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Discussing Food Safety with Tamara Mullin from Foodworks [Podcast]

In this episode of the Boelter Wire, Tamara Mullin – Director of Safety with Foodworks – has a conversation with Eric Chaplick – Director of Operations with The Boelter Companies – where they discuss the impacts COVID-19 has had on the restaurant industry in 2020, with a focus on the continued emphasis food safety has played throughout this industry-altering event.

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Excerpts

William Braun: I'm excited to be joined on today's podcast by two foodservice professionals, Tamara Mullen, director of safety with food works, and Eric Chaplick, director of operations and design with the Boelter Companies. Thank you both for joining me today.

We're going to be talking through a couple of different topics on today's podcast, but before we get too far into that, I wanted to give you both an opportunity just to kind of talk about your background, your history, your years of experience in the industry. You know, maybe what some of your current roles or responsibilities are, maybe some current projects that you're working on. Tamara, why don't we start with you. Why don't you give us a little bit of a background as to your experience in the industry.

Tamara Mullin: Oh, my experience in the industry, I've been in the industry for 30 years now, culinary backgrounds, some casinos, hotels, corporate contract dining. Most recently with Compass Group and then accepted this position as director for safety with Foodworks.

Okay. And Eric, how about you?

Eric Chaplick: Like Tamara, I've been in the industry over 30 years, myself. The last 20 with Boelter. Headed up contract design office in Chicago for many years. And then the last couple of years, filling the role of director of operations and design, basically just helping all offices across the country with all their needs and foodservice design.

So, between the two of you, it's fair to say you’ve got a lot of experience in this industry combined. So, I gotta start out by asking you guys, in all of your years of experience, have either of you seen anything like what we've been seeing this last year in the foodservice industry when it comes to COVID-19, the impact that it's had? Has anything come even remotely close to what we've been seeing for the last, you know, eight or nine months?

Tamara: Not that I have seen, no.

Eric: Nothing globally like this. I mean, we've had, you know, minor breakouts of the E. coli and issues with salad bars and contamination, but nothing that's affected all aspects of human life.

And that's a good point. And when those outbreaks of E. coli, I like you say, Eric, when those happen, those are usually specific to, you know, a single restaurant or maybe a single location or a region or a city maybe that there's an outbreak.

Eric: Or a foodborne disease or something.

And even when that happens, I mean, what does it, maybe potentially shut down a particular restaurant for a week or two while they can clean things up?

Eric: Correct.

So, nothing like what we've been seeing recently. And that's crazy to think. You know, Tamara and I were talking before the podcast started just about how this year has been going, and how COVID has affected everything for the last seven, eight months, and then how quickly time has gone by, but it's just still so prevalent in our lives right now.

One of the things I wanted to kick things off with was just the idea of, just the general idea of food safety. So, Tamara from food safety and dealing with COVID, what are some of your initial thoughts about, just the importance of food safety and what have you seen over the last several months about some of the more significant changes and challenges that have directly resulted the foodservice industry?

Tamara: Well, prior to COVID, we know that like thousands die a year of foodborne illness, and safety related. After COVID it seemed that what we do is more magnified. We were definitely under a magnifying glass as to the procedures that we have in place to keep people, I guess, safe food, safe. Lots of changes.

What would you say are some of the most significant changes that you've seen maybe early on? What did you think was, maybe you weren't expecting to happen so quickly, but they, they really took hold and it really changed the whole course of the foodservice industry.

Tamara: I think, looking at all aspects. From the delivery of your food, to who you let in the back door with those deliveries, how those deliveries are put away and handled, how workstations are set up, how people work next to each other, how to keep them safe in the kitchen. And then, in the front of the house, how food is served, the increase of packaged foods, meal kits, on the go type items, to cleaning up.

Just major changes from, like you say, from the front of the house, to the back of the house. And even beyond, just like you said, having people come in the back door to make deliveries, that it's just changed everything dramatically.

And Eric, I wanted to ask you something about, just the idea of food safety and how has that changed, or how has that been applied now to the equipment? So, maybe it's a new design or maybe a redesign, something that you've been maybe working on? How are you, or how is Boelter looking at, or keeping food safety in mind when it comes to maybe selecting the equipment or installing the equipment, kitchen equipment, dining equipment? How has that come into play for you?

Eric: Well, one of the biggest challenges has been the things that we took for granted. Self-service beverage, self-service coffee. Being able to actually walk into a place and touch things, that's gone away. So, we're constantly looking for manufacturers that are coming forward with new technology that have sensors rather than a push button, things that we can get away from the touches, the number of touches. And then it's not only on the front end where the customer comes in, we're looking at stuff that's more automated. And dare I say, robotic, because I'd hate to see us fully go to that because it defeats what we do, but they are looking at ways of trying to enhance those things so that there are less touches to food, less chances for contamination.

So, when you say robotic, have you seen examples of that right now?

Eric: There's a handful of equipment out there. There's a salad robot that is already out in the field in many places and working very well. There's a couple of companies who have created some automated machines that make pizzas from scratch. One makes it, tops it, and then you still put it in an oven. And there's another, that is now testing, where it's made up and cooked, and then just dispensed. We've also seen coffee equipment. You basically order your drink through an app and then go over and scan and your coffee is produced and dropped out and you just grab a cup and walk away.

Grab it and go. And I think you'd also mentioned, or maybe it was Tamara had mentioned, the idea of salad bars, and I guess I would also lump in what was once the buffet style of dining. Do you guys think, either one of you, do you think we're ever going to see that again? Or is that something that's just gone by the wayside, where we’ve had to adjust accordingly?

Tamara: I think it's hard to say way down the road, but for present moment and future, near future, I don't see it coming back, personally.

Eric: Tamara comes from the operation side. So, what I was going to say is kind of contradictory. What I have heard from most folks is that they can't go away from it completely because the business model is not sustainable without being able to have some type of self-service in foodservice operations back in play at some point. We just can't manage facilities, having the labor force, especially with the cost of labor and health benefits and everything continuing to rise. We have to get back to allowing the clients to be able to come in, the customers come in and be able to do, you know, help themselves to certain products. And that's not saying it's going to happen immediately, but a long way to go here for everybody to feel comfortable in doing so, but I think foodservice, for it to be sustainable, you have to have some of that in each facility.

Is that, what do you think it really comes down to, is the cost associated with the labor? If you take that part, that self-serve out of the equation, that it's just going to be difficult for restaurants in the future, if they don't have that as an option, as a part of their business plan, that it will be too expensive for them to do it otherwise?

Eric: Well, I mean, the fast casual and the chain, definitely. You know, your four-and-five-star restaurants, white tablecloth, you're expected to be served. You're expected to have everything brought to you. Imagine schools, healthcare and B&I, where you have a situation where you have five to seven stations, plus a salad bar, plus beverage. And if you have to man each one of those stations, you're talking about three to five additional employees at those areas. And in some places, some cases, they're doing that today just to survive, you know, so you don't have to shut down those stations. So, they have more offerings.

And I guess that the good old-fashioned sneeze guard is just not going to cut it anymore either. So that's a good point you bring up Eric about just how many different parts of the foodservice industry, these buffet style, the salad bars actually fall into. Like, you were mentioning schools and business and industry, cafeterias, things like that. And Tamara, what's been your involvement with that level of usage for a salad bar or a buffet-style. Are you seeing that across a number of different areas like Eric had mentioned?

Tamara: Well, yeah, absolutely we've seen it. We've seen it used in almost every operation that we've been in. From salad bars to self-serve stations. There was a big move on it. Prior to COVID they were very popular. You can customize whatever you want to eat that day. It does present there, like Eric says, presents that challenge, what to do in the future and how it is going to be, you know, these cafes will be sustainable.

Well, that's another good point that you bring up and you mentioned the idea of customization. I know Eric, this is something that you worked on not that long ago. Maybe want to talk about it. But, you had an idea for kind of an alteration or customization of an existing salad bar or buffet. What were some of your ideas that you had with that, that you could still use this piece of equipment, if you are a restaurant owner that had one built into your dining room, what were some of your thoughts around that?

Eric: We attempted, we took an existing drawing of a location that we had done in downtown Chicago that had a, basically a 20-foot salad bar. And rather than just have the typical food pans that are six inches deep, and the sneeze guards, we thought about, how do we take that island in the middle of your cafe and potentially create, or turn it into some type of a micro-market? Pulling out the drop-ins, pulling out the sneeze guards, putting in some cases that went vertical, so you can have more product available. Adding some baskets, adding some other impulse purchase items around the bar and just creating more of a grab-and-go type situation. But, don't tear apart the whole counter because if salad bars come back, we can put the sneeze guards and the pans back in, and it's profitable, you know, operationally for the location.

Have you been seeing anything like that on your end, Tamara? Any alterations to existing equipment? I mean, something like a salad bar because it's built in, it's such a big piece of equipment, you know, what are you going to do with it? If it's just going to just be sitting there?

Tamara: Very similar to, like Eric was saying. We have likewise turned them into, we have a market café concept, and we have turned them into an area where they could grab their essentials. So, it's like a one-stop shop. They pick up their meal for lunch, and then if they think, Hey, I can pick up some necessities here and I don't have to make that additional stop on the way home. So, we have as well turned them into like little micro market concepts or ideas where they can pick up, like their fruit or pasta or a loaf of bread, those types of things.

So, has the reception been pretty well that that you've been seeing?

Tamara: I think it's a, it's a good combination. You know, if they're going to stop. If they're going to come in and get lunch to take out or pick up an afternoon snack, then it does take away that need for them to stop somewhere else.

That's a pretty good segue into the next topic I wanted to talk about, which is, so many of these restaurants that were affected by COVID, or are still affected, having to really alter their business model. And, you know, obviously a lot of these dining rooms, where either their capacity was severely reduced or they had to shut down entirely, so they had to quickly adapt and pivot and go more towards a to-go or a pickup or a delivery service. So, I'm curious, first of all, Tamara, have you been, I mean, obviously with a lot of restaurants that are making that pivot, are you seeing that a lot of these same restaurants have had to make adjustments to maybe the menu items that they're serving because of that change in business?

Tamara: Absolutely. When we review menus with our restaurant partners, we call it - is it COVID-friendly. So, is it transportable friendly? Can they pack it up? How's the quality going to be after that product has been in a package for 15-20 minutes till it's picked up? You know, will it retain safe temperatures and still have that quality for that brand of that restaurant?

I imagine that the packaging has a pretty big part to play with that. And like you say, I mean, I know Boelter deals with a lot of different packaging and it's been something that we've been able to provide a lot of our customers with over the last couple of months. And, you know, just the idea of having separate areas or separate compartments within a piece of food packaging. So, the food isn't mixing together, right? I mean, that's gotta be a fairly big issue. You're keeping hot food items, hot, cold food items, cold. You don't want to be mixing things together. So, by the time you get it home, it's just a big pile of mush, right? You want to have some solid packaging that can accommodate for that.

Tamara: Thinking through that, that menu item is very important now.

So, what would be some examples of, I guess maybe some menu items that maybe would no longer be appropriate for a to-go model or a pickup or a delivery model? What would be the first couple of things that would just be like, well, they could no longer offer that?

Tamara: It could be like a protein item with several cold cuts. How is it going to hold up? For instance, I would possibly even use a taco. If you're going to get tacos, you can get a regular taco and it's pretty simple, only two ingredients in there. But, if it's a, for lack of better terms, a fancier taco, that has different kinds of slaws or lettuces or fresh ingredients, you may want to think about limiting the number in there. Because by the time you do package it and they take it to-go, by the time they open it up at their desk or at home, it's not going to represent what you want.

Yeah. The integrity of that meal is no longer there. I mean, even if it's just been, you know, a 10 minute trip down the road, that can make all the difference in the world for, you know, like something like you said, like a taco, that could just be a, you know, a soggy mess by the time you get your hands on it and that's not good for anyone. It's not good for the restaurant then either, right? That's part of the representation. And, you know, it may have been fine when they put it in that package, but by the time that the customer got it to their table, it's a night and day difference.

Eric, I'm curious about, so sticking on with the idea of restaurants transitioning to more of a pickup, delivery and to-go business model, are there any ideas, are there any things like initially, if a restaurant wasn't taking advantage of those options to begin with, are there certain things that you think that they could approach early on to make that transition a little easier for them? There's certain steps that they could take to make that part of their business more successful?

Eric: Existing locations, depending upon where you are around the country, a lot of the dining rooms aren't open, or they're at 50%. And a lot of the kitchens are set up to do, especially a sit-down restaurant, it's set up to work the dining room. And some of the higher end restaurants really don't do delivery or carry out very much at all. It's mostly taking home your leftovers. If you could designate some additional space in your dining area, to set up where you can have customers come in to pick up food with hot holding, maybe a refrigerator or an air screen where you can have some additional impulse items. And, you know, they come in and they ordered their food and I'd like a bottle of, you know, this or a can of that. And they add it onto their check. I think that's good. Having a designated area for different companies that are doing the meal delivery service, whether you're using an app to have your food delivered, using packaging that is tamper-proof. I think it's real important that if you're using an outside, a third-party meal delivery and it's not the client coming to pick it up, you need to make sure the food is sealed. The bag is stapled or sealed so that when it gets to your house, you know the last person that touched it was the chef.

That's a good point. I guess this whole time my family, we've never really done any delivery. We've got enough places that are fairly close to where we live. I have no problem just going to place an order online or through an app, and going to pick it up. So, we haven't really relied on too many delivery services. But, what does some of that packaging look like that, that tamper-proof packaging? Is it like a tape that seals it shut?

Eric: There's a restaurant here locally that I order from, and it's a well-known chain and basically they package up all your food and then the bag top closes over, so that the handle is inside the fold over with a piece of tape that tapes the back sealed. So, you know that nobody else was in your bag, except the guy who sealed it at the restaurant. And then they tend to put the beverages in a Brown paper bag next to it. You know what I mean? And those are already pre-sealed cartons anyways.

Have either of you seen any restaurants, maybe where the dining room was shut down and they kind of semi-converted a portion of it to be almost like what you were saying Eric, almost like a staging area? So, they could process and manage these to-go, or these pickup items a little bit easier? Have you been seeing at all? I mean, it's like just using the space that you have. If you can't have diners in there, you might as well adapt it for something that's still gonna get those orders out the door as quickly as possible.

Tamara: Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to some that they have it separated out and it's like four different delivery services and they each have their dedicated space to pick up.

It's amazing how fast some of these restaurants were able to pick up on that, you know, identify early on the changes that they needed to make, you know, like you were talking about Tamara about the packaging, maintaining the food quality, identifying the menu, even if it's reducing the menu down or swapping out certain menu items with other menu items that are going to be a little bit more travel friendly, I guess, for lack of a better term. So, it's amazing to see how quickly these restaurants. I mean, they're in a position where they had to make these changes. They didn't have a choice if they wanted to stay in business, they had to adapt quickly.

Eric: Everybody basically went into survival mode.

So, the next thing I wanted to kind of talk through a little bit is, and we touched on a few other ideas earlier in the conversation, was just the idea of technology and how much of a role that's been playing during this time. And Tamara, I don't know if you can comment on this, but just the idea of technology when it comes to things like touchless service or using app-based technology for waitlists, or, maybe processing payments. Anything that's going to kind of limit that direct contact between the restaurant or like the business owner and the customer. Have you been seen anything like that, that seems to be working out well?

Tamara: Yes, actually we use an app as well in our units and they can order right from their phone. As well as I see other restaurants doing it to the order from the phone. They pay from the phone, they can use the scanner on their phones and it's, everything is on the app. So they don't have that interaction with a cash register or another person or somebody else touching something. So it is definitely a safer way.

So, you said that they could use the camera on their phone to scan. What are they scanning?

Tamara: Scanning barcodes. So, if it's a set up like a grab-and-go set up where they can go into the market cafe and they can order their lunch on the phone and then their lunch is ordered and they're down there and, oh, you know what I want to, I want a bottle of water, or I want to snack for this afternoon. They can just pick up that snack, scan it, and it adds to their checkout.

And are seeing that each location or each restaurant is using their own app, or is this more of a across the board technology that multiple restaurants could use?

Tamara: That's across the board. Yeah. Any restaurant could use.

Eric, have you, sticking with the technology, I know something that Boelter Blue is working with is the new waitlist technology. Have you been seeing anything with any conversation with any of your customers recently about questions coming up about the use of technology when it comes to, you know, when they're actually opening? Is that something that's been part of the conversation?

Eric: Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a consideration and they're asking us, you know, if we have any recommendations or if we’ve seen anything new, you know. Pretty much everybody right now is using the QR codes for digital menus so that you're not handing out a paper menu, a plastic menu that's been touched by a number of people. And the waitlist thing has been going on for a while too, because so many of the facilities and some stores, you know, just retail stores where you go to buy things have had to go to a wait-list system because they can only have so many people in the building. There's an occupancy issue. And then over the course of the summer, which is going away, and everybody wanted to eat outside and be at a patio, they had no choice but to use a system that tied to a waitlist.

But, I think you're going to see more and more people trying to figure out how to stay in touch with their clients. It's going to be key to being prevalent, to what's going on and making sure that you're letting your clients know what's going on in your restaurant. Maybe creating some loyalty-based things where you reward them for continually coming back, thanking them for stopping in, all those things means something today, a lot more than it did, you know, a year ago. They're just trying to hang on to what they got.

Are you seeing that on your end as well, Tamara? Like, Eric I'm assuming you're talking about a digital loyalty program, where in the past it was like a punch card where now it's all app based. Are you seeing things like that as well?

Tamara: Yes, and it communicates. Like Eric said. So, loyalty promotions are sent right to people's phones or emails. You get those blasts.

So it's just a better way to stay in direct contact with your customer, with your loyal following. I guess that could be anything as simple as changing business hours to updating them with new menu items or specials or whatever. Maybe it's a new fish fry offering on Friday night. Anything that'll get them to come back to place an order, pick it up or have it delivered. Yeah. It's a good way to good way to communicate.

I wanted to wrap this conversation up so far and I won't hold either of you guys to this, but I am curious about what your thoughts are in terms of the future of the food and beverage industry. We're recording this about the middle of November 2020. So, we're heading into 2021. Eric, you know, you mentioned about a lot of restaurants over the summer, they were relying exclusively or much more heavily on patio dining, or sidewalk dining. Depending on which region you live in in the country, that's been shut down now for a couple of weeks. What do you guys think, heading into 2021, what are some of your predictions, your anticipated trends? How's this thing going to play out for the food and beverage industry? Tamara, let's start with you. What are some of your thoughts about where this is all going to go? What do you see? What do you think is going to be coming down the road?

Tamara: Perfection of the takeout models. Delivery models. On the go. Pre-packaged, complete meal kits to go. I think we'll see a lot more of that.

When you say a meal kit, what does that look like?

Tamara: A meal kit would be the one-stop shop. So, they stopped for their lunch and they pick up their lunch and then they could see a meal kit for whether it's Raman meal kit and they could take the whole kit home and prepare it at home.

Okay. So all the ingredients are there. It's just, they need to put it together themselves. Okay. What about you, Eric? What do you think and what are you going to see ahead into 2021?

Eric: I think our customers, the clients that are going into restaurants, are going to be more cognizant of what's going on. They're going to understand and want to see visible changes as far as food safety. Even if the vaccine works, and everybody's, you know, in the process over the next six months to a year, there's going to be a comfort level when you go back that says, you know, are we really past this? And while you'll have that group that takes their masks off and is ready to go and attack the world, there's still going to be those folks who want to, you know, still feel safe. And they're going to want to know that the operator is doing the things that are important to make sure something like this doesn't ever happen again.

On the design side of it, I think Tamara mentioned it, I think we're going to be looking at facility design differently. I think we're going to be planning in for more carry out, a better process within the back of house for delivery. Typically, when we designed a restaurant in years’ past, and not your chains and not your B & I, and stuff like that, but a normal restaurant, it was all centered around how many seats can I get. Because that seat meant a dollar value and a number of turns. And that's how they budgeted out their restaurant and whatever was left over was the kitchen. There's going to be a little different looking at this because they want to be able to, you know, if they're going to invest all their hard-earned money in and build this place and create this place, it has to be sustainable. And a lot of these locations were not sustainable. And we found that out the hard way during COVID.

Tamara, what do you think from a food safety perspective? What's that going to look like heading into next year? Do you think there's going to be a higher demand, or a larger emphasis placed on restaurant owners to provide their customers with that level of safety and security to demonstrate to them that, you know, certain changes have been made or that they're up to code. Do you think that's just going to continue to elevate as we get into next year?

Tamara: Yes. I think it's going to continue to rise. And we are under a magnifying glass. It is about being visible with your food safety procedures, your safety procedures and policies, and being consistent with them. You want to see that when you go into your favorite restaurant, that they are disinfecting the tables every time you go in, because that's why you go back. You feel secure. You feel safe going there. So it's going to be extremely important.

And I know that, you know, state by state it, everything is being looked at through a slightly different lens. Each city is kind of approaching things differently based on their current levels of infection and current rates of infection. And I heard something, I think it was last week or within the last month, anyway, I forget which state it was in. It may have even been a couple of States, how they're starting to suggest, and I don't know if they've actually put this in place yet, but suggest that restaurants begin taking down customer information, like their names and their contact information. Do you think we're going to continue to see more of that and does that instill a certain amount of feelings of safety to a customer that wants to dine in at a restaurant? Have you guys heard about that at all?

Eric: That's more about, you know, tracing. Somebody gets sick and, you know, let's hope, you know, 60 minutes on Sunday is right, and we're a lot closer to the vaccine then we were back in March or even back in August. And I think we don't want people to feel like they're, you know, they're being invaded and their privacy is being subject to stuff. Everybody understands the importance because you want to make sure that if you were sick or if a client was sick or somebody was sick and made it through, you want to be able to trace it back so that you can warn everybody to stop the spread. But I don't see clients volunteering that easily. And I don’t feel that the restaurant is the one who has to police that. That's not fair to them either.

Tamara: Right. I've seen it more prevalent in restaurants. And, likewise, Eric, I don't think that's something clients would want.

There is one more topic that I wanted to get to real quick. And it kind of fits in with just the idea of so many of these restaurants going to more of a takeout model or delivery model, but just the idea of ghost kitchens. And I'm wondering Eric, you know, that ghost kitchens have been around for a while and maybe they have a couple of different names. Maybe they're called a couple of different things. But with this continued change with restaurants in their business models and moving away from dining in, to take out, delivery and pickup. Do you guys think we're going to see more of an increase, more of a rise in ghost kitchens? I mean, that's all that they're doing is they're just delivering food. There is no dining space.

Tamara: Well, I think we will see a rise in them. I think we have seen a little bit of rise already. There's a good and bad to them. They give the opportunity for someone to build a brand without necessarily spending that brick and mortar price. So, in a way they're great that way, doing the research on them and making sure, you know, on the con side or to think about the other side is, doing the research and the people you share the kitchen with you, you hope that they all have good intentions and they're all there for the right reasons to do the right things. So, that would be, you know, if I had to say a con to them.

What are you hearing about ghost kitchens, Eric? Anything, any new updates, or are you seeing that trend upward still?

Eric: Yeah, I think it's definitely trending upward. There's several large companies out there that are looking to expand. Tamara mentioned something key. It's about expansion. You know, if you've got a good menu and a decent name and you're in the, out in the Western suburbs, but you want to get your food into the city, the easiest way to do that without having to make a huge investment is to put your menu into, you know, a ghost kitchen and have the ability to deliver it to more people and get more touches. And then if it travels, you know, from state to state, you could really get something going with it. It also gives other concepts the ability, you know, like talk about like Chicago, they built a nice facility in the city and it gave them a chance to bring some different, fast casual food to the city of Chicago that didn't have that before, because they just didn't want to make the investment to grow it there. But with a ghost kitchen, it's easy to do. You don't have to outfit that bill for a lease and be tied to a lease for, you know, 10-15 years, and not know if you're going to succeed.

Yeah. Right. And again, relying more exclusively on the idea of app-based technology, you know, you don't really have a storefront and in most of those situations it's just a building. It's just a kitchen. It's a couple of guys that are just hard at it for, you know, 10-12 hours a day.

Eric: And a lot of these bigger companies already have the infrastructure in place for a guy who's a startup, where is it's, you know, they've got the delivery service built in, app-based, you know, consolidated storage for product coming in. They probably even set you up with the broadliner to get your food, you know, a distributor to buy your equipment that you need to finish your kitchen. So, it's pretty easy for a guy who’s starting out.

Okay. Well, before we wrap it up, I always like to try and give our guests an opportunity to relay to the listeners how they can be reached. So, Tamara, why don't you go ahead and let our listeners know how they can reach out to you directly. What's the best method to do that? Would that be by email? Are you on any of the social media, Twitter, or LinkedIn, anything like that? Anything that you wanted to share?

Tamara: Email, if it's a direct question, tamara.mullen@foodworks.org. If it's a question about Foodworks, if you're a restaurant partner, or want to be in a restaurant partner, or you're interested in having Foodworks in, then email info@foodworks.org. We're also on LinkedIn, under Foodworks, and Facebook at Foodworks Local.

Eric: Email is probably the best way, echaplicj@boelter.com. I'm also on LinkedIn. And then we have our company website, if you're looking for help. We obviously can find you that way too.

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