Creating Social Value Blog / Food

Come to the Table

Everything has changed: What we know, what we think we know, how we ingest content, the tools we pick up and use (often compulsively). The landscape for learning is a kaleidoscope ceaselessly in motion.

In this sea of data and discourse, Food Sol steadies itself by insisting upon two things: relationships and showing up in-person.

Our most important relationships are with people who know a lot but also, critically, share our mindset for why and how to support food entrepreneurs. The Food Sol Fellows are some of the best, brightest and kindest of these folks.

As for working in-person, we do this simply and straightforwardly because people show up differently in-person. Each Tuesday during the school semester we host Community Table, our weekly drop-in events on campus from 1-2. This spring, we are proud to be welcoming several of the Food Sol Fellows to these weekly gatherings.

As our days fill with more and faster transactions than ever before, there is emerging a special premium on taking time out to sit down and think together. In a Tilt-A-Whirl world, this has become crucial for business strategy and for personal sanity.

Nowhere is this truer than with food entrepreneurs on the move who need very different things. They are at different stages of ideation, with different beliefs, products, partners, goals, and business model aspirations. A one-stop-shop may fit for teaching the business-building basics. But it won’t address ecosystem understanding.

To truly understand a particular market or issue area or problem set, the best resources are personalized and customizable. Who can teach these entrepreneurs the things that they don’t know they don’t know, but that are nonetheless vital to success?

There’s no app for that. Such learning emerges from real dialogue with real people. Come see for yourself. Our first Community Table of the spring semester is January 31st.