In March, as the pandemic suddenly halted in-person dining, millions of workers were out of a job, at the mercy of GoFundMe donations and gift card purchases for income. As the country has slowly reopened, some have gone back to work—but many of those who still haven’t are using the time off to mobilize politically. They’re writing letters to voters, text banking, phone banking, and signing up to be poll workers. They, like Rao, are emboldened to make change within their industry and to get involved in the election more broadly—and the organizational and people skills they developed working in restaurants are coming in handy.
Marjorie Nuñez, formerly a waitress at Brooklyn’s Oxalis who is now phone and text banking for her home state of Florida, says she is “not scared of people being rude to me” and “definitely not turned off by talking to strangers.”
As a server, “one of the main objectives is to sell the food and the drinks and the experience,” she says. “When you are…talking about the importance of voting, it is kind of like selling.”
As a former bar manager at À Côté in San Francisco, Wendy Hector says that not only has her restaurant experience made her open to talking to people from all walks of life, but it has also helped her relate to voters, many of whom she says have also worked service industry jobs or have kids or friends recently laid off from the business.
“It definitely bridges the gap,” she says, “when they realize one, you are a real person, and two, you had a real job, and that you are not just some liberal elite calling from an ivory tower.”
Some workers have gone even further, creating or joining organizations to support each other’s efforts. Staff the Polls, started by Matt Weyandt of Xocolatl Small Batch Chocolate, is a resource for Atlanta restaurant employees to sign up to be poll workers—it also calls on restaurant owners to give their staff time off on Election Day and during poll worker training. Another initiative, Drag Out the Vote, is mobilizing drag queens and kings, many of whom are out of a job due to the pause on drag brunch and other drag shows that often take place at bars and restaurants. Kylie Minono, who used to perform as Adele at Hamburger Mary’s in San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood, now stations herself in different areas of the city with other “drag ambassadors” as they are called—all dressed in their finest outfits—asking people if they are registered to vote. She says that young voters in particular are often more interested in approaching a drag queen than an official-looking volunteer on the sidewalk.
“One of the reasons I love drag shows, and especially drag brunches, is that it is an opportunity to exchange energy with people,” she says. “Being out and registering people to vote and being able to engage with the community in that way has helped me to start to feel whole again.”
With no clarity around when restaurants may return in full force, some of these workers have made their shift into politics permanent.
After the owners of Philadelphia’s Vernick Food & Drink announced that the restaurant would be shutting down temporarily in March, Lauren Guild, who ran the door and host stand there, thought about how much she enjoyed canvassing during the 2016 election. A few months into quarantine, she got a job as a field representative for the Progressive Turnout Project, a grassroots political action committee. These days she might be writing personalized letters to voters or calling people to collect data on how many will be voting by mail in swing states.
She doubts she’ll go back to working in restaurants in the near future. “I don’t think I would be doing the things I liked doing,” she says. Masks and distancing restrictions means she’s less able to spend time talking to customers and making one-on-one connections. Her current role better allows for her to build deeper personal bonds over issues that matter to her.
After her job ends on November 3, she plans to stay in advocacy. “No matter who gets elected, there is so much damage to the industry,” she says. “I think my role right now is better as someone fighting for restaurants.”
