Eating at a Meeting

Back in January Delta Airlines announced it was refreshing and enhancing its onboard F&B menu options for the new year to include premium wines, creative cocktails, espresso, plant-based, gluten-free, and locally and seasonally sourced options. “Your onboard meal or beverage should be no different than your go-to restaurant at home, and that’s why we’re constantly reinventing our onboard service at Delta – we always want to surprise and delight our customers with seasonal and fresh menu options,” said Kristen Manion Taylor, S.V.P. of In-Flight Service at Delta. In this episode of Eating at a Meeting LIVE, I'm talking with Kristen Manion Taylor about the refresh and what it takes to prep and deliver a premium dining experience at 35,000 feet in the air and how they are addressing safety, sustainability and inclusion in their menus. FYI...they serve 60 Million meals a year around the world. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

This week on Eating at a Meeting LIVE I'm chatting Simon McMahon, Director of Operations for Wyboston Lakes in the United Kingdom to talk about how the resort is addressing food waste and food and beverage inclusion on site. The resort's People's Pantry and composting system, are just two of the programs in practice that support its food waste reduction plan — ensuring no food waste goes off-site — and the long-term and comprehensive sustainability policy that recently won the miaList's prestigious 2022 Sustainability Award. When you think about sustainability and meetings, there are a lot of things to consider — destinations, transportation, venues, properties, accommodations, audio-visual production, exhibition services, and, of course, food and beverage. The multitude of decisions within each of those categories is broad and can be challenging to address. Yet, for the survival of our businesses, communities, and the planet, it is paramount that sustainability efforts and goals have the same level of priority as choosing what's for dinner at the event. Join Tracy and Simon as they discuss how partnering with a resort such as Wyboston that is making no apologies decisions that buck the norm in an effort to help the resort reach ambitious sustainability targets is one way to make those decisions easier. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

How do YOU define value when eating at a restaurant or attending an event that includes food and beverage? Food and beverage companies have tended to over-serve guests, allowing for take-home food not consumed while dining. With the pandemic cooking up pent-up demand for travel and experiences, is that a value? Alex Susskind, Professor of Food and Beverage Management, the Director of the Cornell Institute of Food and Beverage Management, and serving as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the School, teaches undergraduate and graduate students, as well as industry managers and executives, how to address the operational and strategic elements of the food and beverage business. Listen as Tracy talks with Alex about how food service businesses can re-imagine their service to reduce their cost while still giving everyone what they need and creating their own value proposition. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

What started as the Women's International Beer Summit in 2020 to connect female homebrewers to other homebrewers during the pandemic is now the certified 501©3 The Women's Craft Fermentation Alliance (WCFA). The organization, co-founded by Melissa McCann and Michele Wonder, is "dedicated to enabling, empowering, and encouraging women, non-binary folks, and those that have been othered in all facets of the craft fermentation space." Join Tracy, Melissa, and Michele for the last installment of the 2023 Women Making HERstory in Food & Beverage as they talk about how and why the WCFA came about, what they are brewing for the international WIBS: Fermentation Summit, and the importance of allowing folks to tell and share their stories, regardless of where they are from or how they identify. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Lindsey Ofcacek, alongside Chef Edward Lee, started The LEE Initiative in Louisville, KY, in 2018 when they saw how the #MeToo movement was bringing to light what women in the restaurant and food and beverage industry were experiencing. An acronym for Let’s Empower Employment, The LEE Initiative is focused on offering innovative and impactful solutions and programs when they see a need for a more diverse, compassionate, sustainable, and equitable restaurant industry. Since 2018, the organization has received many accolades for its work, but more importantly, it has made a real difference in the lives of hundreds of next-generation restaurant industry professionals. Join Tracy and Lindsay for a special edition of #EatingAtAMeeting LIVE for Women's HERstory Month as they discuss how they lead with kindness, help workers in need, promote diversity and equity, and believe that the impossible is possible. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

When I posted on my Instagram account that I was searching for women to highlight for Women's HERstory month, Chef Nina Curtis was the first to reply with the name Chef Karla Ortiz. Then, OMG! The additional "votes" for Karla kept rolling in, and then someone submitted a nomination form for her. After reading that, the piece about her in Forbes and on PBS's My American story, I was convinced. Karla Ortiz is the Chef/Owner of Bo.ka.do, a vegan restaurant in Puerto Rico, located inside La Plaza del Mercado (a farmer's market). Twenty-five years after leaving Puerto Rico, where she was born, she returned with $500 in her pocket, the need to feed her kids, a culinary degree, and a dream.  Her scratch kitchen restaurant uses the freshest of ingredients - those downstairs in the market - so that she can be as creative with food as possible, providing good food as well as educating people about mind, body, and soul. Join Tracy and Karla for a special edition of Eating at a Meeting LIVE for Women's HERstory month to talk about Karla's dream, how everyone ❤️s her food, and how she is using plant-based food to educate and empower others.  Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Jen Gilhoi and Cate Faulkner are the Co-Founders of the Zero Proof Collective in Minneapolis, MN. Sharing the lived experience of sobriety, they are purpose-driven and focused on reframing the “mocktail” experience so guests have plenty of elevated non-alcoholic (NA) options to enjoy, and bars, restaurants, hotels, and beverage companies can increase revenue with the new, fast-growing market. Through bi-monthly events, consulting, crafting, and serving elevated zero-proof cocktails, Jen and Cate are gathering business leaders to learn, collaborate and collectively communicate with clarity. Join Tracy, Jen, and Cate as they discuss how they are making #HERstory helping evolve culture so NA options are served everywhere with acceptance and inclusivity to valued customers and guests. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Wanting to honor the ancestry within her, Tambra Raye Stevenson, MPH, Founder/CEO of WANDA (Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture), is addressing the challenges of our current food system with Sheros and advocating for a Food Bill of Rights. Tambra lost her grandparents in Oklahoma from diabetes, stroke, and heart disease due to diet and our food culture predicated by the policies set in our cities, states, and country. So she takes the issue of public health and food and nutrition policy personally. As a mom, she began thinking about what are we telling the next generation about food, nutrition, and the culture of food. Through WANDA and Sisterhood Suppers, she is bringing awareness to how food is connected to our health, economy, and environment. Join Tambra and Tracy on Eating at a Meeting LIVE for a Women’s HERstory Month episode to discuss how she is revolutionizing our health and culture of food through the power of women and girls, amplifying the importance of a Food Bill of Rights, and why a Black Food Census is needed now as we prep for the Farm Bill. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

Randi Weinstein has been in the hospitality industry all her life, from being a host, bartender, and server to director of events for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival. In that last role, she noticed how many fewer female chefs there were than males, locally and nationally. It didn’t make sense to her. Women — grandmothers, mothers, aunts, and others — have always been relied on worldwide to cook and make meals for others. But, they weren’t represented in the hospitality industry. That is where and why Fab — Females and Business — came to be. This two-day workshop designed by women for women allows the attendees to connect, share and learn about the business of food and beverage. It’s also about helping them move forward, stand up for themselves, and be "brave, baller, and badass.” Since Randi is helping other women make HERstory in food and beverage, I wanted to talk to her during Women’s History Month about how she herself is making HERstory and why Fab and being FAB are important.  Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com

To kick off the 4th annual Women's HERstory Month (March) series and for Food Allergy Awareness/Celiac Disease Awareness Month (May), Tracy introduces you to Kayla King, founder and CEO of MyMeal, an app she created to help people with food restrictions find safe restaurant meals. Being diagnosed with celiac disease when she was 8, Kayla has grown up constantly thinking about food, but not in the way you might think. Instead of being able to walk down the street and pick any random restaurant to enjoy a meal, travel places without having a plan (or a safe snack in her pocket), or be in and out of a grocery store in 5 minutes, she has to read every ingredient label, call restaurants in advance, and plan trips around places that she could acquire food. This sparked her passion for building MyMeal, working directly with restaurants to help them become safe & accessible options for this underserved community. Join us at 12 PM Eastern to learn what else sparked her passion, and how she is and intends to Make HERstory helping others eat out safely. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com