Babson College Celebrates Food Day 2014 With Food Entrepreneurs Of All Kinds

WELLESLEY, Mass., Oct. 17, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- At Babson, we celebrate food as everybody's business. On October 23rd, 2014, our action tank for food entrepreneurship, Food Sol, will host the 4th annual Babson Food Day as part of the nationwide Food Day movement. The day-long series of events includes food stories, panels, showcases, and a locally-sourced lunch.

Babson Entrepreneurs-in-Residence Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) & Gail Simmons (Top Chef, Food & Wine Magazine) are among food entrepreneurs participating in Babson Food Day.

Babson Food Day offers a "menu" of options: food stories from across the system; start-ups and fresh ideas from students; corporate pathways into food; and culinary and restaurant innovation.

Five Courses

10 am - "Food is Everybody's Business"

Food stories from across the system

• Rose Arruda, Urban Ag Coordinator, MDAR
• Dr. Fred Opie, Professor of History and Foodways
• Sally Sampson, Founder, ChopChop Kids
• Ian So (B'08), Founder, Chicken and Rice Guys
• Dave Stangis, VP, Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility, Campbell Soup Company
• Gail Simmons, Entrepreneur-in-Residence
• Andrew Zimmern, Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Noon - "Marketplace of Great Food + Ideas" with Babson Sustainability and Babson Dining

Food innovation fair + locally-sourced lunch* 

* There is $6 cash charge for the lunch for non-Babson attendees

2 p.m. "Quick Service Incubator" with Babson Alumni & Friends Network

Entrepreneurs each pitch a business challenge to the audience, which then divides into small groups for rapid brainstorming on possible solutions. Audience and guest experts then pitch possibilities back to the entrepreneurs. This signature Food Sol design emphasizes multidisciplinary problem solving and learning for the whole room.

Entrepreneurs

• Heather Ahern (M'12) & Alison Darnell (M'09), Atlantic Saltworks
• Alex Burakovsky (B '01), GrillEasy
• Octavia Costea (M '15), Spreads and Beyond
• Gisela Macedo (M '15), Brazilian candy concept

Guest Experts

• Bob Burke (M '87), Owner, Natural Products Consulting
• Adam Melonas, Founder, Chew Lab
• Tom Ryan, Founder, Smashburger
• Gail Simmons, Babson Entrepreneur-in-Residence
• Andrew Zimmern, Babson Entrepreneur-in-Residence

Moderator

• Rachel Greenberger (M'11), Director, Food Sol

4 p.m. "Career Pathways into Food" with Babson Centers for Career Development

Career conversation on the food industry with a focus on pathways into the corporate food sector. Company participants share their food stories, which opens into an interactive dialogue with the audience.

• Bruno Andreoli, Brand Manager, SmartOnes (H.J. Heinz)
• Mindi Gale, Senior Recruiter, Sodexo
• Jamin Hemenway, Senior Brand Manager, Stonyfield

6 p.m. "Entrepreneurship + Innovation from the Restaurant World"

Restaurant entrepreneurship with local celebrity chefs and restaurateurs

• Skip Bennett, Island Creek Oysters, ICO Bar
• Jamie Bissonnette, Coppa, Toro
• Joanne Chang, Flour Bakery, Myers + Chang
• Tim & Nancy Cushman, O Ya, Hojoko
• Tiffani Faison, Sweet Cheeks Q
• Matthew Gaudet, West Bridge
• Matt Jennings, Townsman
• Ken Oringer, Clio, Coppa, Toro, Uni, Earth
• Michael Scelfo, Alden & Harlow
• Michael Schlow, Alta Strada, Cavatina, Pine, Tico, Via Matta

Moderators

• Gail Simmons and
• Andrew Zimmern

Babson Food Day is powered by First Republic Bank.

Video: Babson Food Day 2014 

Food Day 2014

Food Day inspires Americans to change their diets and our food policies. Every October 24, thousands of events all around the country bring Americans together to celebrate and enjoy real food and to push for improved food policies.

October 24 is a day to resolve to make changes in our own diets and to take action to solve food-related problems in our communities at the local, state, and national level. In 2014, Food Day will have a special focus on food access and justice for food and farm workers.

This annual event involves some of the country's most prominent food activists, united by a vision of food that is healthy, affordable, and produced with care for the environment, farm animals, and the people who grow, harvest, and serve it.

With Food Day, we can celebrate our food system when it works and fix it when it's broken. Across the country, more than 4,700 events took place in 2013 and 3,200 in 2012, from community festivals in Denver, Savannah, and New York City, to a national conference in Washington, DC, to thousands of school activities in Portland, Minneapolis, and elsewhere.

About Food Sol

Food Sol at Babson College supports food entrepreneurs of all kinds in their designs for a better food system. An action tank housed inside the Babson Social Innovation Lab, we believe that if you eat food, you are an eater-entrepreneur and thus have agency in the food system. Food Sol serves two groups for mutual benefit: college students who are tomorrow's leadership, future householders, and newly-independent, conscious eaters; and food entrepreneurs all along the supply chain who are creating new market options that meet rising demand for good, clean and fair food.

About Babson College

Babson College is the educator, convener, and thought leader for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™. The College is a dynamic living and learning laboratory, where students, faculty, and staff work together to address the real-world problems of business and society—while at the same time evolving our methods and advancing our programs. We shape the leaders our world needs most: those with strong functional knowledge and the skills and vision to navigate change, accommodate ambiguity, surmount complexity, and motivate teams in a common purpose to create economic and social value. As we have for nearly a half-century, Babson continues to advance Entrepreneurial Thought and Action^® as the most positive force on the planet for generating sustainable economic and social value. 

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SOURCE Babson College

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