Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation (RWCF) is an advocacy and action nonprofit created by and for restaurant workers. Our mission is to improve the daily lives of professional restaurant workers by building a deeper sense of community and self-efficacy. RWCF engages in grant making, impact investing, issue advocacy, and community building efforts to influence industry practices, public policies, and public perceptions. 

Our focus areas are:

Wage fairness and career ladders: to ensure that every restaurant worker is paid a reliable wage that is enough to pay the costs of living in their community and save for the future; and to provide workers with the skills and opportunities they need to climb career ladders in the hospitality industry

Gender equity and sexual violence: to increase gender representation and equitable treatment in all jobs at all levels of the hospitality industry, especially those with the greatest prestige and compensation; and to create greater awareness of what constitutes consent and the ways employers can prevent sexual assault and harassment by owners, employees, and guests 

Racial equity and support for immigrant communities: to increase representation and equitable treatment of Black, Indigenous, and other people of color and immigrants in all jobs at all levels of the hospitality industry, especially those with the greatest prestige and compensation; and to ensure that restaurants do not take advantage of, or discriminate against, vulnerable immigrant workers, regardless of their documentation status

Mental health and substance use disorders: to help restaurant businesses create more caring, accommodating, and healthy workplaces; and to provide access to programs that support restaurant workers struggling with substance use disorders and mental health challenges

Additionally, RWCF has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with our Restaurant Workers COVID-19 Crisis Relief Fund.

Organized in 2018, RWCF is in its early stages of development. RWCF has a 20-member board, roughly half with deep expertise in the restaurant industry and the other half with nonprofit/foundation experience, that is currently responsible for oversight of RWCF’s strategy and operations as well as strategy implementation.