Brewer Unites with Industry Partners Will Provide Much-Needed Funding and Development Programs For Workers and Overall Industry Support to Protect Critical Sector
April 15, 2020 – Anheuser-Busch, America’s leading beer company, is today announcing a multi-faceted commitment to support the restaurant and bar industry and its workers. The company has a longstanding tradition of providing support to its industry partners and communities in times of need throughout its more than 165 year history.
Despite the impact to the company’s own on-premise business, Anheuser-Busch and its craft partners are focused on retaining their employees as they continue to evaluate the extent of this crisis. While many brewpub and biergarten employees have been temporarily reassigned to other roles within the company, others will volunteer through Meals on Wheels and other local organizations providing critical resources to communities in need during this crisis.
“Our first priority is our people and at Anheuser-Busch, ‘our people’ includes our employees, our communities and our partners,” said Michel Doukeris, CEO, Anheuser-Busch. “Now more than ever we truly are one team and that is why Anheuser-Busch is leveraging our unique capabilities, relationships, and reach to not only support our employees and our communities, but our industry partners because we believe they will need assistance beyond the short-term.”
“We’re very fortunate, as part of the A-B network, to be able to support our hourly pub employees,” said Todd Usry, President, Breckenridge Brewery. “We’ve been so inspired and humbled by the team’s efforts to step up and help out both within our business and within our communities.”
Anheuser-Busch will contribute $1 million to the US Bartenders Guild’s Bartender Emergency Assistance Program for its COVID-19 Relief and Response Program. In addition to this financial commitment, starting this week, Anheuser-Busch will provide free online education content on beer serving and appreciation led by its Master Cicerones, brewmasters and other beer experts for consumers and industry personnel to build knowledge and capabilities for the future. Anheuser-Busch will also donate over $1 million to local and regional organizations that are supporting on-premise bar and restaurant workers.
“We have been helping the bartending community for many years through our Bartender Emergency Assistance Program (BEAP), and now more than ever, this community needs us,” said Aaron Gregory Smith, Executive Director of the United States Bartenders’ Guild. “Bartenders and other hospitality professionals are an important part of the fabric of our communities, and we are here to help those in our industry who are most in need. We are thankful to Anheuser-Busch and our other partners for stepping up and pledging their support.”
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