My food & drink job: Henry Fricker, relationship manager, GroceryAid

Name: Henry Fricker (he/him)

Age: 27

Job title: Relationship manager

Company & location: GroceryAid, Sandhurst

Education: Farnborough Sixth Form College

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? A zookeeper or a singer-songwriter.

Why did you decide to go for a career in food & drink? I have previously held, it feels, every position in restaurants, then moved to hotels and subsequently into account management and sales. I wanted to completely shake up my career and head into a brand-new world – both in grocery and charity. Who doesn’t love a new challenge? It’s been 14 months of learning, adapting and expanding, but certainly a decision I do not regret.

Explain your job to us in a sentence (or two): I keep in touch with 200-plus of our amazing supporters, helping co-ordinate their event attendance, sponsorship and ensuring that awareness of our incredible welfare services are fed into every part of their business. Awareness is so key to help as many people as possible in the industry for us at GroceryAid.

How does your workplace celebrate Pride Month? This year at GroceryAid, our incredible D&I in Grocery team have produced a Pride pack, both for partners of the programme and for internal learning. The whole charity is attending a town hall this month where this will be highlighted alongside various other resources.

We will also be highlighting the importance of allyship and will distribute Pride pin badges with the wording ‘you can be yourself with me’ for colleagues to pin on to their lanyards, to help maintain an inclusive and safe environment for all colleagues. Finally, we will be holding a watch party for the D&I in Grocery programme’s next Learning Lab spotlighting diverse family units.

”It’s encouraging for me personally to be part of a workplace where an importance is placed on Pride month”

Does your company provide support to LGBTQ+ employees in terms of policies and resources? As we’re a small and growing organisation, we are currently working with our fantastic D&I team to put together policies supporting LGBTQ+ colleagues. All GroceryAid colleagues also have access to the D&I in Grocery Programme’s Partner Hub, which gives us 24/7 access to a range of resources within this space.

What does a typical day look like for you? I am very lucky in my role – we have our fingers in many parts of the pie here (no food pun intended). I spend each day keeping in touch with our supporters and ensuring they’re getting the most out of our events and welfare services.

I also look after our incredible GroceryAid Awareness Network – a community of volunteers across the industry (over 200 members from 150-plus companies currently) who help share understanding of our support services into every pocket of their business while engaging in key networking opportunities. Getting to attend our calendar of 15-plus events per year is also a huge plus – they really are world-class!

Tell us how you went about applying for your job: I found the job online and instantly felt like it was a role ’made for me’ – these moments are few and far between I’ve come to understand! I had a total of four interview stages, which were spread across phone calls, face-to-face and virtual, with a nice variety of colleagues as part of each.

Once being accepted for the job, I felt lucky as I had already met our fundraising director, welfare director, my line manager and various other team members so it was almost a “lovely to see you again” rather than “nice to be introduced” with all of them.

How do you celebrate Pride? I personally believe and advocate that Pride doesn’t exist in just one month of the calendar year. It is an everyday, ongoing feeling and badge of honour that every single human being within the LGBTQIA+ community deserves to celebrate. Our rights are human rights.

I have such a loving and supportive network around me with family and friends that celebrate this everyday feeling and wear that badge of honour alongside me – keeping vital conversations and actions regarding our rights, breaking down stigmas and advocating for an inclusive world alive every second of every day. I like to celebrate Pride, personally, by sharing important news that affects our community and being a safe space for others to ask questions and to be curious into how they can become an active ally. Allyship is something so important to me.

Who is a Pride role model for you? Elton John is an incredible role model for me, and I’m sure for millions around the world. He embodies the feeling of being ’proud’ to me: refusing to shy away from being his authentic self and using his acknowledged privilege to help others in ways big or small. I think his compassion for humanity is beautiful. The work that the Elton John AIDS Foundation has done to date is awe-inspiring, they’ve raised $600m worldwide and supported 100 million-plus people with education, prevention services, treatment, testing and support.

Read more:

• Sysco to sponsor first-ever Pride event in Ashford

• Tesco’s Adam Jarvis on Pride, badgers and Jonathan Bailey

• Deliveroo launches LGBTQ+ chef training kitchen

• My food & drink job: Tyler Lee, ProUd network co-chair, Unilever

What’s the best part about working for a food & drink company? I have loved the process of being able to grow a new network within this industry. Being able to understand the DNA of brands and companies that you know and use everyday is fascinating to me. It’s made me appreciate the simple actions of buying groceries, for example, that much more: learning about the full, extensive supply chain and hard work that has gone into each and every product that ends up on our shelves.

The amount of lives we’ve been able to change in this industry is something to marvel at and I’m constantly amazed and inspired at how lucky I am to be in that position.

And what’s the biggest misconception people have about working in food & drink? When catching up with our supporters, its clear to see the skill, passion and creativity that goes into delivering a product; which others may take for granted. Outside the industry, people see a finished product and may not appreciate every colleague that is a vital part of delivering that product.

What advice would you give to young queer people in the food & drink industry? I have loved seeing how LGBTQIA+ colleagues and allies proactively make this a more inclusive industry and drive change through their networks. I would encourage those who are within this industry, or new to the industry, to champion those available networks in their own companies to empower one another.

What’s your ultimate career dream? At GroceryAid, my goal is to raise even more awareness of our free and confidential emotional, practical and financial services available to colleagues.

Interested in finding out more about food & drink careers? Check out GrocerJobs for the latest vacancies