The Burnt Chef Project is a not-for-profit social enterprise launched back in May 2019 to challenge mental health stigma within hospitality through education and awareness.
They recently launched their hospitality specific Burnt Chef Support Service which is a free 24/7 text-based service dedicated to any individual within the hospitality community to contact for support about their mental health.
After successfully raising £3k the Burnt Chef Support Service launched in partnership with Mental Health Innovations on the 1st February 2021 and has already seen a high number of uses reaching 45 in it’s first 28 days.
One message of support on Instagram @theburntchefproject read “I’m going through a tough time currently and I used this on Tuesday, it was a massive help to take a load off for a while and talk to someone who could help.”
The Burnt Chef Project will continue promoting this service via social media, training sessions and to the catering colleges that are trained on a weekly basis. In addition it will continue to provide updates on its usage to enable the industry to better understand the scale of the mental health epidemic and work directly with individuals and businesses to tackle the problem.
Founder of the Burnt Chef Project Kris Hall said:
“It has been a tough year for our industry and it is likely to have long term impacts to those that work within it. The Burnt Chef Support Service was introduced to tackle the rising problems associated with mental health issues so that we can provide much needed supported to those who may not have known where to turn whilst we continue to work diligently to inform, educate and improve overall awareness relating to the subject of mental health.
To use this service all you need to do is text: BURNTCHEF to 85258 24/7 and for free and a trained volunteer will aim to respond to you within just 5 minutes.
