Tales of the Cocktail Foundation is pleased to announce a scholarship opportunity for Tales of the Cocktail 2025. This year, the Scholarship Program is dedicated posthumously to TOTCF Philanthropy & Development Committee member Chris Patino. Learn more about the Scholarship Program and Chris’ impact on the industry here.

The 2025 submission period is January 7 – February 9, 2025. 

Applications are due by Feb. 9, 2025!

Recipients of the 2025 Tales of the Cocktail Scholarship will be notified in March 2025.

To learn more, click here.

Another Round, Another Rally

Another Round Another Rally is a nonprofit financial and educational resource for the hospitality industry. They provide reimbursement grants and immersive educational scholarships to further the education of historically excluded voices in the community, and supply emergency assistance to those employed in restaurants, bars, and hotels who have fallen on unexpected hardship.

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Focus on Health

Focus on Health serves up wellness with a side of hospitality flair. Born amidst the chaos of COVID-19, they’ve crafted a haven for those in the food and beverage industry, because they know that taking care of others starts with taking care of yourself. At Focus on Health, the mission is clear: to enrich the lives of those who dedicate themselves to taking care of others. Whether you’re a bartender, a server, a chef, or anyone in between, they’re here to support you on your journey to a healthier, happier you.

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Safe Bars Inc.

Safe Bars Inc. was founded in 2013 with the mission to create safe, equitable, and inclusive alcohol-serving spaces by empowering staff with the tools to recognize and intervene in problematic situations. Run by and for hospitality professionals, they’ve grown from training staff at DC bars to teams and establishments nationally and internationally on bystander intervention, de-escalation, and allyship. Safe Bars Inc. is the leader in gender-based violence prevention for the hospitality community, and their goal is to reach more people, more venues, and more communities to end sexual violence and change the culture of our industry.

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A Sip of Paradise Garden 

A Sip of Paradise Garden is a nonprofit bartenders’ community garden that provides horticultural therapy, employment resources, and health and wellness programs for bartenders and the greater hospitality community to recharge their minds, bodies and spirits.

Equal Measures UK

Equal Measures was founded to support marginalized groups and individuals and enrich possibilities for those from Black, Asian, and other minority ethnicities, as well as other marginalized groups, such as queer and genderqueer persons, those who are neurodivergent, or who face systemic barriers to their progression.

Giving Kitchen

Giving Kitchen assists food service workers and bartenders across the United States. They are a food service community meeting crisis with compassion and care. Their mission is to provide emergency assistance to food service workers through financial support and a network of community resources.

Turning Tables 

Turning Tables is a bar training program that reflects the city they serve: New Orleans. Turning Tables advocates for equity in the hospitality industry for exposure in a system of support for the Black and Brown communities of New Orleans. Turning Tables is changing the face of hospitality by cultivating leadership and creating a model for equitable access to career pathways.

Mardi Gras Gives

This grant initiative provided $62,500 in immediate relief funds to New Orleans’ furlough and laid-off bartenders and barbacks affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Eligible bartenders and bar backs were invited to apply for first-come, first-served relief funds. To be eligible for a one-time, $250 grant, bartenders or barbacks must be working in Orleans Parish at a standalone bar or nightclub (not restaurant or hotel) and able to demonstrate loss of employment or furlough status between February 2020 and February 2021. At least 50% of the grant money available will be allocated to eligible applicants who identify as women, members of the BIPOC community and/or applicants over the age of 60.

The Farm Distilled

In partnership with Historic Locust Grove, The FARM DISTILLED project equips underrepresented food and beverage talent; women and people of color, to explore professional development and entrepreneurship in the spirits industry through the exploration of history and trade. In addition, the project aims to advocate for the employment of this talent pool to fulfill projected workforce shortages.

Made in New Orleans Foundation (MiNO)

MiNO’s Equity Program provides practical tools to create unified and equitable workspaces. The program assesses practices that may leave bars and restaurants weak to biases that create barriers for people of color and the business. The eight-month program provides customized solutions to improve business and drive growth for management, staff, and patrons.

Turning Tables 

Turning Tables advocates for diversity, visibility, and inclusivity in the hospitality industry by providing educational tools, platforms for exposure, and a network of support for underserved and underrepresented communities of New Orleans. Our vision is to change the face of hospitality by creating a model for equitable access to career pathways through hands-on training, mentorship, industry exposure, and wrap-around support services. 

The Benevolent

THE BENEVOLENT’s mission is to provide help and support to current and former employees of the drinks industry and their families. As a charity we currently assist over 450 members of the trade with a variety of problems ranging from issues with debt, long-term illness, and support for mental health difficulties through a series of mental health first aid courses across cities within the UK that will be available for bartenders to attend completely free of charge. 

Beyond Bars Akademia

Created in 2017, BEYOND BARS AKADEMIA is a hospitality school rehabilitating women ex-inmates through a holistic approach to reintegration and access to employment in South Africa.

CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees)

Founded in 2004 by beverage industry professionals. Almost twenty years later, CORE continues to dedicate its mission to providing financial relief to food and beverage service employees with children when navigating an injury, family death, natural disaster or other qualifying circumstance.

Liberty’s Kitchen

For nearly 10 years, LIBERTY’S KITCHEN has supported disconnected young people—predominantly black youth—on their journeys towards stability and self-efficacy. Using food and hospitality as a launching pad, we enable young adults to build careers and become agents of change in their communities through advanced beverage exposure and training courses focusing on bar history and basics, technical skills training, bartending career exposure, and mentorship.

Camper English; Cocktail Safe

CocktailSafe.org is a directory of ingredients and techniques, each linking to a page. CocktailSafe provides information about cocktail ingredients and techniques to promote making safer drinks. 

Chad Arnholt

Chad Arnholt produced a documentary following Mezcaleros of southern Jalisco, as encroaching avocado farms change their landscape and deplete groundwater, while the rainy season shrinks by the year. This documentary is an acute example of how global agriculture exacerbates the impact of climate change on local ecosystems and traditional food systems, impacting the beverage industry. 

CORE (Children of Restaurant Employees)

Founded in 2004 by beverage industry professionals. Almost twenty years later, CORE continues to dedicate its mission to providing financial relief to food and beverage service employees with children when navigating an injury, family death, natural disaster or other qualifying circumstance.

Crescent Care

Crescent Care’s mission is to offer comprehensive health and wellness services to the community, to advocate empowerment, to safeguard the rights and dignity of individuals, and to provide for an enlightened public. CrescentCare’s 2019 campaign was aimed to positively impact the health care access and quality of life for those working in the hospitality sector and to provide those individuals with a medical home at CrescentCare. 

Healthy Hospo

Healthy Hospo aims to inspire others and make steps towards a healthier, happier industry. Working with hospitality focused individuals, outlets, brands, and organisations along with renowned experts from the fields of health, nutrition, exercise and beyond, we develop bespoke training and solutions for the specific needs of those who this amazing industry we call hospo.

Laura Green, M.Ed., LPC

Research grant focused on health in the beverage industry: with the purpose to develop some interventions in the workplace to help mitigate the effects of stress, implement them in a true experiment, and measure the outcomes. Laura has gone on to create Healthy Pour.

The Pin Project

The Pin Project is a collective of bartenders and service industry professionals based in the Bay Area looking to create a movement of healing and understanding for those among us caught up in the often dangerous context that comes from working within close proximity of alcohol. 

PRISM

The work is the creative media campaigns to highlight the diverse bar industry. PRISM reflects the different faces of our industry and having those stories told and voices heard. PRISM wants to inspire, motive, support, and encourage. 

86 Waste; No Waste Festival

Through Community Organizing, 86 Waste aims to empower people, bars, spirit brands, festivals to address their own wastefulness. This is done through providing a resource for the creation, implementation, and sharing of proven successful steps toward becoming waste neutral.