Food for Thoughtfulness - A Panel on Food, Entrepreneurship & Consciousness

We are co-organizing this event on Food Startups w/ social consciousness along with OC Social Entrepreneurship, Eureka Bldg & Super Toybox. If you are in the OC area on April 4th, come join in.

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We are excited to co-host a panel of local food and beverage business owners who reach our hearts and minds -- through our stomachs!

If you own a food/beverage business, want to start one, or just like to eat, drink, and make a difference -- come raise a glass while you raise your awareness! We'll talk about about these startups' concepts, sourcing, quality, and the origin stories behind their deliciousness.

Join us, and a few community partners, for this panel of awesome entrepreneurs, innovating in the space with unique methods and experiences. Learn how they change the world, deliciously!

Our panel of amazing speakers:

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Kaitlin Mogentale from Pulp Pantry

Pulp Pantry is rethinking what it means to produce good food with sustainability, local sourcing, and social impact as top priorities. We work with commercial juiceries to turn a wasted resource-- organic vegetable and nut pulp-- into delicious, healthy snack products that are fit for a variety of restricted diets. Our snacks are made with intention, on a mission to bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity. We’re creating food that’s good for you and good for our collective environment, with a vision to create sustainable resource recovery solutions for food companies beyond the juicery.

Kaitlin Mogentale graduated from USC with a degree in Environmental Studies, and minors in Social Entrepreneurship and Urban Policy & Planning. An interest in environmental justice led her to a passion for food justice in her South L.A. community as she began assisting at an urban garden in a local elementary school. At that same time, Kaitlin happened to watch a friend juice a carrot, and was blown away by the amount of high quality byproduct (vegetable pulp) that was created. She began to consider how she might use her unique interests in sustainability, food, and social entrepreneurship to help large food producers such as commercial juiceries manage their organic "waste." And thus, the Pulp ideation process began!

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Matthew Evilsizor from Conscious Bean

As the owner and creator of an intention fueled coffee company,Matthew Evilsizor believes that change starts with one, that every drink begins with the first bean picked. This inner personal focus is the ultimate objective of his latest venture, Conscious Bean.Conscious Bean is a craft coffee company rooted in OC. With Intention as the impetus of each action, Conscious Bean strives to extract the good from every drop of it's business. Their aptly named Conscious Bean(s) are roasted fresh for every online order, coffee subscription and event they do.

With a client list including the Primetime Emmy Awards, Google, T-Mobile, Rolls Royce and Nike, Matthew strives to infuse love into every action from cradle to cradle. The world is the culmination of our actions, to truly create change we must begin within. It is this mindset that propels Conscious Bean’s actions, products and services as well as those of its customers. Matthew has a lifetime in coffee and the arts uniting both for his current journey. He has a true heart for, authenticity, storytelling, organic culture, and cultivating greater human awareness...and lasagna. Matthew loves lasagna.

Conscious Bean is an intention-driven coffee roastery with a range of organic mobile coffee bars and event services based in Orange County. Conscious Bean has an impassioned mission statement: To drive the industry forward, with superior products, knowledge, transparency and customer service. To infuse love into every drink from cradle to cradle. To cultivate joy that warms the stomach, heart, soul and mind. To protect and replenish the earth through philanthropy, advancement of knowledge and awareness, farming methods, ethical transparency and long term vision.

Their coffees are direct trade or small fair trade co-op and roasted in micro-batches to order. The flavoring sauces are handcrafted from scratch with raw, genuine ingredients- often straight from their own garden. Conscious Bean uses dairy that is organic, locally sourced, non-GMO and comes in reusable glass bottles. All of their bar’s products are biodegradable, reusable or renewable. Their website and servers are powered 200% with renewable energy and Conscious Bean plants trees to offset it's carbon footprint. They offer online coffee ordering as well as personalized curated coffee subscriptions, for those looking for only the best outside and in. Conscious Bean is more than a coffee company, it’s a state of being.

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Lawrence Charles of Charles & Company Tea

Born in the inner city of Canton, Ohio, to a single mother in difficult circumstances, Lawrence Charles learned early on to rely on his imagination and hard work. He started a barber shop as a teenager, and by 19 was doing promotions for a hair clipper company. He worked his way through design school, and upon graduation was named head designer of a startup television video series which went on to win three Telly Awards.

He fell in love with tea while living in New York City, working as a model and spokesperson for Tommy Hilfiger. Sipping on delicately steeped Japanese Sencha while munching on freshly baked macaroons in teashops in Greenwich Village and the edge of Harlem seemed able to shut out the noise and rush of the city.

Moving from New York City to Los Angeles, Lawrence later founded Charles & Company. As a tea enthusiast and premium tea purveyor, he is inspired by the inherent healthfulness of tea. No other beverage has the ability to positively affect the body, soothe the mind, and create opportunities for relaxed, enjoyable social interactions.

Lawrence has dedicated himself to letting others know about the health and social benefits of tea, including its unique capabilities for supporting women’s health. Lawrence has also received international praise for his tea and the brand has served members of the British Royal family and has fans that include Sir Anthony Hopkins. Now as a congressionally recognized speaker, Lawrence Charles brings a unique voice, his own life experience, and what he has learned from listening closely to his customers.

Loghan Call of Planted Cuisine

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In a day and age filled with labels, fad diets and an overload of “experts” and voices, Loghan’s goal is to bypass it all. Planted Cuisine is focused on a whole foods, plant-based cuisine that uses farm fresh, nutrient dense foods grown by those who understand soil health and regenerative agriculture. A firm believer in food as medicine, the goal of each dinner experience is to educate and inspire his guests to understand the health benefits and importance of making true food a priority in our lives once again.!

Food has always been a part of his life having been raised in upstate New York on five acres filled with vegetable, edible flower and herb gardens. His mom was a Chef and has been a nutritionist for over thirty years. In fact, he even started an organic dog biscuit business when he was twelve years old. !

However, for most of his life, Loghan’s professional career has been centered around media and story-telling. A two-time Emmy award winning broadcast journalist, his media career started to shift into helping sustainable non-profits and brands tell their stories. While taking UCLA’s Sustainability Management program Loghan rediscovered his love for food and agriculture. It was here that he met two of his closest partners, including Erik Cutter of Alegria Farms. !
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After visiting Erik’s farm in Irvine, Loghan was instantly reconnected to his upbringing, and the deep nourishment that comes with eating nutrient dense food. It was this experience that has led to a career transformation. In the New Year, Loghan furthered his commitment for access to top quality food -for all- by teaming up with a group of friends to start an urban farm in the heart of Los Angeles called Hohm Farm. It is here that Loghan’s goal is to showcase the power food has to bring communities together and into a healthy future for all; regardless of race, income or living situation.!

About our Moderator

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Scott Merritt, a former technology entrepreneur, sold a social networking company that was similar to facebook and present at 50 universities. While at school at USC, he also ran a non-profit serving 600 kids focused on nutrition and recreational sports, eventually raising money from USC and the Lakers foundation. He then worked as a management consultant in the tech industry, and through first hand interactions with dozens of CEOs, gained insight into the mindset of the 1%. Observing the disturbing hunger by upper management to automate their companies and obsolete their workforce, he grew disillusioned with the celebrated trajectory of technology. Not only for it's displacing nature, but also how it is designed not to be augmentative, but rather, a habit-forming crutch. In 2008, he foresaw technology's role in the undermining of civil liberties, privacy, democracy and free thought and was disturbed by the willingness of consumers to accept Orwellian terms-of-service, in exchange for the vague promise of convenience (and friendship).
In 2010, he shut down a successful consulting practice and then began to write his novel, Seven Questions. Scott also runs Orange County Social Entrepreneurship, a meetup group focused on social good startups and enterprises.

Special thanks to our venue partner:

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The Eureka Building (http://www.eurekabuilding.com/home.html) is a 3-acre technology campus in Irvine, California designed to help accelerate innovation. Founded in 2014 by Peter Polydor, our goal is to support local entrepreneurship by giving innovative companies and entrepreneurs in Orange County a home that is centrally located and easy to access. Through partnerships we are more than just a home, but are a support network hosting startup events while fostering mentorship relationships with our partners all within one of the most creative spaces in the region.