CULINARY HOSPITALITY OUTREACH AND WELLNESS INC

Our programming includes:
Eight group discussion meetings a week. These meetings are open to all – chef, servers, bussers, bartenders, owners, suppliers, farmers, writers, dishwashers, and industry veterans. Meetings are facilitated by an “Expo” (a person who has walked the path of recovery from mental illness/substance use disorder and is trained to assist others in their recovery). We currently have one Spanish meeting and one ALL women’s meeting, the rest are open to everyone. Our meetings are for anyone looking to improve their wellness. (We are not a sober group, though our meetings are substance free spaces). https://chowco.org/meetings/#calendar

A unique Mental Health Amuse’ Course. Amuse’ is a training course that is free to anyone in the hospitality industry and is meant to shine light on some of the most pressing issues affecting workplace wellness. This course offers tangible evidenced based skills that everyone can use for themselves or to support a coworker/friend. https://chowco.org/get-involved/#amuse-training

We are partnered with Khesed Wellness. Khesed Wellness makes outpatient mental health and wellness services affordable for the underinsured. They offer 16 free sessions to folks in the hospitality industry. https://www.khesedwellness.com/ (in CO, IL, TX, and MI) https://www.khesedwellness.com/ The Giving kitchen https://thegivingkitchen.org/stability-network also has partnered with Better Help to provide resources nationwide. (They can also help with financial crisis.) Here's our resources page, https://chowco.org/resources/#about-partners , it has a large list of options to help with overall wellness. There are also health assessments on our resources page. They can help people to figure out why they are feeling who they are feeling and provide the language to start talking about it with someone. The Colorado Restaurant Association also has an Angel Relief Fund to help folks in financial crisis. https://corestaurant.org/angel-relief-fund/hardship-application/

We've created part 1 of a Workplace Wellness Toolkit of actionable items that owners and operators can implement for a healthier workplace. We hope to have part 2 compiled soon and will share it on our social media, newsletter, and blog. https://chowco.org/all-blogs/ If anyone is doing something at their work place that is working, please share with us so each business doesn't have to recreate the wheel - erin@chowco.org.

Lastly, we've just finished The CHOW Recipe for Wellness workbook. It's a self guided, self assessing, evidence-based workbook based on the 8 ingredients of wellness. It is written in simple, straight forward language with exercises, techniques, and stories to help those in the hospitality industry improve their wellness, inside or outside of the workplace.