The restaurant and food service industry has among the highest rates of workers struggling with addiction or alcoholism — who along with high stress and long hours, face being in the presence of alcohol.
In 2021, Ben’s Friends, a national support group for people in the food and beverage industry struggling with addiction, launched a chapter in Detroit with weekly meetings held at Frame in Hazel Park. Following the group’s holiday break the past two weeks, the local chapter is relaunching in 2024 at Detroit restaurant Freya (2929 E. Grand Blvd., Detroit; 313-351-5544; freyadetroit.com) and will begin weekly meetings again on Monday, Jan. 8 at 10 a.m.
“Our industry is wrapped with addiction. Our industry is wrapped with alcoholism. Our industry has been devastated by the amount of people who have hurt themselves through alcohol and drugs,” says Mickey Bakst, a co-founder of Ben’s Friends and an ex-Detroiter. “In Charleston where I live, I know of four people that due to alcohol and drugs, lost their lives in the last three weeks in this industry. And I know from my relationships in Detroit through all of these years, it’s the same problem there.”
While Bakst says that Ben’s Friends enjoyed hosting at Frame, the group felt that Freya is in a more centralized location to better serve all of the Detroit service community. “Our mission is to reach as many people who need help as possible, and we wanted to make it more accessible for more people,” Bakst says.
Besides the new location, Bakst adds that the problem of addiction in the food industry has continued to increase since 2021.
“There has been a radical rise in addiction in our industry and there has been a tremendous increase in deaths due to it over the last few years, starting with COVID,” Bakst says. “In an industry that is so important to our city Detroit, every city, this is needed desperately.”
The Detroit chapter is led by hospitality veterans Max Schikora and Cathy Cameron, who will be present at every meeting. Ben’s Friends welcomes anybody who has found or is struggling to find sobriety while working in the food and beverage industry.
“We share the same industry, we share our addictions and our problems in recovery, but most importantly, we’ve created a community of like-minded people who understand the stress and the anxiety and the toil that goes with the industry we’re all a part of,” Bakst adds.
Bakst, along with fellow Charleston, South Carolina-based restauranter Steve Palmer, founded Ben’s Friends in 2016 in honor of their chef friend who killed himself after struggling with alcoholism and depression. Since then, the group has expanded to 20 chapters in different cities across the nation.
More information on Ben’s Friends, including information about daily national virtual meetings, is available at bensfriendshope.com.
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