The Big Issue looks into the hospitality sector

Between the horror and the hope

Chef Liam Tomlin of Chefs Warehouse and the Thali Restaurant Group speaks to the magazine to reveal how the pandemic, as well as the resulting lockdown, has impacted his business.

Tomlin tells Issue #289 about his future hopes for the hospitality industry. "When lockdown came at the end of March, the alarming repercussions to our economy caused immediate unemployment, poverty, hunger and a drastic change to the daily life we had taken for granted for so long," Tomlin says.

"I was not alone; 7.8 billion people throughout the world were experiencing the same anguish and apprehension for the future," he tells The Big Issue.

The new realities for the fisher communities

Dr Serge Raemaekers, the managing director of ABALOBI ICT4FISHERIES, shares with the magazine how seafood supply chains are adapting to new realities. Raemaekers points out the social enterprise’s transition to a multi-channel marketplace.

"Our mobile app suite and programmes include an electronic catch documentation and traceability platform, a marketplace for seafood with a story and an integrated digital transactional system," says Raemaekers.

"We work with small-scale fishers on the human-centred design of this platform and undertake capacity, building towards community entrepreneurship and improved safety at sea," he adds.

Coming together to make a difference

The Big Issue speaks to world-renowned chef Margot Janse, who talks about her passion for the Isabelo: Feeding Hungry Minds scheme in Franschhoek.

Janse tells the latest edition about how the village has come together to feed thousands during this challenging time. "While living and working in this famous and wealthy village, the extremes between my daily privileged culinary world and the reality of people living in poverty just two kilometres down the road was hard to swallow," Janse says.

Coming back from the brink

Karen Dudley, a chef, food writer and restaurateur opens up to The Big Issue about her pain of closing her Woodstock restaurant The Kitchen during lockdown. Dudley tells the magazine what it will take to recover.

"How does one walk away from something you envisioned and worked tremendously hard for in order to make it a reality and success?," Dudley asks.



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