Blog. Walk for Wellbeing
September 02, 2022 | Author Giuliana Vittiglio
Here at Hospitality Action we are always in awe of our amazing supporters who are consistently going the extra mile to support the charity. We recently caught up with top Ambassador and Board Member Craig Prentice, Founder of hospitality talent partner mum, to learn why Hospitality Action means so much to him and hear more about the plans for this October’s Walk for Wellbeing.
Tell us a little about you
I fell in love with hospitality early on in life and have been fortunate to work with terrific teams in iconic venues including The London Eye and The Roundhouse. I stepped into recruitment in 2011 and spent eight years working agency side, with a variety of clients in hospitality and leisure, across all sectors of the industry.
In 2018/19 I enjoyed a stay with Ennismore and The Hoxton, which was an amazing experience from a people and culture perspective – for the first time ever, I truly felt I could be ‘me’ at work and get involved as much as I wanted to.
Later in 2019, I created hospitality talent partner ‘mum’ to offer a quality focused, more personalised and flexible approach to hospitality recruitment.
Away from work, my passion for people and my personal life experiences have influenced the charities and projects I support and get involved with. I am an Ambassador and Board Member for Hospitality Action and an Ambassador for Saira Hospitality, a non-profit transforming the way hotels connect with local communities through education.
In 2020, at the beginning of the first UK lockdown, I co-created nowpause.org, an award-winning wellbeing/relaxation toolkit, and later in the same year, created Walk for Calm, a nationwide event, supporting the work of Hospitality Action and CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). The event ran for two years and, thanks to the support of many, raised over £30,000.
This October, Walk for Wellbeing will take place across the UK to promote better mental health across the industry, whilst supporting and raising funds for Hospitality Action.
What does Hospitality Action mean to you?
Without doubt, the work of Hospitality Action is more relevant and important than ever before. When the pandemic started, the charity acted quickly to ensure it was able to support those who needed it the most.
The charity offers a range of support services to help hospitality people back on their feet again after a setback. Whatever the challenge - from physical illness or mental health issues to financial difficulty, family problems to addiction - Hospitality Action is there for those people.
Why did you decide to fundraise for us?
The work of Hospitality Action continues and given the general outlook on cost of living and the energy crisis, I think it’s important for us all to take stock and get involved however we can, when we can.
That’s very much how I see Walk for Wellbeing this year – an opportunity for people to come together to support however we can, whether that be signing up to do the walk in October, sponsoring and donating what we can (every pound counts), or by liking/sharing/posting on social. It all counts.
If the last two years have taught us one thing – that’s great things can happen when we join together.
Tell us a little more about Walk for Wellbeing?
Walk for Wellbeing is all about bringing people together to promote better mental health and wellbeing across our industry, whilst supporting the vital work of Hospitality Action at the same time.
This year’s event is taking place around World Mental Health Day and will start on Saturday 8 October and finish on Sunday 16 October.
We’ve deliberately created an event that is super flexible, meaning people can take part wherever they are across the country on any day/s suitable to them or if preferred join us for one of our 20km Challenges in London, Birmingham, Manchester or Glasgow on Sunday 16 October.
The event is being organised by an amazing team of individuals who have all been terrific when sharing their time, energy, ideas and resources – thank you! We’ve had wonderful support from our event partners Caterer.com, Davidson Asset Management and The Caterer as well as my good friend Sean Wheeler, Lexington Catering, Tonic Talent, The Manchester Hoteliers Association and the relationship.
The walk is now in its third year and I believe this year’s event is more important than ever but also one that has a new important focus.
Hospitality Action have been an incredible support to many over the past two or so years, this is hospitality’s chance to not only say thank you for that amazing support, but also an opportunity to give a little more of whatever we can to the charity, to ensure they can continue supporting those who find themselves at crisis point over the coming months.
I am a great believer that if we actually walk the walk, we can really make a difference together.
Given hospitality is all about looking after people, why not make the most of any opportunity we have.
Who has already signed up to take part?
With just 5 weeks to go, we have 44 teams and over 120 individuals signed up across the UK including Four Seasons Park Lane in London, Maryculter House in Aberdeen and The Ivy in Birmingham. We’ve had support from all sectors of the industry – foodservice, hotels and clubs, restaurants and bars, not forgetting some suppliers too!
It’s great to see people getting super creative with their fundraising too – in Birmingham and Manchester for example, Crazy Pedro’s have launched a limited edition pizza and will be donating £1 from each sale to Walk for Wellbeing.
How can people join in?
We want people to support however they can – yes of course, we want as many people as possible to walk, so please do sign up, walk and fundraise if you are in a position to. Equally important is sponsoring, if you are in a position to spare a few pounds, please give what you can – every pound counts. And finally, please post, like, share, comment on social channels as much as you can. Let’s keep the hospitality spirit going.
Full event, sign up and sponsorship info can be found at www.walkforwellbeing.org – there is a dedicated contact for each walk, so please reach out with any questions.
Finally, I’d like to say a huge thanks to everyone involved in this project – thank you to those of you organising, taking part, supporting, sponsoring and sharing!