Will Work For Food: How One Spanish Restaurant Is Tackling Unemployment

A restaurant in Spain has come up with a really awesome way of offering a helping hand to people that are currently out of work as a result of the country’s current recession.

Euronews reports that the city council of Terrassa in Catalonia has teamed up with local charities to fund a restaurant that hosts a special “work exchange scheme.” This scheme allows people unable to afford a meal to pay for their food by spending an hour working at the restuarant.

The people can choose to serve food to other customers, clean or help out in the kitchen in exchange for a full-course meal.

Terrassa, where the work-for-food restaurant is located

It’s a pretty fair deal and locals have fully embraced the restaurant, citing it as a brilliant idea for helping to combat Spain’s current unemployment problem.

“This is aimed at people wanting to regain and strengthen their self-esteem. People wanting to imporve their daily lives,” said Xavier Casas, the manager of the restaurant.

According to the Spanish news source El País, half of the restaurant’s business comes from regular customers and the other half comes from volunteers.

“It is great that there are people who still get up in the morning thinking about how to help others,” said one volunteer.