Ben's Friends meetings help Atlanta food and beverage workers struggling with addiction

A metro Atlanta man is helping his fellow food and beverage workers struggling with addiction and alcoholism by holding weekly meetings that foster support.

"I've been cooking for 11 years. I started when I was a teenager. I've been with the company ever since," said Jonah Jacobson, a sous chef at Pricci in Buckhead.

Jacobson said he began to experience repercussions while in active addiction five years ago.

"Things got bad enough to the point where I was fired from my first job," he said.

Jacobson said once he started using alcohol and drugs, he could not stop.

"Where everybody else would call it a night after 1, 2 and go home like a normal person, I realized I did not have that luxury. I was not like everybody else," said Jacobson.'

He helps lead the local chapter of Ben's Friends, a national organization that organizes meetings for people struggling with addiction and alcoholism.

"We would always talk about another restaurant person who was either destroying their lives or, unfortunately, had just taken their lives due to alcohol and drugs. At one point, we just said enough is enough," said Ben's Friends co-founder Mickey Bakst.

Bakst has been sober for 43 years. He said the food and beverage industry fosters an environment in which alcohol and drugs are common and makes it easy for workers to fall into active addiction.

Adam Mauk with Edge Treatment Center in Roswell said programs like Ben's Friends are often more successful after a person completes an initial inpatient or outpatient treatment plan. But he said people often reason they cannot afford to take the time off from work to complete initial treatment.

"It's been proven time and time again that if you put anything ahead of your sobriety or ahead of trying to get clean or sober, then you're going to lose that too," said Mauk.

Jacobson has now been sober for five years.

"It (recovery) gave me a new outlook on life and gave me a sense of belonging that I was looking for, partially in a kitchen, partially outside of my life," said Jacobson.

Ben's Friends has more than 40 chapters across the country, offering free peer support to people working in the food and beverage industry.

Jacobson encourages anyone to attend a meeting on Mondays at 11 a.m. at Pricci, located on Pharr Road.