Eating at a Meeting

How does equity, diversity, and inclusion relate to event catering? Tune into Eating at a Meeting LIVE on Wednesday when Tracy chats with Zoe (pronounced ZOH) Moore, an independent equity, diversity, and inclusion consultant in the hospitality, events and tourism industries. Hint...DEI (and belonging) have a lot to do with event catering. From staffing in the front and back of house to vendor sourcing, service methods to what's being served, inclusive food and beverage experiences are opportunities to invite people to learn, celebrate and honor diversity as well as create a sense of belonging. Join the conversation to learn how events professionals can leverage F&B experiences through DEI. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

For the last 11 years Len Senater ran The Depanneur in Toronto, Canada, an unusual venue that hosted thousands of unique pop-up food events and showcased Toronto's culinary talent. In 2016 he founded the Newcomer Kitchen, a weekly food pop up by and for newly arrived Syrian refugee women so they could prepare, serve and sell traditional Syrian meals. Currently taking a sabbatical year to finish up The Depanneur Cookbook (2023) which will feature recipes & stories from 100 cooks (>80 nationalities!) that have come through The Depanneur over the past decade. If you're interested in learning from a person who has hosted a 1,000+ dinner parties and worked with 100+ amateur & professional cooks from all over the world, tune into Eating at a Meeting LIVE on February 23 at 12PM Eastern. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

In this special 2-part episode to kick off American Heart Month and Black History Month, Tracy is chatting with Valda Ford, a Registered Nurse and Public Health expert and Chef Author Jennifer Hill Booker. In the first 30 minutes, Tracy and Valda are going to talk about how and why she works tirelessly to find answers to complex questions if it will enable some person or some group to have a better experience - especially one that enhances their quality of life or access to care. Plus, how she changed a health scare with food. Then Jennifer and Tracy will talk about her being a culinary educator who believes that "food should taste like food" and the importance of cooking and eating seasonally. Plus, we'll get the low-down on her being one of three female chefs for Windstar Cruises 2022 James Beard Foundation-affiliated guest chef culinary cruise series. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Rich Wilner, a native New Yorker, is the General Manager of AFFAIRS to REMEMBER, the Atlanta-based #catering and #eventproduction company with strong passions for delicious food, unforgettable events, sustainable practices, and community involvement. He is a 30+ year veteran of the #hospitalityindustry, as well as of living a #plantbased lifestyle. He thinks — actually knows from experience — that server quality and innovative, tasty products that happen to meet the objective of plant-based practices, can benefit people, the planet and business profit. Having grown up in a kosher household with a mother who is an amazing cook, and shared her love through food, Rich knew he was destined to be in hospitality and to be around the culinary side of it. Listen to Tracy and Rich chat about how and why a plant-based lifestyle is meaningful to him, the concerns he hears about adapting plant-based dining habits, and how AFFAIRS to REMEMBER incorporates plant-based practices into to their menus and business. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

This is a special Women's HERstory month edition Tracy does every March. National City has one of the highest rates of obesity and diabetes in San Diego County and in the state of California. To help women seeking healthier diets in National City, a 7-week nutrition program called Cooking for Salud® was designed in 2012 with the goal of empowering families to take control of their health through the foods that they eat and prepare at home. It has become a Latina-led movement to raise the health, wellbeing, and resilience of the community with its graduates — Kitchenistas® — advocating, educating and cooking high-quality food in their homes, schools, city, and beyond. With more than 275 Kichtenistas — and a 1 year waitlist — these women are conquering their community health crisis by cooking traditional dishes in a healthy way. Listen as Tracy chats with Kitchenistas Jacqueline Ante and Monica Lim and OlivewoodGardens Executive Director Jen Nationa about how a range of small advocacy actions over time have lead to big changes. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

This is a special Women's HERstory month edition Tracy does every March. With a passion for global cooking and holistically nourishing the body through food, Chef Elizabeth Johnson, by way of her restaurant Pharm Table, shares plant-forward meals that are locally sourced, globally inspired, and promote an overall better quality of life. With her rich and unique background in multi-disciplinary studies like Anthropology, Culinary Arts, and Ayurvedic medicine, she has a deep understanding the healing capacity food offers us. Join Tracy as she talks to Chef Elizabeth with "arguably the only anti-inflammatory restaurant of its kind" about how we can put more healthful food into more people's mouths at home and at events. www.pharmtable.com https://www.instagram.com/pharmtable/ https://www.facebook.com/PharmTable https://twitter.com/pharmtablecafe https://www.linkedin.com/in/pharm-table-5927481a1/ Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

This is a special Women's HERstory month edition Tracy does every March. Aliza Tuttle is combining her own personal experiences with food. Growing up volunteering with her grandma in the local soup kitchen, studying food systems and urban studies in college to understand the systemic issues that affect food and inequality, and personally experiencing food insecurity and time poverty — to help build community and help the economy through food. As a volunteer with the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition's Food Action Team during the early days of the pandemic she helped start a group that used crowd funding to buy meals from locally owned restaurants and then gave the meals to anyone who needed a gift of food. It's On Us (IOU) Corvallis has raised over $300,000 and given out 30,000 meals so far. Listen as Tracy and Aliza talk about how IOU Corvallis has been helping the local economy by distributing gift cards to locally owned businesses so people who may not otherwise be can pay full price for food, restoring the food system to one place and one payment method. Useful Links https://itsonuscorvallis.org/ https://www.instagram.com/itsonus_corvallis/ https://www.facebook.com/itsonusCorvallis/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/alizatuttle/ Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Sera Cuni is a classically trained chef who grew up in a family of self-taught cooks who enthusiastically embraced their Italian and Czech heritages. She also learned early in life that the sharing a home-cooked meal together every evening was a necessary ingredient for an abundant life. Now as chef owner of The Root Cellar, she has built her career around feeding people and feels especially compelled to provide nourishment to those in need. Join Tracy and Sera today, Wednesday, March 23 at 12PM as they talk about her commitment to ending hunger in Pittsboro, North Carolina and help those around her to never have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Back in April 2016, SAVEUR said New Jersey was "the unsung hero state of American eating." From Taylor Ham to Jersey Sloppy Joes, Trenton Tomato Pie (pizza) to Boardwalk Lemonade & Fries, Pechter's Rye Bread to Cranberries, blueberries and tomatoes, magazine deemed the Garden State is "the most edible state" with a rich, diverse, and passionate food culture. But you do not need to tell that to Kathleen Carozza, Alessia Aron or Liz Pacelli, food tour owner operators and co-founders of the New Jersey Food Tour Trail Collaborative. These women, along with four others, banded together when the pandemic hit to connect their respective food tour companies and help food lovers to explore New Jersey's diverse and delicious food scene in a fun and exciting ways while also learning about local history. Listen as Tracy chats with Kathleen, Alessia, and Liz about how they foster community and connection through food across the Garden State, their favorite stories behind the local food scenes, the cool food and beverage entrepreneurs in NJ and how best to enjoy the whole Trail. This special episode is part of Women's HERstory month, highlighting women in food and beverage. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

As a toddler, this week's Women's HERStory month honoree studied her Persian grandma's movements in her kitchen while she deftly tossed in spices to stews that cooked for hours until the meat was so tender it slipped off a fork, rehearsing an act long practiced and learned from her own mother. Today, Tala Ahmadi is inspiring people in Accra, Ghana (and across Africa) to think critically about where their food comes from, how it is processed, and the effects it has on their health, and the planet. Through her work as a CEO of a small urban farming company, a senior project manager with a digital agriculture consultancy firm, a yoga teacher, and a permaculturist, she supports her clients in living a more sustainable lifestyle within the city through what we term "permaculture homestead" structures. Listen as Tracy and Tala as they talk about how Tala, after years of designing financial solutions for smallholder farmers, she decided to give farming a try herself and now has her own thriving urban food forest in her backyard. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com