Sweetgreen’s ‘Family Fund’ Has Employees Donate From Their Salaries for Emergencies | Eater
"The company presents itself as a sustainability-minded, wellness-focused fast-casual chain that offers benefits such as five months of parental leave, wellness time, team-member vacation, a 401(k), and health care (with limitations for restaurant staff). It has implemented a voluntary “Family Fund” — a payroll-donation pool open to both corporate and restaurant employees — which has provided emergency assistance (temporary housing, funeral expenses, medical emergencies) to more than 3,000 restaurant workers. While the chain has undertaken visible initiatives like a $1 million, two-year program to bring healthier food to schools and reversing a cashless policy, critics argue that relying on employee donations for emergency aid highlights broader inequalities: the fund shifts the burden of generosity onto workers, allows corporate leaders to avoid harder changes (such as raising wages or restructuring benefits), and obscures the company’s accountability to address predictable, controllable problems in pay and benefits distribution." - Jaya Saxena
