Kerim Nefati
Representing: Denmark
With his initiative, Kerim is on a mission to prioritise well-being in the workplace for hospitality professionals by offering tailored support with conversations about the topic as a starting point.
First barrier to engage about your own struggles with your mental wellbeing is recognising there is an issue to address and that others are battling the same issues as you.
Next step will be to address it by talking about it; but who do you turn to?
The Stress Less Project aims to bridge this barrier; first locally, then globally.
First step locally is to start raising awareness about the issue of mental wellbeing in the industry and how important it is to talk about. Information about the project will be spread via reaching out to bars and restaurants, setting up meetings with managers, to explain the idea and background of the initiative.
Here they will receive a pre-bottled Mystik Mango cocktail, as well as an invitation for an orientation meeting with a professional physiologist.
Relationship with the professional physiologist is built via engaging with our local Copenhagen University, where we have secured help to accomplish the project by introducing this is part of a mental health study in a growing industry, as the hospitality sector is growing year on year here in Denmark, making the importance of mental health within the industry a larger priority with larger societal impact year on year. A model we see as scalable in most parts of the world, as a lot of students pay their way through school having part time jobs in hospitality, hence an expected understanding of the issue and relatable knowledge sporting an increased awareness and access to university help.
With help of professionals it is the aim to build on an already activated website where you can find help starting to address struggles you or your colleagues might be facing with mental wellbeing.
By continued spreading of awareness of the project, the goal is to sustain a small revenue stream by selling pre-bottled cocktails to restaurants and bars, emphasizing this global issue for a growing and maturing industry, paying dividends to help solve the issue by donation of 0,5€ pr sold cocktail that will then go towards creating a non-profit but paid job for a physiologist to administer the tasks at hand to run the project and to facilitate first contact to hospitality professionals to break down the first boundary of talking about mental health within the industry.
The Mystik Mango cocktail is planned to be the first in a line of cocktails, all supporting the initiative with funding pr. served cocktail.
All cocktails to be produced at RUBY cocktail bar at first, later with growth of scale, professional bottling facilities will be needed and project managers brought in.
At that time, sales towards high-end supermarkets focusing on quality will be sought out to enhance the project; with the goal of making it into a large scale operation being able to support the industry nationwide.
For Global scalability, we believe this model can be achieved with the help of Ketel One, supporting initiators in other markets with network and potentially donations of vodka to get the project rolling at a lower startup cost.
We understand that starting small and getting the word out is key; hence this is the three step plan of scalability that we believe can be achieved:
Step 1: Spread the word, intro meetings with venue managers, making connections with local professionals or universities, do a few sessions for selected bartenders in the community showing interest.
Step 2: Set-up sessions for dedicated venues, start offering cocktail services creating a small venue stream funding the project, build on awareness via website.
Step 3: Scale cocktail program, spreading the word further, enlarging the revenue stream to create a self-funding small organisation championing mental well-being in the hospitality industry; hopefully inspiring others to do the same in other countries.

Mystik Mango Cocktail
40 ml Ketel One Family-Made Vodka (yoghurt-washed with Mango Skyr)
25 ml Pandan & Miso Eva cream (amontillado & PX mix)
10 ml rich syrup
10 ml lime acid solution (infused with mango tea)
Prebatched and bottled - recommended serve 90ml
Serve in a highball glass with crushed ice and a lightly burnt pandan leaf