Introducing Our New CEO, Bronwen Sterling
July 12th, 2022
Introducing Our New CEO, Bronwen Sterling
HER STORY, IN HER WORDS
Pictured above: at the Just Fare gathering in April of 2022.
**A note about this post: I wrote this a few weeks ago and have been tinkering with it prior to posting and am glad I did. I didn’t really realize while writing it but the underlying theme that runs through is choice. This includes the right to choose if and when to have children, and the right to parent your children in a healthy and safe environment, something I feel very lucky to have been able to do myself and one that has been taken away from so many people with the loss of Roe v Wade. It is not only an unrepresentative supreme court that took these rights away but a myriad of social and corporate systems that are also lacking, including fair pay and access to health care (physical and mental), child care and education. At Fare, in the ways that we can, we will continue to put our people at the center of what we do and push ourselves to ensure that our people are able to make their own choices about their bodies and lives. We do this by offering a Living Wage, 100% coverage of health care premiums plus a 25% contribution for dependents, 6 weeks of paid parental leave which we will be increasing to 8 weeks in September, lactation facilties with breaks to pump and we are now expanding our PTO to include abortion and miscarriage care and recovery. And we know we can do better; as we strive to continue to improve, we’ll be sure to keep you all updated.
And now a bit more about why and how I got here.****
When I was 7 years old, I asked my dad to film me doing a ‘cooking show’ - which was me asking my mom how to make thumbprint cookies that she had made and I was holding, and repeating what she said into the camera. I think of that video often, about how much I loved food from a very young age and how that thread continued, at first in the background of my life but eventually as a driver for most of what I do.
Pictured above: Bronwen’s baby shower for Charlie hosted by Fare and a parental-leave visit with Sr. Operations Manager Kiyomi!
Entering into the professional world, I was in the privileged position of having some degree of choice in what I could do. Food and hospitality, though, didn’t seem viable for a number of reasons, the top 2 being working conditions (unreasonable hours, lack of respect, hostility towards women) and pay (low). That said, I spent all my free time outside working hours of my early career in the music industry - and please let me treat you to a meal (email: bronwen@justfare.co) so I can tell you about my experience with the Crunk scene - reading about food, putting together elaborate dinner parties and food-based fundraisers, looking for hard to find food items, etc. It became obvious that I wanted to be close to and work in food and be a part of the communities that bringing food to the table supports, so in 2007 I did just that.
And my initial assumptions were right. Working in food and hospitality wasn’t viable. I of course made it work like so many of us in this industry have done and was extremely lucky to work with incredible leaders, talents and teams in the time before I joined Gabe and Gavin at Fare 5 years ago. I gained experience and skills that set me up to succeed and gave me the confidence to do so. But it never felt sustainable or balanced. Personal goals - like having children, feeling financially secure - seemed, and were, impossible.
Pictured above: at the Just Fare gathering in April of 2022.
It was here, at Fare, where I realized that we could do it differently. While up until that point I’d made it a point in my food career to focus on sustainability from an environmental and bottom line perspective, crazily enough it wasn’t until I got to Fare and understood the vision for the company that Gabe and Gavin had that it hit me over the head: people are the foundation of any great mission-driven organization. Not only that, but the hospitality industry was and is in crisis, exacerbated by the pandemic, because of the lack of good jobs in the field. At Fare, we are working to create a model in food and hospitality that values the vast talent and contributions of its people equal to that of white collar work and treats them that way. It is a false, biased construct that places the value of a dishwasher or server as less than that of a so-called ‘knowledge worker’ (which is a problematic concept in and of itself). We have created a company that not only makes a delicious, high quality product that puts the planet at the forefront of purchasing and decision making but perhaps more importantly, one where our teams feel valued, listened to, taken care of and have the freedom to live the life they choose. I’m a prime example: since my time at Fare, I have had 2 brilliant, beautiful children - a choice that previously seemed far out of reach as it has been for so many child-bearing people in our field (ask me about this over that meal we’re sharing and I’ll tear up).
Pictured above: Bron’s kids Alma and Charlie helping code invoices and stock the Snack & Drink fridge at Fare HQ.
I am so proud of how far we’ve come in the past 5 years - like raising our minimum wage to the Living Wage and growing employee wealth by 17% in 2021 - and even more excited for the progress we plan on making in the future in order to truly realize the dream of a better, kinder hospitality model that puts people first. I am beyond proud of the team we have today and consider myself lucky to be able to lead us into this next phase of growth and impact on people, planet and community. I can’t wait to continue to share our progress with you all.
Xo
Bron