been the strongest builder of Southern Smoke’s support and mission. It also reveals that people working in the food, beverage, and hospitality industries may be facing more challenges than are commonly understood.
The surge in applications, particularly those tied to storms and wildfires, is also a testament to the increase in natural disasters and climate crises around the country. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last year that the United States experienced a record number of 28 extreme weather events in 2023 that cost the country at least $92.9 billion. The country also experienced its warmest recorded year yet. Texas leads in terms of cost, incurring an estimated $402 billion from disasters since 1980, and the number of natural disasters is expected to continue to rise, according to NOAA. The need for support for restaurant workers throughout the country will likely continue to increase, and for those impacted in Texas, Southern Smoke is set on sticking around to provide support, Brown says.
The foundation has most recently worked on granting funds to restaurant workers in the Houston area following Tropical Storm Beryl, which hit the Texas coast as a Category 1 hurricane on July 8, leaving several neighborhoods flooded and more than 2 million without power. “We’re seeing more applications [citing] damage than we did with Storm Derecho” in May, Brown says, noting that applications filed after Derecho were primarily geared toward recouping lost wages and groceries. Southern Smoke granted a total of $330,600 to 372 grantees following Storm Derecho, for an average of $888 per person. Brown says the amount dispersed in the aftermath of Beryl is set to exceed that.
Southern Smoke also continues to support restaurant workers who were affected by the fires in Ruidoso, New Mexico, which in June killed two people, burned more than 25,000 acres in and around the city, and damaged around 500 homes, according to NBC News. It’s still awarding funds to restaurant workers in Maui, where another wildfire hit on Wednesday, also the year-anniversary of the Lahaina fires — the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in over a century. Most recently, Southern Smoke received a $35,000 grant from Global Giving, which will help 23 people in Maui. “Many people are in a worse situation now than they were immediately following the fires. … We’ve still got 400 on the waitlist,” Brown says.
On Monday, July 15, Southern Smoke announced that it has expanded its emergency relief aid services to five states, including Maine, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., in addition to its previously serviced areas in Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, New York, and California. Emergency relief is also provided to Puerto Rico. The foundation will also continue to host its largest annual fundraising event, the Southern Smoke Festival, which in its eighth year, will overtake Downtown’s Discovery Green with food from local and celebrity chefs. Brown says tickets, which go on sale on Tuesday, July 16, will go toward supporting restaurant workers who are in crisis or have endured natural disasters, including Beryl.
Shepherd launched the festival eight years ago with Brown as an opportunity to help his friend and former sommelier Antonio Gianola after Gianola was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The mission soon expanded to aid food and beverage industry workers around the country who have experienced natural disasters, medical emergencies, accidents, or other unforeseen events. The foundation also offers no-cost mental health counseling for those in the industry through universities in its serviced states, including South Carolina, through its Behind You mental health program.
“Everything helps,” Brown says.
