NEW ORLEANS — Unemployed hospitality workers are getting a chance to get a paycheck again with the help of a new local program.
The New Orleans Business Alliance launched the Get Shift Done website and app this week designed to pair workers with jobs at area food banks and kitchens.
“We want to ensure that members of our community who are seeking work are able to find it but also that the hunger-relief need in our community is met,” said Victoria Adams Phipps, with the New Orleans Business Alliance.
Get Shift Done, through an app called Shift Smart, coordinates, schedules and pays unemployed hospitality workers $10 an hour to work at area food banks and kitchens, but it doesn’t stop there.
“Additionally, if you are an organization seeking support in your hunger relief effort, you can log on and give us information about your shifts and hopefully we can get those connected to individuals seeking work,” said Phipps.
There are several different partners including Second Harvest Food Bank, Liberty’s Kitchen and Cafe Reconcile, a non-profit that normally helps young people by serving and selling food. Now with the restaurant closed they are still finding a way to help.
“Our cafe is closed down, we are not reopening in phase one, but our kitchen is very busy,” said Gerald Duhon, executive director Café Reconcile. “We are doing a lot of batch cooking, production cooking, we are cooking meals with Second Harvest and we need help.”
As far as paying for all this is concerned, the Conrad N. Hilton foundation contributed $250k to support approximately 50 individuals with paid work for up to 10 weeks. According to Phipps, workers still receive unemployment while working these jobs.
“It’s putting money in the pockets of our young people; it's putting them back to work. It’s allowing them to take care of the needs they have at home and to help us as well as we move through,” said Duhon.
You can sign up clicking this link — https://www.getshiftdone.org/regional-sign-up
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