Growing up in a restaurant family, Nora Furst has been part of the hospitality community for as long as she can remember. “My first official job was as a dishwasher at age 15, and I pretty much haven’t skipped a beat since,” she says. Over the years, she built a distinguished career as a bartender and cocktail and spirits consultant, most recently at True Laurel, California Gold, and Flores.
But when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the restaurant and bar industry collapsed in March, she suddenly found herself unemployed and scrambling to make ends meet. With help from a new program called Feed Hospitality from CUESA and the United States Bartenders Guild (USBG), she received a bountiful box of fresh produce, which meant she had one less thing to worry about for the moment: putting food on the table.
“This program means so much right now. It is a literal lifeline for us,” says Nora. “With so much uncertainty in our industry in this time, these boxes not only feed us and keep us healthy⁠—they give us hope.”