Moveable Table: Food Sol’s Community Table Hits the Road
We have some really exciting news to share: last week, Food Sol secured a challenge grant from the Blackstone Ranch Institute to bring our Community Table design to four partner colleges and universities who have been asking for it.
As you regulars know well, Food Sol’s Community Table is a 90-minute weekly gathering available to the entire Babson community – i.e. undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, prospective students and alumni. The format is always one table, one conversation, in-person participation only.
Eater-entrepreneurs of all kinds come to Community Table seeking the next “bite-sized” action steps to move their visions and ventures forward. Collectively, we help one another with whatever is put on the Table. So although the design of Community Table never changes, each one is a spontaneous and unique constellation of the voices, perspectives, and resources seated around it.
Food Sol is beyond thrilled to bring what we’ve learned so far to other cultures and contexts and to see how Community Table will effectively adapt, embed and thrive in our partner-campus communities. The School of Visual Arts in New York is already in first-phase planning with us, and we look forward to paying visits to Middlebury, Brown, and the University of Texas at Austin in the early fall.
As Thomas Goetz wrote for Wired, “The best ideas – the ones with the most impact and longevity – are transferable; an innovation in one industry can be exported to transform another.” We can’t wait to see how and where Community Table will transfer and travel over sectors and silos to serve young entrepreneurs of all kinds.
Even though we’re hitting the road, Community Table is back at Babson every Wednesday starting September 11th. A Babson entrepreneur myself, I’m constantly looking to learn what eater-entrepreneurs need and want from the design – so I hope you’ll come have a seat, and share your food journey and wisdom with us!
Curious? Check out these less-than-a-minute-each video testimonials: