For many in Durango, the restaurant and hospitality industry is how they make a living.

Restaurants and bars are heavily emphasized because of the city’s high visitation rate, especially during the summer. While many of the workers are passionate about their job, the industry does come with a level of stress and mental unrest.

In 2019, John Rowe and Blaine Bailey started In The Weeds, a nonprofit organization geared toward helping change the culture of mental health in the restaurant industry.

Bailey sat down with The Durango Herald to discuss the issues of mental health and substance use in the hospitality industry.

Q: How did In The Weeds start?

A: We start a few years ago, and before that I've been in the industry for 17 years now. I really first thought of the idea in 2015.

My co-founder, John Rowe, was working for me at Carver's, and we had lost one of our cooks to an overdose. We had already been working with him trying to connect them to other resources in town, but we're still running a business.

And John, he was in school for his sociology as (a licensed clinical social worker) and everything. I told him, I said, “Man, when you graduate we need therapy for freaking chefs,” and we laughed it off then, like, “That'll never happen,” you know? Years went on, and in 2018, I had gone through loss of relationship and was hitting the bottle hard and just stressed out working all the time.

I couldn't spend time in my relationship and my partnership and my personal relationships. So I decided it was time to take a break for a bit and went out to Wisconsin for summer and just getting away from everything out here.

I went to work for a company. And our chef, she gave us a project for the summer and it (focused on) “How can we save the world through food?”

And so I started thinking about it. I kind of got down to the individual, you know, you can't help anybody else until you help yourself. Then it was like, “What does that look like? And so why not our industry? the hospitality industry?” Because we are connected to every other industry …

Everybody from bankers, construction, real estate, whatever, they all go to restaurants at some point, you know, usually at some time in the week … and we have an awesome opportunity to kind of connect with those other industries … We’re there for good food service, drink, atmosphere, all those types of things.

Everybody from bankers, construction, real estate, whatever, they all go to restaurants at some point. We have an awesome opportunity to kind of connect with those other industries. We can literally change the trajectory of someone's day.

That was kind of where the idea started, and then we decided to bring it back here to Durango because we have so many restaurants in town.

I already knew a lot of the restaurant chefs and was focused on the restaurants, and it was kind of like we had that relationship built, because we are talking about mental health and substance use and suicide prevention, all those heavy things.

Q: If you had to scale it, how bad is the issue of mental health or substance use in the restaurant or hospitality industry?

A: In La Plata County … I don't have those numbers off the top of my head. To give you an idea nationally, and this is even worldwide, we are the third largest industry for substance use issues.

I think the top two are like health and construction or something. But you know, we always laugh like it was so bad in our industry because it really is like the rock star lifestyle, and you could party and still keep your job and all that.

Then when we start looking into like the entertainment sector and it’s No. 4, and (hospitality’s) No. 3. It’s like, ‘Oh, we actually party harder than the rock stars.’

Q: Why do you think that is?

A: There’s numerous things that kind of overlap. From being overworked, underpaid, and it's a big passion-based industry.

Folks ask like, “Why do you stay in this industry if it's not that great pay?” We love what we do. We love helping others, take care of others, whatever. It is (a) lower-income industry, which is something we're trying to change and work on, creating a viable career out of this industry.

And then there’s ease of access. If you're working in a restaurant, booze is right there at all times. Especially if you're a bartender or server, and pouring drinks constantly. So we’re trying to shift that culture.

A lot of restaurants will do the shift drinks and those types of things, and so we’re trying to get away from that and provide other healthier incentives and rewards or choices.

Yeah, overworked, underpaid, ease of access, culture, tradition, you know, it was that industry of misfits and users, and you can still keep your job coming in hungover.

That was my first job.

My manager was like, “I don't care what you're on as long as you can still do your job.” We would start drinking at 8 o'clock, you know?

Q: What is your organization offering to help people in the restaurant industry?

A: The biggest one is our top self-care program. So, it's our healthy rewards for healthy choices. And this is how we help our businesses because giving shift drinks is one of the cheapest, easiest benefits workers can get.

But there's folks that are like, “I don't want to drink or they're under 21 or they are sober.” Then its like ‘Well, where's my $3 for not taking my shift drink or whatever?’ People are like, “I might as well take my shift drink because there's nothing else to do.”

So it’s like a punch pass. Each time they turn down a drink, they get a punch. Once they get 10 punches, they can turn it in for like $25 vouchers for different types of healthy alternatives. That's the No. 1 used item.

I moved out here 10 years ago from Arkansas to come and do all the fun stuff and couldn't afford any of the fun stuff. So the other option is trying to remove barriers, we pay for passes to the climbing gym, yoga studios and then we have like snowshoes and snowboards for people in the industry to take out for free.

Summertime, it's paddle boards, kayaks, and then just connecting people to resources, trainings, those types of things.

Stuff like professional life skill and capacity building and training, we'll pay for those folks in the industry to reduce those cost barriers so they can grow and however way they want to.

Q: Do you think there's anything restaurant owners can do to better help this cause, or is it just kind of part of the industry grind?

A: There always is, I think on an individual business level, communicating with your team, and being part of your team and hearing out your staff and paying attention. I think that's the biggest thing, paying attention to the culture, toxicity and how you can help shift that.

Also, reach out for help with that. There's no shame in it. I wouldn't place blame on an individual restaurant. It's just how our industry has been for the past however many years.

I think asking for help, understanding and seeing how they can shift those talking to their team, what would they like to see? Also, being a part of the change and on the forefront and leading it, exemplifying it, you know?

Yeah, there's all different kinds of things they can do. When we first started In The Weeds, we asked, “What's our ultimate mission and vision?” It's like, “Well, let's shift the culture,” but that could take 10 to 50 years or whatever.

When COVID hit, and it really sped up that culture shift because people recognize how much they should be taking care of their mental and physical health.

Restaurants were like … “Here's more pay, here’s benefits, here’s this,” but then food costs shot through the roof because of inflation, and so now they're struggling.

Owners and the chefs and the managers are also having to wash dishes and work every part of the restaurant. So, they no longer have the capacity to communicate with their team because they're exhausted, they're drained or whatever.

Q: What are some of your future plans for In The Weeds?

A: Currently, we're expanding to Montezuma and Archuleta County.

We're kind of working with another organization similar to this out of Denver, but they're kind of the urban piece and we’re the rural (piece).

I think, you know, it's just being out there and supporting folks and helping create those opportunities for folks and really shifting the culture.

It’s also collaborating with others, from business owners to other nonprofits. And it's such a meaningful industry, with all the food shows and documentaries on TV.

It really does impact people's lives, and it can be truly an amazing industry. That's what I miss most is making the food and seeing someone eat my special dish and really loving it.

It is really cool, and I think that's what's really special about our industry too, is that a lot of folks come from broken families and they get to create that new family out of working in a restaurant.

tbrown@durangoherald.com