DEI in Action: Bartender of the Year CMCI Highlights DEI within the Hospitality Industry
About the 2021 Bartender of the Year Program
As you learned recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Bartender of the Year competition pivoted midway through the regional semifinalist tour to a virtual format. With the learnings from 2020, Heaven Hill employed a new structure and enhanced mission in 2021 called the Craft Meets Community Initiative (CMCI). CMCI is a virtual educational and support platform focused on community advocacy and education. The goal is to support, encourage and inspire bartenders who want to make an impact in their bars and the surrounding community.
CMCI is built on four tracks, each representing a pillar of community involvement. One of these tracks was Equity & Diversity sponsored by PAMA Pomegranate Liqueur and Lunazul Tequila. This track featured a seminar called “Diversify Your Diversity: Why DEI Isn’t Just Black and White” hosted by Jackie Summers. Summers is an American microdistiller, writer and CEO who became the first Black person in the United States to be granted a license to make liquor in 2011. The seminar focused on how the conversation about diversity has too often been focused solely on issues of black and white, to the exclusion of the disabled, the Asian community, the Latin community, the LGBTQ+ community, and other underserved communities. Jackie led a panel discussion about the need to continue to expand our concepts of inclusion, making sure no one is left out. If you’re interested in watching the seminar recording, click here.
Supporting our Corporate DEI Strategy
Establishing the Equity & Diversity track of the Bartender of the Year program was an important step in our DEI journey. This work helps to break down systematic barriers by opening these lines of communication regarding the importance of diversity and inclusion throughout the industry. Additionally, it supports our goal of creating more diverse and inclusive marketing programming. Heaven Hill is proud to have extended this educational opportunity to the hospitality community, our distributor partners, our employees, and anyone interested in learning more about and expanding their understanding of diversity within the hospitality community and beyond.
As part of our ongoing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion efforts Heaven Hill has established a vision for DEI – to foster a respectful, diverse and inclusive workplace that supports our employees, customers, consumers and communities. To achieve this vision, we have identified four strategic areas of focus where we know we can make a real impact and that you have also told us are important to you:
- Workplace Diversity
- Workplace Equity & Inclusion
- Diversity in Marketing & Sales
- Community Engagement & Philanthropy
We look to these focus areas to guide decisions about programming, philanthropy, recruitment and more to ensure we are supporting our vision and reaching our goals.
