Eating at a Meeting

Tracy Stuckrath, CFPM, CMM, CSEP, CHC
  • 4.9 (10)
  • Nutrition
  • Updated Weekly

Eating at a Meeting explores a variety of topics on food and beverage (F&B) and how they impact individual experience and inclusion, sustainability, culture, community, health and wellness, laws and more. The mission of Eating at a Meeting is to share authentic stories that illustrate the financial, social, emotional, and mental impact food and beverage have on individuals, organizations, and the earth. I see it being threefold: ● Help individuals and organizations understand how F&B impacts employee, customer and guest experience, the planet and the bottom line. ● Help those growing, producing, preparing, and serving F&B understand the duty of care they hold in food safety and inclusion as well as the opportunity they have to create experiences that are safe and inclusive. ● Support those with dietary needs by gathering their insight on eating at a meeting with dietary needs, helping them better advocate for themselves and educating them on the processes found on the other side of the kitchen door.

  1. May 19

    How THE UK Events Industry Is Standardizing Dietary Needs Management

    Here's something that doesn't get said enough: the biggest food allergy risk at your event doesn't start in the kitchen. It starts the moment your registration form goes live. To kick off Food Allergy Awareness Week, I'm getting into exactly that — and I've got the right people at the table. The UK events industry just launched something the sector has needed for a long time: the ABPCO Managing Dietary Requirements at Events Toolkit. A shared language. Standardized processes. A way to get planners, venues, caterers, and delegates finally on the same page. I'm talking with the three people who made it happen — Anita Macdonald, who leads the ABPCO taskforce and translates dietary needs into kitchen reality at Cambridge's college venues. Sammy Connell, who manages 60+ conferences a year at NASUWT and lives the in-house organizer reality every single day. And Matt Stalker, Executive Director of ABPCO, who decided the industry didn't need another webinar — it needed infrastructure. We're going to talk about where dietary communication actually breaks down, what it costs when it does, and what it looks like when you get it right. Safety. Inclusion. Delegate confidence. Operational reality. This one is for every planner who's ever stared at a dietary request wondering what the actual risk level is. For every venue that's received a brief that left more questions than answers. For every delegate who's shown up to an event not knowing if they'd be able to eat. Come join us LIVE. Bring your questions, your frustrations, and your stories. This conversation belongs to all of us.

    58 min

  2. May 12

    Food Allergy & Celiac Awareness: Raising the Bar for Safer, Inclusive Events

    May is extra special for me—it's not only Food Allergy Awareness Month and Celiac Disease Awareness Month, but it also marks the 16th anniversary of thrive! meetings & events and the start of Eating at a Meeting's seventh year! This episode is a solo one, and I'm taking the mic to reflect on why I started my business and this show: making safe, inclusive dining part of every event experience. In this heartfelt discussion, I share why food allergies, celiac disease, and other dietary needs aren't niche—they impact millions of Americans and event attendees worldwide. From the staggering statistics (1 in 10 adults has a food allergy; 1 in 133 Americans has celiac disease, most undiagnosed) to the recurring event planning challenges (from menu coding to allergen labeling), I walk through the real risks guests face and the industry's continuing gaps in safe practices. I break down the hard facts on why proper procedures matter, how new laws like California's Addie Act are changing the game, and why transparency should start at the proposal stage, not just the pre-con. Plus, I spotlight how small steps like clear labeling and thoughtful menu design can foster loyalty—because every guest and every meal truly matters.

    39 min

  3. May 5

    Food Allergies are No Joke

    If you think serving one gluten-free vegan dish covers all your guests' needs—or that "nut-free" labeling is enough to keep diners safe—think again. This episode dives deep into the most persistent myths and mistakes surrounding event food and beverage, from confusing labels and registration oversights to the real cost of ignoring dietary needs. Host Speaker A shares hard-earned lessons from 30+ years in the industry, including practical fixes and compelling stories: $200,000 price tags for last-minute accommodations, and the long-term loyalty earned when venues get it right, even for just one guest. Learn why food allergies and dietary restrictions are anything but rare, how poorly-communicated accommodations can damage trust (and attendance), and what emerging laws mean for your practices. You'll leave this episode with actionable tips to make every guest feel seen, heard, and safe—without breaking your budget.

    40 min

  4. Apr 21

    Fishing for Heritage: How Two Sisters Keep Tradition Alive

    What does it really mean to source "Pacific salmon"? Kim Brigham-Campbell and Terrie Brigham are sisters, members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, and co-owners of Brigham Fish Market—a Native-owned, family-run business on the banks of the Columbia River in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Since 2014, they've been catching wild Columbia River salmon, sturgeon, and steelhead from the same tribal fishing platforms their family has used for generations, then smoking, filleting, and cooking it into the chowders, fish-and-chips, and barbecue-ready fillets that define destination dining in the Pacific Northwest. Their work is at the intersection of Indigenous food sovereignty, sustainable fisheries, and a food tourism economy that doesn't always name the people behind the fish. In this episode, Kim and Terrie talk about what treaty fishing rights look like in practice, how event planners and caterers can source seafood that honors Indigenous producers, and what it means to be women of the working waterfront in 2026.  If you've ever put salmon on a banquet menu, this conversation will change how you think about where it came from—and who deserves credit for getting it there.

    57 min

  5. Apr 14

    How an Austin Woman Farman is Reshaping the Hospitality Food Supply

    Anamaria Gutiérrez is 23 seasons into running Este Garden, a women-powered, one-third-acre urban farm in East Austin growing vegetables, herbs, edible flowers, and fruit and nut trees for four restaurants: Suerte, Este, Bar Toti, and Nixta Taqueria. Her path to the garden ran through a UT Austin business degree, a farmers market coordinator role, a farm fellowship, her own market food business, and a direct pitch to restaurant owners to let her build edible gardens on their properties. In this episode, Tracy talks with Anamaria about what it means to grow culturally significant food for chefs who care — going to pre-shift to discuss seeds and taste-test new harvests, running a volunteer program that passes farming knowledge forward, and keeping urban green space open and accessible to the whole community. They also get into the harder questions: what it takes for women and young farmers to access land, what cooperative models can do for food system resilience, and what event and hospitality professionals genuinely misunderstand about the people who grow their food. Farmers and event pros have more in common than most people think — long days on their feet, weather upending months of planning, needing a village to make it work. This conversation is a reminder that the best food experiences start with knowing who grew what's on the plate.

    52 min

  6. Apr 7

    Local Ingredients Matter: Journey of Food from Farm to Event Buffet

    It started as a kitchen garden. Nine acres. A favor from her husband. Today, Green Door Gourmet is 350 acres of certified organic farmland on the Cumberland River — one of the largest organic operations in Tennessee — growing 80 kinds of fruits and vegetables, 80 flower varieties, and 25 specialty herbs, including Southern heirloom varieties that most event menus have never seen. Sylvia Harrelson Ganier is its President, and Chief Farm Operator (CFO). She is also the former chef and owner of CIBO, a Nashville restaurant she built before she ever picked up a trowel. She knows both sides of the table. On this episode of Eating at a Meeting LIVE, Sylvia talks about what it takes to feed a city — and what the meetings and events industry gets wrong about food sourcing. She is a past President of Les Dames d'Escoffier International's Nashville Chapter, a member of the James Beard Foundation, Chair of the Davidson County Agricultural Extension Board, and a speaker at the USDA Women in Agriculture convening. Her farm welcomes 85,000 visitors a year, including 5,000 school children who pick strawberries for the first time. The food on your event menu has a story. This episode is where it starts.

    58 min

  7. Mar 31

    How a FarmHER Feeds Music City: Bloomsbury Farm's Impact on Nashville Conferences & Catering

    What does it actually take to grow the food that ends up on a hotel banquet table or a farm-to-table dinner menu? Lauren Palmer has spent 17 years answering that question one harvest at a time. Lauren is the owner and farmer behind Bloomsbury Farm, a USDA Certified Organic operation on more than 400 acres outside Nashville, Tennessee. She grows vegetables, fruits, sprouts, microgreens, mushrooms, edible flowers, herbs, and wheatgrass — and she supplies it all to local restaurants, grocers, CSA subscribers, and guests at the farm's own events and private dinners. In this episode, Tracy sits down with Lauren to talk about the real supply chain behind event menus: what organic certification means in practice, how seasonality shapes what's actually available to caterers and chefs, why regenerative agriculture is the next frontier, and what it means to run both a working farm and a hospitality venue under one roof. Lauren also shares her philosophy on community, food transparency, and why she believes the best thing a planner or chef can do is get to know their farmer personally. If you're designing menus, sourcing ingredients, or telling the food story of your destination — this episode is your invitation to start at the source.

    45 min

  8. Mar 24

    Why Sustainable Event Menu Design Starts Outside the Kitchen

    What if the most interesting ingredient at your next event was already growing just outside the venue? I've been thinking about this lately — and then Lotta Giesenfeld Boman introduced me to Lisen Sundgren, and honestly, she made it impossible to think about anything else. Lisen is my guest this week on Eating at a Meeting Podcast LIVE — and she is the perfect person to kick off Women's HERstory Month as our very first honoree. She is a Swedish herbalist, forager, and author based in Stockholm, but joining me from Nepal. She has spent more than 30 years teaching chefs, curious eaters, and anyone who will listen about wild edible plants — the ones that have shaped human diets forever and that most of us walk past every single day without a second glance. She has foraged for some of Stockholm's most celebrated restaurants and worked with Sigtunahöjden Hotel & Conference to weave local wild plants right into their menus. Not as a gimmick. As a genuine expression of place. And that is exactly what so many of us are chasing when we plan events, right? A menu that actually means something. Food that tells guests where they are. Lisen also leads foraging walks and forest baths as part of conferences and retreats. Fun! There is real responsibility here, too. Safe identification, sustainable harvesting, knowing what you are serving and why — Lisen takes all of that seriously, and we are going to talk about it. I promise this one will change how you look at the landscape around your next venue. 🌿

    53 min
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4.9
out of 5
10 Ratings

About

Eating at a Meeting explores a variety of topics on food and beverage (F&B) and how they impact individual experience and inclusion, sustainability, culture, community, health and wellness, laws and more. The mission of Eating at a Meeting is to share authentic stories that illustrate the financial, social, emotional, and mental impact food and beverage have on individuals, organizations, and the earth. I see it being threefold: ● Help individuals and organizations understand how F&B impacts employee, customer and guest experience, the planet and the bottom line. ● Help those growing, producing, preparing, and serving F&B understand the duty of care they hold in food safety and inclusion as well as the opportunity they have to create experiences that are safe and inclusive. ● Support those with dietary needs by gathering their insight on eating at a meeting with dietary needs, helping them better advocate for themselves and educating them on the processes found on the other side of the kitchen door.

Information

  • Creator
    Tracy Stuckrath, CFPM, CMM, CSEP, CHC
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    368
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Tracy Stuckrath, thrive! meetings & events
  • Show Website
    Eating at a Meeting