096 - Edacious Round Table, Arley Arrington, Arley Cakes, Clare Terni, The Whiskey Jar. How is #MeToo affecting Charlottesville?

Navigating #MeToo. With Food Women. Welcome to a very special episode, the premiere of a new segment on the podcast I like to call the Edacious Round Table. Instead of learning one person's journey, area Food Folks discuss a topic. First up? Harassment and discrimination in Food Work with co-hosts Arley Arrington and Clare Terni. How has it affected Charlottesville? What can we do to change things? We dive in.

Arley Arrington works at Whisk in Richmond. Previously, she lived and worked in Charlottesville as a server in various restaurants and as a baker at Brookville. She's also done catering for The Space and owns her baking business, Arley Cakes. She is a past podcast guest and her lemon raspberry birthday cake won a 2017 Edacious Golden Fork Award.

Clare Terni has lived in Charlottesville for 20 years and has worked on and off in food since she was sixteen, mostly catering and working in restaurants. She currently teaches Anthropology at JMU and works as both a server and manager for The Whiskey Jar, as well as creating social media for Ten Course Hospitality.

As Clare states so well during our conversation, gender roles are changing slowly. They are broader than they once were, but limitations still exist. Many back-of-house employees are men while front-of-house are mostly women. If women are in the back, they're often relegated to salads or pastries. How do we change that? Certainly not with one conversation. But maybe by talking about it, we get other people talking, writing, discussing, disagreeing, and finally, making necessary changes. Maybe we do that.

There's a lot to discuss. The way women accept the self-destructive behavior, yelling, and machismo in the food industry because it's what we've always expected. The way smiling or not is seen by turns as a sexual invitation or a BITCH label. The way Mansplaining, inappropriate comments, inappropriate touching, subtle and not so subtle digs at our gender are disguised as jokes. We cover it all. Are women more motivated to start their own businesses because they want to create a better environment? What about the roadblocks they face when they do? What about race? When you're a woman of color in the South who owns a business, how does that affect EVERYTHING? How did Donald Glover's Atlanta fit into our conversation? How does Charlottesville and its current dynamic fit into this discussion? We spend a great deal of time and get very vulnerable and real on this topic. Which was scary as heck for this Southern white woman. And awesome and wonderful and it makes me proud to know these amazing women.

Is building a loyal staff who stay for years the answer? Building trust among your employees? A dedicated human resource department? What about small operations who can't afford that? What about a server who might smile a bit more because it means the difference between $200 in tips and $500? Is crying on the job okay? What about women chefs who insist gender makes no difference? When you're the boss it's important to model the behavior you want your employees to exhibit. In my opinion, it can affect the ambiance, even the food. Not only the culture of your kitchen but the culture of your restaurant.

We are not health professionals. Just three women who do the Work of  Food and have stories and opinions. If you feel you've experienced harassment on the job or in any aspect of your life, please reach out to someone. Tell them about it. Heck, reach out to me and tell me about it. I'm not sure who or where to direct you, but I promise if you reach out? I'll find out. You are not alone in this.

Relistening to this episode helped me understand how very much I don't know. How blessed I am because of my privilege. There's still so much to learn. I'm not woke but I am aware and I look forward to any education I experience every day of my life. I didn't edit this down. It's very long. It's very important. So I hope you'll give it a listen. There is so much here. Thank you to these ladies who had the courage to get vulnerable and tell their stories. I hope by doing so we can shed some light on the very real issue that is occurring daily here and all over the world. Maybe by talking about it awareness will rise and eventually we'll have other issues to tackle around a table because this one will be nonexistent. In the meantime, tell me what you think. Cheers.

SHOW NOTES – Links to resources talked about during the podcast:

• Why Food Writing Matters! - I'm teaching a course as part of the Tom Tom Founder's Festival! Come be a part of the fun! Tuesday, April 10th from 7-9pm at The Pie Chest. We'll talk food writing, do some fun creative exercises, give away huge amounts of food writing books, and eat pie. Lots and lots of pie. Don't miss this chance to GET EDACIOUS!
• Crowdfunded Pitch Night! - Come see me pitch as part of the Tom Tom Founder's Festival! Wednesday, April 11th from 7-9pm at The Jefferson Theater, 9 local folks and I will have 3 minutes to pitch our business for a chance to win $5K! The audience selects the winner. So come on out and GET EDACIOUS!
• Goat Snuggling - Every Saturday through Mother's Day, Caromont Farm will be snuggling goats and passing the hat as part of their DACA initiative to make sure their employees are safe. Come participate in this important community effort.
• Subscribe to This Podcast. Stay Edacious! - Come on, after this episode? You know you want to. Subscribers get new episodes instantly, while non-subscribers have to wait a few hours or days depending on the iTunes gods. Never miss a chance to be edacious!
• Subscribe to Edacious News - Never miss a food event in our area! Learn about regional and national food stories so you can stay edacious!
• Leave a review about Edacious! - Click the link, then "View in iTunes" then "Ratings and Reviews". Whether you think it's great, or not so great, I want to hear from you. I might just read your review on the air! Whoa! #famousforahotminute

This episode is sponsored by Teej.fm and listeners like you who donated their support at Patreon, who wants every creator in the world to achieve a sustainable income. Thank you.