Gavin's Farewell
September 29th, 2022
Gavin’s Farewell
A TRANSITION FOR OUR COO
Gavin with the Fare team 2017-2019.
What a ride…
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Gavin and I am a Co-founder of Just Fare. I like hiking and being outside; I am a person of habit and could eat the same thing for lunch every day; I like peanut butter by the spoonful and chocolate by the square; and ever since college I have been on a quest to support sustainable food systems. After starting my food career helping to produce the first two Good Food Awards, I started working with Gabe in his food business consultancy called Fare Resources. Since starting to work together ten years ago we have taken that consultancy through many iterations to finally a multi-faceted social-mission catering company called Just Fare.
When I joined the company, we primarily consulted for small food businesses - writing business plans, analyzing pricing, refining operations - before Airbnb approached us to grow their employee food program. We jumped at the opportunity to build a special food program for a values-driven client and from there Fare evolved from a consultancy to workplace caterer in 2017. At that point, we started to build a company that lived up to the principles we had been teaching as consultants. It was never the easy path, but one we felt was the right one. That catering company went through many twists and turns from 2017 to now - we built a profitable company with good business practices by 2019, we launched a community kitchen in order to navigate a pandemic in 2020 and then merged with an incredible events business to diversify coming out of pandemic in 2021. That brings us to today. We are building back as a more diversified and stronger business.
For me personally, I have always been a person that pushes forward, committing myself to something I believe in no matter the obstacle, and I have been doing a lot of that over the last few years. I recently got married in June and am preparing to start a family. With that shift, has come a lot of self-reflection. At this point, prioritizing my current and future family is the most important thing and I have come to the realization that the best way for me to do that is step away from my day-to-day role as COO of Just Fare.
I have utmost belief in the long term success of Just Fare. The people that comprise this company are incredible and have demonstrated impressive will and commitment to the company and our mission, especially over the last few years. I am extremely confident in Bron, Gabe and the rest of the leadership team to steer the Fare ship and can't wait to see this company continue to thrive.
Lawn bowling and singing Faraoke with the Fare team in 2022.
Though I will be leaving my current role, I will not be gone from Just Fare. I will be supporting the leadership and operations team in an ongoing advisory capacity to ensure a smooth transition. I am excited that this is an opportunity for others to step up and take on new responsibilities.
To our clients and partners, I have enjoyed working with you and feeding you over the last many years. To my Fare colleagues, I have treasured building this company with you, learning from you, singing Fareaoke with you, and look forward to seeing Just Fare flourish in this next chapter of leadership.
With gratitude to everyone. I promise not to be a stranger.
Gavin