Kindness Is on the Menu in Cleveland

They will be "O-ranging" kindness in Cleveland as part of an effort to encourage restaurant servers and customers to highlight the acts of kindness of one another and those around them.

Kindness Food Network's “Kindness is Served Here” is rolling out in 63 restaurants across Northeast Ohio as part of Values-in-Action’s Kindland movement in partnership with the Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance. Values-in-Action is a Cleveland-based, non-profit that empowers students and adults to build communities of kindness, caring and respect through programs that teach, promote, and provide skills and tools to enable individuals to make positive, values-based decisions every day.

“Kindness and restaurants go hand in hand," said Values-in-Action CEO Stuart Muszynski. "Every step of your dining experience is filled with acts of kindness from the moment you walk in and are greeted with a smile to the time your server thanks you for coming. On the flip side, diners and customers show servers acts of kindness by being polite, understanding, and gracious."

Laurie L. Torres, owner of Mallorca in downtown Cleveland, spearheaded the program with Kindland. 

"I  am on the executive board with the Ohio restaurant and Hospitality alliance and in that capacity I was fortunate enough to meet Stuart about creating a program for our industry," Torres explained to Modern Restaurant Management (MRM) magazine. "I was  immediately interested and we thought it would be a great program to start with the independent restaurants in Cleveland. I am also the president of the Cleveland Independents, an organization that focuses on evening the playing field for the small independents with the large chains. In both capacities I know many restaurant owners and knew the perfect ones who would actively involve themselves in the program to make it a success.  I did a lot of  outreach to them and almost all of them were excited about the idea."

The restaurant industry is all part of the same hive one that should nourish our bodies and souls and kindness is crucial part of that nourishment.

Clevelanders are being challenged to visit participating restaurants that have the bright orange “Kindness is Served Here” sticker – also Kindland’s signature logo color – and recognize the kindness they experience. The restaurants will welcome guests with an extra dose of hospitality by passing out kindness bracelets, stickers, and pens while encouraging customers to use the Just Be Kind app to document acts of kindness. Kindland will measure the impact by the number of people who download the Just Be Kind app and post kind acts from their restaurant experience or simply from their day.

Torres said they wanted to bring the colors of Kindland (orange) into the food industry.

"I loved the idea idea of 'Orange' you kind and 'o-ranging kindness in cleveland' and 'orange is the new kind'," she said. "I then wanted to wrap it all up into what I called the 'Kindness Food Network'  so working with those ideas I worked with Stuart’s team to create the orange clings for the doors and the stickers. We loved the idea of a QR code that people could use to put in kind comments about their servers. There are so many parts and pieces to the program all that are geared at promoting kindness in the industry and carrying that forward into the community and I am super proud of what we have created."

The team hopes the kindnes movement will catch on and grow beyond Ohio.

"I was raised by parents who taught me that the most important asset we have as human beings is our empathy," Torres said. "It is the seed from which all good things grow. Kindness is a natural consequence of empathy because it recognizes the impact we make on people every day. The restaurant industry is all part of the same hive one that should nourish our bodies and souls and kindness is crucial part of that nourishment."

 A list of participating restaurants can be found at www.BeKindland.com.