National Waiters Day | Springboard Charity

The day, inspired by Fred Sirieix, General Manager at Galvin at Windows, will be a day to celebrate the hard work, skill and dedication of all 2.5 million employees working in the UK’s Hospitality industry and inspire more to start a hospitality career.

National Waiters day will be a way of changing perceptions about front of house careers. Shifting the negative view that the job is unskilled with long hours to a job that offers good skills and leads to a rewarding, sustainable career with good opportunities.

Co-ordinated by The Springboard Charity, National Waiters Day will be celebrated across the country by a wide range of businesses hosting ‘skills sessions’ and organising their own Waiters Race. The race will show off contenders’ combined skills of elegance, competition and professionalism. The Springboard Charity was set up to help young, unemployed and disadvantaged people to increase their chances of a career in hospitality, leisure and tourism but providing a range of opportunities.

CEO of Springboard, Anne Pierce said: “We are delighted to be part of this fantastic National Waiters Day initiative to promote the waiting profession and hospitality industry as an great career choice and celebrate the success of waiters.”

Fred Sirieix believes that the time to join the Hospitality industry is now.

He said: “there are opportunities everywhere for those who want them and who are prepared to do what it takes. The idea behind National Waiters Day is to bring a spotlight to the hospitality Industry and showcase what a great range of exciting careers the industry has to offer.” London’s National Waiters Day Race will be hosted in Hyde Park on May 21 at 4pm. A number of activities will be taking place to demonstrate ‘front of house skills’.Last year, 400 service and front of house staff joined the London race.

Winners Alex Radmore from Limewood Hotel and Branwen Summers form Joe’s Southern Kitchen were crowned fastest waiter and waitress 2014. Anne hopes that the money raised by the day’s events will help Springboard to encourage more people consider a career in hospitality. She said: “The proceeds raised from the initiative will go towards enabling Springboard to continue to develop and run an exciting programme for schools to encourage young people to consider a career in front of house and service.”

For more information about events near you, visit the official National Waiters Day website. Follow the events on Twitter and Facebook.

By Ashley Chalmers

In these challenging times…

The Staff Canteen team are taking a different approach to keeping our website independent and delivering content free from commercial influence. Our Editorial team have a critical role to play in informing and supporting our audience in a balanced way. We would never put up a paywall – The Staff Canteen is open to all and we want to keep bringing you the content you want; more from younger chefs, more on mental health, more tips and industry knowledge, more recipes and more videos. We need your support right now, more than ever, to keep The Staff Canteen active. Without your financial contributions this would not be possible.

Over the last 16 years, The Staff Canteen has built what has become the go-to platform for chefs and hospitality professionals. As members and visitors, your daily support has made The Staff Canteen what it is today. Our features and videos from the world’s biggest name chefs are something we are proud of. We have over 560,000 followers across Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube and other social channels, each connecting with chefs across the world. Our editorial and social media team are creating and delivering engaging content every day, to support you and the whole sector - we want to do more for you.

A single coffee is more than £2, a beer is £4.50 and a large glass of wine can be £6 or more.

Support The Staff Canteen from as little as £1 today. Thank you.