The Gist
Under the editorial guidance of Rachel Hendry, Burum Collective are making a zine. A zine for hospitality workers, about hospitality workers, by hospitality workers with a sharp focus on unionisation and workers rights. Once this zine has been commissioned, collated and created we’re going to do everything in our power to ensure it is distributed to as many hospitality venues as we can, so it can end up in the hands of as many hospitality workers as possible. We’re not talking about a glossy publication, we’re talking about a grassroots collection of essays, illustrations and information that will hopefully help to inform and empower the workers of our industry.
This is something that we have wanted to do since the Common Ground Conference we held back in 2021, and so we’ve decided that moving into more project based work is the best way for us to be effective in 2023.
How You Can Help!
This project will be funded via our Patreon, through any kind one-off donations from companies who wish to help and through pre-sales of the zine. If you would like to speak to us about financial contributions please contact helen@burumcollective.com
We will be asking for a lot of help for this project, either via people contributing to the zine itself or for its launch and distribution. Any shares on social media when this happens will be very much appreciated.
The aim of this project is to get the zine and the information it contains into as many hospitality venues as possible. If you work for a company who distributes a product to hospitality venues and would be happy to include Service, Please! in said distributions OR a space that would like to display/sell the zine when it is ready please get in touch with either helen@burumcollective.com or rachel@burumcollective.com
Once the zine is ready to go we will be doing a series of launch events to spread the word about the zine and about the importance of unionisation in hospitality. If you’re a venue who would like to host us when this happens please get in touch with helen@burumcollective.com
Making The Zine Itself
We will be seeking help, support and guidance from Unite the Union who we have been working with as part of their hospitality combine. We will ensure that Service, Please! contains up to date information on union membership that actively works for the rights of hospitality workers. We will include essential information on how to join a union and why it matters.
We will then be opening pitches for written contributions from hospitality workers with hospitality as the theme. The hope is to receive ideas for essays that are truly reflective about what it means to work in the service industry, not what the media has decided it is. The aim is to create a collection of essays, illustrations and information that make workers feel seen and understood in the industry they work in – a rarity in mainstream food media.
Illustrators will be commissioned to go alongside these essays.
Rachel and Helen will be contributing to the zine and will be interviewing hospitality workers across the UK, also to be included in the zine.
The aim is for Service, Please! to be ready for publication by Autumn of this year. Pre-sales to help us fund printing costs will go live in the Summer and we plan on there being both an online and paper version of the finished product.
Hospitality Distribution
As previously mentioned this is where we are going to need a lot of help!
We want to hear from wholesalers, brewers, roasters and makers who regularly distribute their products to hospitality venues. We would love for zines to be included in these deliveries so we can try and get this zine and the information inside to as many hospitality workers as possible.
If you are a shop or hospitality venue that would like to display/sell the zine then we would love that too!
Please get in touch with helen@burumcollective.com OR rachel@burumcollective.com and let’s talk!
Any other questions?
Want to chat further about Service, Please! ? Absolutely! Get in touch with rachel@burumcollective.com and she’ll do her best to answer any further queries you may have.