#94: David Fahrenthold — Pulitzer Prize-Winning Reporter for The New York Times on "How Restaurant Workers Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low"

Bring It In | The Future of Work, Jobs, and Education

For anyone who has ever worked in the food service industry, the word ServSafe will likely bring back painful memories of some of the most mind-numbing, waste of time online courses in the world.

But, as New York Times reporter David Fahrenthold has uncovered, there’s a much more sinister side to the infamous food safety software.

David’s been a reporter since 2000, where he started as an intern on the night shift desk at The Washington Post. Eventually he made his way to the political analyst desk, covering much of the Obama and Trump Administrations. He earned his Pulitzer in 2017 for his investigation into Trump’s charitable givings, exposing a web of misallocated funds for personal debts.

In his recent New York Times article “How Restaurant Workers Pay for Lobbying to Keep Their Wages Low,” David cracks open how The National Restaurant Association, the largest foodservice trade association in the world, utilizes the fifteen dollar fee from required ServSafe courses to fund their own lobbying efforts.

That means the money from millions of frontline restaurant workers goes into the pockets of the lobbyists that are often the key blockers of reform regarding hourly wages, healthcare, and benefits.

We wanted to sit down with David today to learn why he wanted to pursue the subject of ServSafe and The National Restaurant Association, the effectiveness of ServSafe, and what this means for the greater restaurant industry.

This is a really special episode, one that’s important for everyone regardless of position in the food industry to listen to, so without further ado…let’s bring it in!