Creating Social Value Blog / Food

Seventh Babson Food Day

Quite a lot has changed since Food Sol launched six years ago – both across the food industry (from field to fork it’s been interrupted and redesigned) as well as in food education (who teaches what and to whom).

When we started, annual events that celebrated farming, food, access, sustainability, justice, animal welfare, and culture did of course exist. But they were not nearly as plentiful or well attended.

In August 2011, Food Sol led the charge in organizing the first Babson Food Day. As an organization, we were barely two months old. But as Babson always does, the school rallied around a good idea and has been committed to helping see this event to fruition every year since.

Inaugural Babson Food Day, Fall 2011

Boston has long been rich and vibrant in higher education and healthcare. Over the years since that first Babson Food Day, players in these fields have generated some pretty extraordinary research, labs, design centers, and gatherings for public consumption – all focused on our growing collective interest in food. Around Boston, you can see chefs in action, learn food science, understand food business and finance, meet farmers and tech giants, and understand the trends re-shaping our food future.

Given all of this, going into our seventh year and including our seventh annual Babson Food Day, we are changing things up a bit. This year, we’re going to focus energy and resources on the parts of Babson Food Day that we’re known for: drawing people to Babson to learn about food entrepreneurship.

Over the last six years, we’ve met so many extraordinary leaders, thinkers, doers, dreamers and builders. They have shown us some pretty remarkable things. Not all of them and what they have to teach us are best showcased at an annual food event. In some cases, ‘seeing is believing’ and the innovation should be seen in its real context. In other words, we need to go to them—in their fields, shops, kitchens, and labs.

So this year, Food Sol is looking to offer more field trips – company treks and engagements with companies where they live — and to bring more exemplary makers into our classrooms. We will spread what we do best across the full academic year, rather than concentrate it into a single day-long event.

Babson Food Day this year is October 18. The shorter agenda (now live) homes in on the parts of the event that are quintessentially Babson and Food Sol. Save the date, make note of session locations, and check out who’s coming.

And in terms of the rest of the year, please sign up for our weekly events email to see what we have cooking. Much of what Food Sol advertises there is free and open-to-the-public. And of course, we hope to see you at the seventh Babson Food Day this fall.