The LEE Initiative Partners With TPA To Feed Live Music Professionals During Holiday Season

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The LEE Initiative, a non-profit launched by Lindsey Ofcacek and Edward Lee to address issues in the restaurant industry, announced Tuesday (Dec. 15) a partnership with the Touring Professionals Alliance (TPA), a non-profit that provides aid to those working behind the scenes of live music as the industry faces unprecedented hardships due to COVID-19, to launch the Touring Professionals Relief Kitchen (TPRK). TPRK’s first initiative will feed touring professionals in the major music cities of Nashville, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York this holiday season. In Nashville, the initiative is partnering with the restaurants Audrey and Chaatable.

Touring professionals, which include tour managers, production managers, sound engineers, sound, lighting and video technicians, bus and truck drivers, roadies, venue personnel and many more, have been unable to work for months since live music shuttered across the nation in early March. Touring Professionals Alliance was created earlier this year to provide resources, including mental health resources, to those working in the live touring industry. The TPA was recently granted 501(c)3 status, allowing the organization to further expand efforts in the new year.

“Touring Professionals Alliance is steadfastly focused on providing aid to the thousands of individuals who work behind the scenes in live music touring who have been severely impacted by the pandemic,” says Jerome Crooks, co-founder, Touring Professionals Alliance, and tour manager for bands such as Nine Inch Nails, TOOL, Soundgarden, and Beastie Boys. “We are grateful to The LEE Initiative for the partnership in providing meals to those in our industry in need.”

“The music industry has been affected by this pandemic in the same way that the restaurant industry has and TPA has a similar mission to ours at The LEE Initiative. People have already lost so much and are at risk of losing more and we want to help ease their burden in whatever way we can. This is what it means to say we are all in this together. We are proud to have each other’s backs,” says Lee, co-founder of The LEE Initiative.

The Touring Professionals Relief Kitchen will serve meals in Nashville, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York on Tuesdays and Thursdays out of partner restaurants. Each restaurant will distribute 200 meal boxes a night, with each box serving two people. The partner kitchens are:

Nashville
Audrey
Chaatable

Los Angeles
Sqirl
Alta
Petit Trois

Chicago
Girl & the Goat
Alinea Restaurant Group

New York
Hometown BBQ
Momofuku

For more information on the relief efforts and for specifics on dates and locations for meal pick-ups, please visit www.leeinitiative.org.

LB Cantrell
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