Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey is throwing his support behind a mental health counseling program for the city's food industry workers.
The non-profit, "Serving Those Serving," is specifically geared toward servers, bartenders and restaurant kitchen staff.
Smack Shack bartender and Serving Those Serving board member Adam Borgen says they have some unique challenges.
"The industry itself is a self-loving, rag-tag bunch of people. They have either gone through difficulties in the past, or experienced some sort of trauma in the past... whether that's going through a life-changing event where they've dropped out of college, or a life-renewing event where they're pursuing something else," said Borgen.
Mayor Frey says servers and bartenders need to know they're valued.
He says he knows their lifestyle well, having worked in the service industry at three different restaurants before getting into politics.
"I worked at the front of the house. I worked at the back of the house. I worked as a server. I washed dishes. And what you'd see routinely is friends that I had in the industry - people who were far better servers than I - got caught up in life," said Frey.
"They'd get off at midnight or 1:00 am, and then due to the stress surrounding the industry and the job, and by the way, there's a whole lot of stress, they'd then go out. And they'd be out till 3:45 in the morning and then go back to work the next day and do the whole thing again."
Serving Those Serving has 18 member restaurants that have a combined 600 employees.
Organizers say the benefit through service provider Sand Creek costs companies around 4-dollars a month per person. That's less than the cost of a so-called "shifty" on the house after bar close.