by CFSA | Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019 –
A true advocate for local food, Kris Reid walks the walk. She keeps backyard chickens, tends a garden, makes her vinegars and pasta from scratch, and is currently fermenting ginger ale and sauerkrauts. Always devoted to the task at hand, Kris even started having contractions while working a catering job. She made it to the hospital in time. Two days later, she was back in the kitchen.
Since 2009, Kris has worked on-and-off as the food coordinator for the Sustainable Agriculture Conference (SAC). In the face of many changes and challenges, she always rises to the occasion to bring fresh, delicious local food to conference attendees—which is no small feat!
We recently caught up with Kris to hear about her experience as SAC’s food coordinator and to find out what it’s really like to cook local foods for hundreds of people.
CFSA: Tell us about your experience as the SAC food coordinator and how you got involved.
Kris Reid: When I came on board in 2009, the conference was struggling to provide good quality food. It was a hard sell to get institutional environments to buy into the idea of an organization bringing in their own food.
That first year, I designed all the menus and recipes and went nuts on sourcing. Before me, CFSA was sourcing local meats and some vegetables (for the conference), but my goal was to do everything local.
Kathyrn at Leading Green Distributing helped do some of the local food sourcing for me, but there wasn’t anybody else working to bring local food products to the mainstream market.
That first year was a great educational experience for me in terms of the barriers we would face while working in an institutional environment since most aren’t set up to deal with a lot of raw food production.
The staff was used to opening cans or putting things from the freezer into the oven, but they weren’t used to doing a lot of preparation. So when we came in and had to buy cutting boards and turn the place into an actual kitchen, that was a huge deal and very stressful.
I had to build all the recipes with pictures for each step of the process so the (kitchen) staff understood how the food was supposed to look—how to cut things properly, how to know when the food was ready, etc.
The staff was used to opening cans or putting things from the freezer into the oven, but they weren’t used to doing a lot of preparation. So when we came in and had to buy cutting boards and turn the place into an actual kitchen, that was a huge deal and very stressful.
From that point on, I was really motivated to provide what CFSA was trying to bring to their attendees, but I also had a lot more awareness of the barriers that chefs deal with in those kitchens.
CFSA: What are some challenges you face in this role?
Reid: It’s a real challenge to bring in primarily whole, raw foods for the conference because so many banquet kitchens depend heavily on pre-packaged or processed foods. The problem is that none of that is actually good for you. It’s overly processed, flavor-enhanced, full of chemical additives, and has nothing authentic about it for a region (in terms of cuisine or culture).
It’s a real challenge to bring in primarily whole, raw foods for the conference because so many banquet kitchens depend heavily on pre-packaged or processed foods.
We’ve also seen this enormous shift in our food culture in just the last couple of years—not from the standpoint of how we’re growing food, but how people are consuming food, and how the shift with our labor market has forced a shift in sourcing. A lot of chefs have been doing a lot of hyperlocal sourcing, but they’ve had to do less to compete with the labor market. Chefs are paying more on the labor front, which means they’re paying less for food in order to keep their pricing competitive and compete with chain restaurants. Even though you’re selling local food, you’re still competing with chain restaurants.
The labor crisis has added a level of complexity to the project. I have to be super conscious of what the kitchen staff’s capacity and ability is. Originally it was all about bringing in local food at the highest level that we could and getting people to buy into that and to process it, and be excited about it.
Now, I have to bring in a lot of progressive thinkers. This year, I’ve been working with Chef Andres Pruessing. He’s the executive chef of the Marriott Uptown in Charlotte. We’ve been really thinking through menus that make sense for the labor force and for their equipment restrictions.
As we start to move in this new direction with attention to the labor shortage, I think that’s going to be a theme that carries for many years. Right now, there’s a lot of secondary processing with local foods. There just isn’t room in these conference kitchens to do all the secondary processing like cleaning and prepping. Several years ago, I was bringing in whole meat carcasses. We just can’t do that anymore. There just isn’t the labor to break down all that meat.
With a shrinking labor force, we really have to think through the entire thing differently, which is what this year has mostly been about for me. That’s been the biggest change and challenge this year.
CFSA: What are some solutions to these challenges?
Reid: If we really want to move volume through the system, which is the answer, then we must have processing facilities. And there aren’t many of them. This is why chicken has become such a problem with the conference, there’s no chicken processing facility. That’s one of the biggest challenges, there’s no money in processing. As a solution, we are looking for people that are innovative and understand how to write grants to help create a facility in North Carolina. We need vegetable and poultry processing available here.
Several years ago, I was bringing in whole meat carcasses. We just can’t do that anymore. There just isn’t the labor to break down all that meat.
Those are the big agricultural hang-ups right now when we talk about farm-to-institution. We have to take a bigger picture approach. People always say, ‘Oh my gosh, that must be so much fun.’ It is if you like to solve problems, but a lot of people don’t understand the complexity of it.
There are many considerations to be made with every single thing that we do. Putting pressure on the bigger players to do better food is what I’m pushing for.
I feel like that’s kind of the purpose of CFSA in some ways, right? To create influence. We need to influence these big broad liners to shelve products that people really want to serve in restaurants so that we can leverage large-scale production opportunities.
CFSA: What keeps you motivated and inspired to continue this role?
Reid: My food advocacy is inspired by my 13-year-old daughter. When I became pregnant, I became hyper-aware of what I was consuming because I was feeding another human. My choice was her choice. So there was a real awakening to me about picking the best possible things for my body.
If we don’t fight for food and food justice, the only choice that people will have in this country is to buy food from a place like Walmart. You have to fight for good food. Otherwise, our choice will only be one place. And that choice will not be one that speaks to healthy bodies, healthy soil, or healthy communities. What happens to soil and water happens to humans. I’m highly motivated to continue a food fight for my daughter so that when she’s in her adult life, she has the availability of choices. Maybe she won’t choose the farmers market. Maybe she will choose to go to Walmart. But I’m fighting for choice for all consumers.
Learn More About Kris Reid
In addition to being the conference food coordinator, Kris Reid is the Piedmont Culinary Guild Executive Director. The guild is a grassroots effort to create a working dialogue with the food industry by providing a platform that is easily accessible for all to utilize and benefit. Connecting the food chain in the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, PCG strengthens the local chef and culinary community by sharing resources, educating consumers, and establishing regional recognition.
To read more about the work Reid does there or in the Charlotte area, check out the Piedmont Culinary Guild’s website.
Photo courtesy of the Piedmont Culinary Guild.