Our November FED Workshop, a Panel Discussion on the Intersection of Food and Culture, is quickly approaching. We have 7 incredible panelists that are eager to explore this topic and share about their personal stories and experiences. Read on to get a sneak peak and check out their businesses!
Vivi Lemus of Convivio Café.
Convivio Café is a woman & immigrant owned, fully bilingual Cafe, inspired in Guatemala located in the Northside of Denver. We source coffee from farmers who grow, process and roast in origin leaving more profit in the country of origin. We serve culturally rooted food & drink in a fully bilingual space connecting seed to cup to community.
Sashaline Nguyen of Tí Cafe.
Sashaline Nguyen is one of three owners of Denver’s first Vietnamese coffee shop, Tí Cafe. As a second generation Asian-American alongside her 2 sisters, Sashaline aspired to open Tí to spotlight Vietnam’s thriving coffee culture, which they felt lacked representation for being the world’s second largest producers of coffee. At the same time, they yearned to push the culture forward beyond tradition by incorporating more modern methods, hoping to prove that Vietnamese culture and cuisine could be modern and creative while maintaining legitimacy and authenticity beyond just being a no frills, hole-in-the-wall establishment. With significant values in family and community, the sisters aim to curate a place that personifies the “Asian-American” experience, a place where stories can be shared with the security of being understood.
Vanita Patel of Switch Gears Farm.
My name is Vanita Patel and I am one of two co-founders of Switch Gears Farm, a small-scale vegetable farm located in Longmont, CO. In our first year, summer 2021, we started growing vegetables on half an acre. Each year, we doubled how many acres we had in production, with the main goal being to provide local produce for more communities each year. While the other co-founder, Brett, is the primary farmer and grows all the vegetables from seed, I focus on everything behind-the-scenes (admin, relationship-building, marketing, organization, logistics, etc). To put it more simply, I do everything in farming that does not require the dirt or sunlight.
Something I am proud of with Switch Gears Farm is how much community feedback really drives our decision-making in the off-season, especially when it comes to what we grow. For example, as a South Asian person, I rarely get to see South Asian produce at the local grocery stores. And, even at Asian grocery stores, it is often not fresh and it is rarely grown locally. Because of this experience, you will often see South Asian varieties at our market booths. In talking with the community, we learned this was a common issue for people of different backgrounds as well. So, a great example of community driving what we grow is the different varieties of peppers currently planted in our fields - we are not just focused on the heat level, but really focused on the specific flavors that an individual is having a hard time finding locally. As these plants grow, we will often send photos of the plants to the individuals who requested it so they can also follow along on the journey. Of course, because of our challenging growing zone along the front range, we aren’t always successful in growing what is requested. But, we learn from our mistakes and we try again next year. That’s the whole vision behind Switch Gears Farm - to constantly be willing to learn about new and innovative ways to grow food and to ensure community feedback is incorporated in what we grow.
Alberto Rodriguez of Dos Caras.
We are Dos Caras (translating to two faces) consisting of Alejandro and Alberto Rodriguez. Our goal is to put ancestral techniques like nixtamal at the forefront of our cuisine. We utilize ingredients native to Mexico. Our food is "Comida de Rancho" meaning what is accessible and sustainable to us in Colorado, we use.
Asia Dorsey of Bones, Bugs, and Botany.
Asia Dorsey worships the earth, ear to the soil, she heeds the instruction of mineral, microbial, and botanical beings. She uses her gift of pattern recognition as a Nutritional Therapist and Bioregional Rootworker as the founder of Bones Bugs and Botany a healing consultancy firm committed to creating embodied liberation through food and herbal medicine education. Raised by a collective of radical women in the Historic Five Points community of Denver and apprenticed with elders in, India, Ghana, New Zealand and New York, Asia had discerned a practice of a People’s Medicine that is inherently empowering, suffused with ancestral wisdom and highly effective. Grounded in the movement for reparations , healing justice, and her earth-based practice you can find Asia balancing embodiment with botanical chaos and co-creating the Petty Herbalist Podcast helping her people to rise together in power and step into the wholeness that is their birthright.
Mara King of Id Est.
Originally from Hong Kong, where she developed a love for food culture, Mara now has over 20 years of experience in Boulder's beloved restaurants and in building her own pickle company. She is an acclaimed fermentation expert, who brings her expertise to the forefront as the Director of Fermentation and Sustainability at Id Est.
Ben Jacobs of Tocabe.
Ben Jacobs, a member of the Osage Nation of northeast Oklahoma, is co-founder of Tocabe: An American Indian Eatery and Tocabe Indigenous Marketplace based in Denver Colorado. Tocabe restaurant first opened its doors in December 2008 adding a second location in 2015 and food truck in 2016.
In 2021 Ben helped launch Tocabe Indigenous Marketplace. Tocabe’s marketplace is an online resource helping further advance the Native and Indigenous food system and support the development of a Native specific supply chain. The marketplace is designed as a multifaceted concept supporting both the Native and Indigenous food system along with generating a cyclical economic driver for tribal communities maintaining economic development.
Over the last 16 years as a professional chef and restaurateur Ben has continually traveled to tribal communities throughout the US and Canada learning firsthand about traditional ingredients, cooking methods, techniques and recipes to help share the stories of those holding Native cooking wisdom.
For over a decade on a national level Ben has worked with the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations advocating for feeding Native peoples while supporting how best to incorporate local and traditional ingredients in collaboration with commodity ingredients to support better individual health and nutrition.
In 2023 Ben was appointed to a council seat on the President’s Council on Sports Fitness and Nutrition. The President’s Council consists of physicians, professional athletes, fitness experts, food professionals and entrepreneurs to serve in an advisory role to the Secretary of Health and Human Services advocating for support to help Americans live healthier lives. Along with his seat on the President’s Council, in 2024 Ben was appointed to the USDA’s Tribal Advisory Committee.
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