Eating at a Meeting
Tracy Stuckrath, CFPM, CMM, CSEP, CHC
Eating at a Meeting explores a variety of topics on food and beverage (F&B) and how they impact individual experience and inclusion, sustainability, culture, community, health and wellness, laws and more.
The mission of Eating at a Meeting is to share authentic stories that illustrate the financial, social, emotional, and mental impact food and beverage have on individuals, organizations, and the earth. I see it being threefold:
● Help individuals and organizations understand how F&B
impacts employee, customer and guest experience, the
planet and the bottom line.
● Help those growing, producing, preparing, and serving
F&B understand the duty of care they hold in food safety
and inclusion as well as the opportunity they have to
create experiences that are safe and inclusive.
● Support those with dietary needs by gathering their
insight on eating at a meeting with dietary needs,
helping them better advocate for themselves and
educating them on the processes found on the other
side of the kitchen door.
The mission of Eating at a Meeting is to share authentic stories that illustrate the financial, social, emotional, and mental impact food and beverage have on individuals, organizations, and the earth. I see it being threefold:
● Help individuals and organizations understand how F&B
impacts employee, customer and guest experience, the
planet and the bottom line.
● Help those growing, producing, preparing, and serving
F&B understand the duty of care they hold in food safety
and inclusion as well as the opportunity they have to
create experiences that are safe and inclusive.
● Support those with dietary needs by gathering their
insight on eating at a meeting with dietary needs,
helping them better advocate for themselves and
educating them on the processes found on the other
side of the kitchen door.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Sep 27, 2022 • 45min
157: Saving Lives, Implementing Change, & Creating a New Standard for Allergy Care
Meet the young entrepreneur — Zak Marks — who has lived with a severe nut allergy his whole life (24 years) and has created a company and product — Kitt Medical — "to save lives, implement change, and create a new standard for allergy care." Zak and the Kitt Medical team believe that EVERY public place must be equipped with emergency anaphylaxis provisions - just like a defibrillator, but for allergies. "Don't Delay. Anaphylaxis can be fatal." Join Tracy and Zak as they chat about how "adrenaline can save lives," how did he got started, what he is most excited about by what he's doing, and how you too can help save lives. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Sep 20, 2022 • 50min
156: Event Safety: How it Relates to Food & Beverage
With airline medical kits not being fully stocked being in the news lately and it being Medic Alert Awareness Month, I wanted to talk event safety expert Alan Kleinfeld about what hashtag#MeetingProfs need to know. From hashtag#epinephrine to defibrillators, what should hashtag#EventProfs make sure their medical staff has on hand? Join Tracy and Alan on Wednesday for hashtag#EatingAtAMeeting LIVE to learn how planners can be prepared for medical emergencies? What information can planners ask guests to provide them about any medical conditions? What falls under GDPR/HIPAA? Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Sep 13, 2022 • 44min
155: Food Trends, Emerging Brands & Disruptive Innovation
Do you believe your food and beverage purchases have an impact on the environment? Do you follow a diet or eating pattern (clean, plant-based, mindful, calorie-counting)? Do you seek out “natural” foods to avoid artificial ingredients? Do you choose your beer to get more out of the price (higher ABV) or to reduce alcohol consumption altogether (zero ABV)? If any of these apply to you, then you're part of the latest trends in food and beverage. Tracy chats with Monica Watrous, managing editor for Food Business News, about the business of food, including the top food and beverage trends she's is seeing right now, examples of emerging brands to watch for and hopefully incorporate into event menus. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Sep 6, 2022 • 1h
154: Chatting About Food and Beverage with Eating at a Meeting Members
In this episode Tracy opens up the podcast to Eating at a Meeting followers to come on the show to chat about food and beverage. Nancy Sutta Burns and Lynne Wellish join her. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Aug 30, 2022 • 59min
153: The Latest in Hotel Food & Beverage Trends
As the partners of Hotel Mogel Consulting Limited, a Toronto-based consulting practice, Larry Mogelonsky and Adam Mogelonsky are a dynamic duo whose mission is to "write about the world of hotels and try to make hoteliers understand that there's more to their life than just counting the number of bread rolls in a basket." Their 40+ years of joint experience consulting with and staying in hotels, Larry and Adam are going to talk with Tracy about the best big trends for F&B in the hotel industry, how are onsite F&B operations are adjusting to the growing consumer demands and how to enhance the guest experience. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Aug 23, 2022 • 42min
152: Farm to Fire — Farm to Table Catering Using Open Fire Cooking
Brandon Snook, pictured here with his grandma Ceese, is owner and chef of Hudson Valley BBQ Company. Brandon takes great pride in using locally sourced ingredients from the Hudson Valley so he can make almost all of the items offered on his catering menu from scratch on event day. Having grown up in the cattle country of Montana, there was always locally sourced food on his family table and every night, the family sat down to a freshly made farm-to-table meal made from recipes passed down from generation to generation. Another thing he prides himself on offering his wedding clients. Join Tracy as she talks to Brandon about the art of open fire cooking, which he feels is imperative, land stewardship, and the state of catering. They delve into so much more as well. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Aug 16, 2022 • 47min
151: Managing Food & Beverage at MPI's World Education Congress
What does it take to manage food and beverage for one of the meetings industry’s largest association conventions? Listen as Tracy talks with Tanya Philyaw, Senior Event Planner and Annette Gregg, Chief Revenue Officer for Meeting Professionals International about the organization's 2022 World Education Conference. They chat about how to use food to build community, what they are still learning about meal planning, how attendee dietary needs affects what they choose to serve the thousands of event participants, and pet peeves with food and beverage planning. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Aug 9, 2022 • 28min
150: What is Safe Sustainable and Inclusive Food and Beverage?
In this episode, Tracey looked back through 150 episodes to find how her guess answers the question and what their perception of safe, sustainable, and inclusive is to them. From making a conscious effort to think about it to think about understanding where your food is from where you’re getting it through allergy safety and making sure that everybody has a seat at the table. Hear Tracy reading excerpts from her guests and directly from the guests. Let us know what it means to you as well by sending a message to hello@thrivemeetings.com
Aug 2, 2022 • 57min
149: Embedding Sustainability into the Event Planning Process
The copy/paste approach to BEO, menu and service planning prevents achieving food waste reduction goals, introducing healthy and sustainable options, and capitalizing on other promising trends. Instead, we need to adopt the improv principle of “yes, and”! Opposite of the “we’ve always done it this way” thinking that is too common in foodservice operations and menu planning, Molly Crouch Corporate Director of Sustainability at Sodexo Live! and Dr. Aurora Dawn Benton sustainability consultant and illuminator at Astrapto are going to share how we can use "yes, and" to rethink our approach and uncover opportunities to improve social and environmental outcomes and reduce costs in event food and beverage. I can personally attest to the enthusiasm and knowledge Molly and Aurora bring to table around this topic. They are a do NOT miss duo! Listen as Tracy, Molly, Aurora chat about all things sustainability and event food and beverage. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
Jul 26, 2022 • 46min
148: The Voice of Bees & Pollinators in Detroit
Brian Peterson is a 5th grade teacher, a beekeeper, and gardener. On this episode of Eating at a Meeting LIVE he's going to share how and why pollinators are so important to the food and beverage industry and meetings. As founder of the nonprofit Bees in the D, he's aiming to bring back Michigan’s declining pollinator population and educating us all on the complexities and importance of bees and pollinators to not only our food industry but our ecosystem as a whole. Join Tracy and Brian, as they discuss how most of our food sources can be traced back to pollination, the mission of Bees in the D and how is that mission being fulfilled. Connect with Tracy: facebook.com/groups/EatingataMeeting thrivemeetings.com
