THE FEED
FEEDING THE SERVICE INDUSTRY
Mandi Nelson began Austin Shift Meal to help feed out-of-work service-industry workers. BY FIZA KUZHIYIL
her company…including her. “I had never been unemployed in my life,” Nelson reveals. ”When the pandemic hit, I [had] just moved into a new home by myself. I took on the biggest mortgage of my life. My immediate response was just to shut down. [But] when I heard what my friend was doing in Houston, I was like, ‘This is gonna keep my mind occupied and keep me focused on doing something positive.’” After losing her service-industry job at the beginning of the pandemic, Nelson began Austin Shift Meal in April 2020. Based on a similar project in Houston called Houston Shift Meal, Austin Shift Meal provides five meals a week for local serviceindustry workers who lost their jobs. Over the course of 18 months, Austin Shift Meal fed over 800 service workers and their families.
“” Everyone [showed] up with a bright smile, ready to help the community. It was such a special time. Typically, Nelson says, service employers feed workers before their shift. This meal became known as the “shift meal,” and along with losing their jobs, workers now had to make up these meals with their own money. “It was just like a domino effect. Everyone I knew was constantly saying, ‘I’m shutting down my restaurant,’ or ‘I’m out of work,’ or ‘We’re getting hit hard with what’s going on,’” Nelson says. “I couldn’t just sit home and not do anything. I can at least try and feed people and help out that way. I see this need right now in the community, and I feel pretty confident with all the connections that I have in this industry that I can pull this off.” She set up in a new restaurant each week, but always hosted outside due to COVID-19 concerns. Austin Shift Meal fundraised on one end to help pay restaurants for their out-of-work service. The organization helped those out of work who needed meals, but also absorbed shift meal costs for restaurants with COVID-19 budget constraints. Nelson and her list of over 100 volunteers helped feed an average of 75 people and their families per week. For her, serving the workers and their families became a way for her to connect with her community. “Everyone [showed] up with a bright smile, ready to help the community. It was such a special time,” Nelson says. “It helped me through this hard time. When you feel down and you’re around other people that are doing great things, [that] just makes you feel so much better, and giving back just makes you feel really good.”
70 | AUSTIN WOMAN | OCTOBER 2021
Photos courtesy of Mandi Nelson.
During the early stages of the pandemic, Mandi Nelson’s employer laid off half of
