usatoday.com
Farm Burger, the burgeriffic chain with a location in the Crosstown Concourse, announced last week that it’s opening late today, 12:30 p.m., to allow its employees to vote. That’s cool. Cooler still, customers who show up with an “I Voted” sticker get free fries.
Those who stop by Celtic Crossing with an “I Voted” sticker can enter to win a $25 gift card.
Chef Kelly English is also encouraging his employees to vote. In an article in Food & Wine last week, he writes,
They are us and they don’t know it yet, so it’s our duty tell them that they are. Challenge them. Ask them what the single biggest political or social issue is to them. They don’t have to answer, but make them think about it. Let them know that as hard as it is on you to be down a set of hands, that in 27 states (including my own state of Tennessee) they can be paid for time if they are scheduled on voting day. Get your team together to hammer out a schedule that works for everyone, so that people have a chance to vote and no one gets too badly in the weeds. Show them that business and humanity can coexist.
In our restaurant group we have made an agreement with Sweetgrass, another restaurant here in Memphis, to give a gift certificate to each other’s employees who vote, to encourage our communities and to give them a place to go that isn’t where they work. Make sure the people you work with know this is their (sometimes first) opportunity to feel seen and to be part of a huge decision. Encourage them to share their thoughts with a vote the same way they share their culture with your team to make it stronger. These types of sharing and strength are no different from each other. Tell your teams that they are you, and you are going to vote.
Socially responsible? Count us in. And go vote, then go eat.
