Our Work :
High Road
Southeast Michigan and the city of Detroit are home to a vibrant local food system, numerous small and urban farms, and som
e of the best known restaurants and community based food enterprises in the country. Day in and day out, these businesses show the benefits of low-turnover workplaces that pay and treat their workers well.
Our high-road work is dedicated to spreading these best workplace and community practices from our region and from around the country more widely throughout the industry. Below find more information on the three major areas of our high-road work:
1. Promoting Thriving Local Food Systems and Local Ownership: COLORS-Detroit
Located in downtown Detroit’s Paradise Valley cultural and entertainment district, COLORS-Detroit is a locally sourced, full-service restaurant dedicated to serving delicious, fresh, healthy, and affordable food that reflects the many culinary traditions of our community. Incubating worker-owned businesses, supporting local growers, and moving Detroiters into living-wage jobs, COLORS-Detroit serves great-tasting food that you can feel great about. What it all comes down to is: Just. Good. Food.
– Click here for more information on COLORS-Detroit: Just. Good. Food.
2. Strengthening Career Ladders: COLORS Hospitality Opportunities for Workers (CHOW) Institute
COLORS-Detroit is home to the COLORS Hospitality Opportunities for Workers Institute (CHOW), an innovative workforce development program that provides professional culinary and hospitality training to restaurant workers seeking to advance to living wage jobs in the industry. We use a national curriculum that has successfully training and placed more than 1000 restaurant workers in ROC affiliates around the country.
– If you are a restaurant employer and would like more information on the COLORS Hospitality Opportunities for Workers (CHOW) Institute, click here
3. Advancing Workforce Solutions: Southeast Michigan Restaurant Industry Roundtable
Founded in 2009 in response to employer demand, the Southeast Michigan Restaurant Industry Roundtable is a regular gathering led by employers dedicated to taking the ‘high-road’ to profitability. Together with post-secondary institutions, public officials, restaurant workers, unions, community and faith-based organizations, as well as workforce and economic development professionals, the Restaurant Industry Roundtable generates innovative sectoral strategies and workforce solutions to promote shared prosperity in Metro Detroit’s restaurant industry.
Employer members of the roundtable enjoy professional networking opportunities, exchange of best practices, and free training and placement as well as services such as legal assistance, health and safety training, and access to low-cost health insurance for their workers.