Introducing Our 2020 Charity Partner: Southern Smoke
Southern Smoke founder, Chef Chris Shepherd, at a Southern Smoke Festival
Here at Bâtonnage, our goal is to create an inclusive space for constructive conversation surrounding all different facets of the wine industry; it has never been about making a profit. Our decision to take the event online came with both challenges and opportunities—it was hard to make that final call to pivot away from our customary face-to-face gathering, but soon it became evident that with less overhead there was the potential to partner with a charitable cause.
Purchasing a ticket to Bâtonnage://Connect not only gives you access to four weeks of incredible speakers and a myriad of relevant topics, but it also puts your dollars towards a worthwhile and highly pertinent cause—the Southern Smoke Foundation. We are so excited to be partnering with this organization, supporting the food and beverage industries and individuals that many of us in the Bâtonnage community are intrinsically linked to.
Southern Smoke is a crisis relief organization founded by Chef Chris Shepherd in 2015. What was originally created to raise funds for multiple sclerosis research for a friend and former sommelier, quickly grew into the Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Fund—a fund to provide financial assistance to those in the food and beverage industry nationwide. The Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Fund buoyed industry members during the 2017 Hurricane Harvey, and have continued to provide individualized grants for any crisis…large and small.
You can imagine the overload Southern Smoke is experiencing now, as restaurants, bars, breweries, eateries, etc. grind to a halt. Since mid-March, Southern Smoke has distributed $1.5 million directly to 862 industry professionals—from farmers to wine makers to brewers to distillers to cooks and servers. Their mission to support anyone that touches the industry echoes the Bâtonnage mission: to educate wine professionals as well as wine industry supporters on the unique challenges and opportunities that women in the field—winemakers, vineyard workers, writers and marketers, salespeople, sommeliers, collectors, and drinkers—have faced both historically and present-day.
This is a tremendous cause on any given day, in any given year…made even greater by the new reality created by the 2020 pandemic. Bâtonnage as we know it would not be possible without the infrastructure of people who work in kitchens, in bars, in delivery services, on farms, and beyond, many who are currently unable to contribute their enthusiasm and expertise to their careers. Please join us in applauding and supporting the inspirational work of the hardworking team at Southern Smoke.
