About CHAAD
The Chicago Hospitality Accountability & Advocacy Database (CHAAD) Project is a BIPOC-and queer-led advocacy and mutual aid organization. With deep roots in worker-led organizing and a growing national and international profile, CHAAD is transforming Chicago's hospitality industry into a worker-centered ecosystem that values equity, sustainability, and care. We work at the intersections of labor justice, racial equity, gender justice, and public health to dismantle oppressive structures embedded in the restaurant and bar industry.
Give today to help us build a future where hospitality truly means care for all.
Our Story
The Chicago Hospitality Accountability & Advocacy Database emerged in June 2020. It was initially a spreadsheet designed to keep track of local establishments’ ethical practices. The database was to be used as a tool to find businesses that stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, adhere to COVID-19 guidelines, have multiple employee complaints, which ones have owners who are white supremacists, and more. Though the spreadsheet is now retired, we continue collecting data on the Chicago hospitality industry and use the information as a resource for workers.
Our Values
A Delicious Life
Everyone deserves to have their basic needs met and a joyous existence.
Community First
Our work is for and informed by those who can best imagine the way forward – we center those most marginalized.
Growth Focused
Remain curious and implement new learnings.
Radical Minded
The status quo must be abolished. We aim to live in the future we imagine.
Our Community Norms
I commit to protecting the confidentiality of our space
I commit to asking permission before sharing any information freely in the group
I commit to collective decision-making
I commit to valuing, supporting, and lifting others
I commit to changing the hospitality industry for the benefit of all workers
QTBIPOC voices to the front. Meaning we all commit to prioritizing space and airtime for the voices of queer, trans, black, and indigenous folks of color during this discussion. Practically, for folks who don’t hold those identities, this means monitoring your airtime, making sure you are not speaking over, speaking for, or restating the ideas of QTBIPOC, etc, and calling in others if they engage in these behaviors. Move up, move back.
Challenge the idea, not the person. Commit to dialogue. The goal isn’t complete agreement but to challenge each other from a place of care and curiosity. This is how we learn and grow together and how we invest in each other.
Questions are welcome. If there is a term or idea you do not understand, feel free to flag it in the chat or interrupt for more information. None of us has all the answers. Let’s cultivate a safe place to ask questions and learn.
I commit to being brave about expressing my unique needs and the way I process information while remaining generous and patient in acknowledging and supporting the needs of those around me.
Meet The Team
Raeghn Draper
(they/them)
With over 12 years of experience in restaurants as a dishwasher, cook, server, host, and bartender, they weave a working-class experience throughout their work. Raeghn, a Chicago-based storyteller, digital strategist, and community organizer, crafts compelling language that breathes life into powerful experiences and campaigns. They are passionate about advocating for hospitality workers and challenging toxic structures in the industry. Their inspiration comes from diverse perspectives and utilizes the world around them.
Follow Raeghn on linkedin.
Executive Director
Molly Pachay
(she/her)
For the past 9 years, Molly has worked every front of house position (and some BOH!) in a multitude of hospitality establishments, spanning James Beard Award-winning restaurants to the local dive bar. Her degree in sociology, lived experiences in the industry, and upbringing as the child of a restaurant worker inform her work as Director of Strategic Partnerships at CHAAD, driving grassroots organizing projects and strengthening ties with other organizations invested in bettering the hospitality industry. Outside of her work with CHAAD, Molly is an avid cook, doting cat mom, and quintessential Aries.
Follow @molly.pachay on instagram or linkedin.
Director Strategic Partnerships
Danny Kavanagh
(they/them)
Danny brings 11 years of design agency experience and a background as a line cook to their freelance work. Now independent, they’re reclaiming their craft by partnering exclusively with those pushing back against the status quo.
Follow along at @prettybad_danny on instagram or linkedin.
Director of Design & Accessibility
Gina
(she/her)
Gina has 8 years of combined experience in community organizing, mutual aid work, and local urban farming, along with 13 years in the food and beverage industry across the city. As a proud Paraguayan-Guaraní raised Chicagoan, she advocates for worker and labor rights through a decolonial and abolitionist perspective, which drives her efforts to build community and create a better and more just food system.
Director of Community Engagement