FED Global Thought Leadership Summit & The Whole Pie
November 15th, 2022
FED Global Thought Leadership Summit
& The Whole Pie
Fall events deliver a renewed sense of possibility and community for us here at Just Fare.
We had the pleasure of taking part in two exciting and distinct events so far this season: the Foodservice Equipment and Design Global Thought Leadership Summit in Chicago, and The Whole Pie fundraiser at Pie Ranch on the California coast. The last three years have shown us how precious opportunities to gather like this are, and we are so grateful to get to share these experiences with you.
First, on September 14th,
our Director of Design & Consulting, Caetie Ofiesh, spoke at the FED Global Thought Leadership Summit in Chicago. Presented by Restaurant Development + Design magazine and Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazine, the summit was an opportunity for industry operators and designers to get together and discuss the future of foodservice and share industry insights.
Caetie’s presentation went under the hood to discuss Just Fare’s people-first approach to foodservice operations and design. The session dove into the tangible ways Just Fare balances profit with people, planet and community by measuring and tracking our progress while making delicious meals and designing terrific spaces for culinary teams. With the goal of encouraging other businesses to reframe success to include “doing well and doing good,” she used Just Fare as a case study, focusing on the impact areas and the metrics we use to measure progress.
She acknowledged that ‘doing well’ - as in the business, and ‘doing good’ - as in its impact, can seem mutually exclusive for many in the industry. This balance often comes across as a choice. But, as Caetie explains, “given the challenges we all face, in workforce, in rising food costs, in supply chain, and in the environment, we’ve realized that in order to do well, we have to balance profit with Food & Planet, People and Community, because if we don’t, we may not have a food system, a workforce or a healthy community in which to operate our business.”
And so she tackled the question of possibility - inspired by ‘why?’ as a starting point. She reflected that when we started Just Fare we were all burned out on the food industry. We wanted to see better ingredient sourcing, more dignified industry jobs and a healthier food system. This was our guiding principle, and it translated to our aim to have a positive impact in three areas: food & planet, people and community. This is Just Fare’s ‘why.’ Caetie went on to share exactly how we did this - proving possibility within our model, and prompted listeners to consider the possibilities that exist within theirs.
Watch Caetie’s full presentation below.
Three days later,
our Events, Workplace, and HQ teams rallied together to pull off the largest event we’ve catered to date – The Whole Pie, the annual fundraiser for our good friends at Pie Ranch. The seated dinner for nearly 400 guests was a farm-to-table feast that guests enjoyed while learning about Bay Area food equity, regenerative agriculture, and Pie’s educational programs.
In developing the event, the Fare culinary team collaborated with Pie Ranch crop managers on menus and planning. For Laura McGrath, Just Fare’s Events Director, the procurement process was a heartwarming experience: “our collaborative menu process was inspired by the abundance of items Pie and their neighbors grow and all that we would be able to work with to help create a meal that was a reflection of this amazing and intentional place.”
The Pie Ranch and Just Fare teams received guests in the meadow with drinks and passed appetizers, which included root vegetable croquettes, smoked & braised goat on blue corn griddle cakes, and a pear, caramelized onion, Point Reyes blue cheese, and shaved fennel flatbread. Pie Ranch co-founders Jered Lawson and Nancy Vail then took guests on a strolling tour of the ranch.
Dinner began shortly thereafter, but not before guests enjoyed the bounty of Just Fare Events’ newest offering - Grazing Tables - overflowing with raw, roasted, marinated, and pickled best of season vegetables & fruit from the farm served with carrot tahini dip, romesco dip, flower carta di musica, gluten free house-made oat biscuits, assorted breads, Pie Ranch goat cheese, and summer stuffed eggs.
While guests sat down for dinner, presentations began about food justice, farm education, and the farmer pathways Pie Ranch is developing through their many community-centered agriculture programs. Dinner was served family style, starting with a best of season leafy salad with crunchy purple barely & roasted pears, and wood oven winter squashes with a spicy honey drizzle. The main course consisted of a “picnic pie” stuffed with chard, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and ricotta, a slow cooked red floriani cornmeal with arugula pesto, and a red wine braised beef ragu. The night’s festivities ended on a lively note with a barn dance and live music from the HomePie String Band, while guests enjoyed Pie Ranch apple pie and Penny Ice Cream.
This is not the first time Just Fare and Pie Ranch have teamed up, though it was undoubtedly the most delicious. In 2021, the Just Fare Design team collaborated with Pie Ranch and Arkin Tilt Architects to reimagine the concept of their farmstand kitchen as part of a larger update to the entire farmstand building. The resulting redesign significantly expanded their production space with a pie prep and baking zone, new dish area and leveraged the exterior adjacent spaces for cold and dry storage. Just Fare and Pie Ranch are continuing to develop our partnership in the coming months.
We would like to thank…
the FED Summit planning team at Zoomba Group, Restaurant Development + Design magazine, Foodservice Equipment & Supplies magazine, Pie Ranch, and the incredible group of volunteers that made sure The Whole Pie went off without a hitch. These events brought with them a renewed sense of possibility and community for us here at Just Fare.
Now, halfway through the fall and with winter fast approaching, we are gearing up for another special event - one that we are putting on ourselves: a fundraiser for Community Kitchen. We look forward to sharing the details with you in a couple weeks.
Thank you so much for reading, we hope this message finds you warm and well fed.
With Gratitude,
Just Fare