Waste Knot’s campaign ‘Waste Knot People’ aims to address concerns around the environments and cultures within which hospitality professionals have been operating, with stress and pressures leading to burnout, depression and anxiety.

Waste Knot has developed day-courses at Brook Farm in Harwich which will be run by founder of Waste Knot Jess Latchford and owner of Nature Based Farming Pete Thompson. Activities will include paddle boarding, open water swimming, foraging, open-fire cooking, glamping, natural navigation, yoga, mindfulness and forest bathing.

The day-courses aim to help attendees develop a range of techniques for resilience, grounding and an understanding of how our inner-ecosystems are inextricably linked to our outer-ecosystems and what we can learn from how nature behaves.

A study carried out by the Royal Society for Public Health found that:

• 74% of hospitality workers reported suffering verbal abuse from customers.
• 24% of hospitality workers had required medical or psychological treatment for mental health issues.
• Only one in every ten workers stated that they had access to mental health awareness training.
• 62% of respondents believed that the hospitality industry did not do enough for the physical and mental health of employees.
• 45% of respondents stated they would not recommend working in hospitality.
• Just 23% said they felt they were able to raise mental health concerns.

Greg Bramwell, director of food and beverage at BaxterStorey, said: “As a business, we have a duty of care to protect and safeguard our people, especially in these extremely tough times for society. We believe the answer to this is to give them the time and space to temporarily step back from the pressures of day-to-day life and reconnect with nature.

“Our collaboration with Waste Knot will ensure our people have exposure to the environment and access to professional support networks, as well as providing education, exercise and some much-needed fun in the process.”