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Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: COVID-19 Project

ORAL HISTORY

Katherine Wilkin

Roanoke Tip Jar

Born in 1995, Katherine Wilkin grew up in Roanoke, Virginia. At age 17, she began working as a server there and continued restaurant work while pursuing her undergraduate degree at University of Virginia. After she graduated, she began working at Local Roots, a farm-to-table restaurant in Roanoke. During that time, she became a coordinator with Against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a grassroots environmental organizing movement.

In March 2020, while she was working at Local Roots, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted her work as a server. Early in the pandemic, she noticed other food service industry folks founding mutual aid funds, also known as “Tip Jars,” for fellow workers. In April 2020, Wilkin founded the Roanoke Tip Jar, which sends money directly to food service workers affected by shutdowns during COVID. Throughout the Pandemic, she managed donations and distributions of funds in the Roanoake area. In Fall 2020, Wilkin moved to New York City to begin law school.

Date of interview:
2020-07-02

Interviewer:
Jessica Taylor, Jessica Brabble, and Iris Swaney

Photographer:

Download Transcript Download Transcript 2

“

"One thing that was a little bit difficult though, is even though Roanoke is a fairly sizable city, given its location it’s also very spread out. And the surrounding areas are very connected to Roanoke. So we would end up with people from like an hour away that would put their name on the Tip Jar list or people who worked in both Blacksburg, Christiansburg area, and in Roanoke and would put their names on both. So, finding where to draw the line with that was tough. What I ended up doing was, if I could find a Tip Jar that was closer to them then I would try to contact them and let them know to sign up for that one instead. But I think that only happened once." - Katherine Wilkin

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