Café Overlook serves up change for the restaurant industry. Working in the restaurant industry is no walk in the park. Workers face long hours, often on holidays, with low pay and no benefits, conducting physically exhausting tasks in an environment known for its toxicity. But the nonprofit Service!, which got its start supporting vulnerable restaurant workers in the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown, is working to change that narrative through a new partnership with Franklin County.

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Teaching workforce skills: Cafeteria helps those who have struggled. Started by the Franklin County Board of Commissioners and the Service! Relief for Hospitality Workers nonprofit, the restaurant doubles as a workforce development initiative. The business employs social services clients, provides a living wage and benefits, and seeks to place workers in a long-term career in the restaurant industry.

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Unique restaurant and social enterprise opening in Franklin County Courthouse this month. The Franklin County Courthouse is getting a brand-new food concept that doubles as a social enterprise. Located on the 16th floor of the Franklin County Courthouse, Cafe Overlook will do what its name suggests–overlook the city of Columbus–when it opens this month, but it plans to offer a lot more than just food. Launched by local nonprofit Service! A Relief for Hospitality Workers, the cafe will also double as a workforce development program, teaching participants important restaurant-industry skills.

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Service! Launching Workforce Development Program with Cafe Overlook. When Service! was formed at the onset of the pandemic, it addressed an immediate need of feeding and supporting individuals in the hospitality industry that suddenly found themselves out of work. Now almost exactly two years into pandemic life as things move to a new kind of normal, the organization can turn its focus from emergency needs to industry disruptor. Sangeeta Lakhani, executive director and founder, says as they enter their next phase, the mission of Service! hasn’t changed.

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Café Overlook Set to be Training Ground for Future Hospitality Workers, Business Incubator. About 20 years ago, Matthew Heaggans would occasionally meet his sister at the Franklin County Courthouse complex, where she worked as an administrative assistant, for lunch in the Ben Franklin Cafeteria on the 16th floor of the Downtown…

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