Join us for The Future of Food Conversation Series!

The Future of Food: Innovations in Food Business and the Food Economy

Part of building a thriving local food system is about equipping food businesses and aspiring food entrepreneurs with the resources and relationships they need to succeed. In this conversation, we’ll hear from local food and farming entrepreneurs–and the institutions that support them–about how they’re using values of sustainability, equity, and justice to build food businesses that help bring forth a healthy, sustainable, and affordable food future for our city.

The moderated panel discussion will be followed by open Q&A and an opportunity for community conversation and networking.

This event is free and open to the public.

EJ Reed

EJ Reed is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Slim + Husky’s. EJ and longtime friends turned business partners – Clint Gray and Derrick Moore – have worked in unison building several successful businesses together over the course of 14 years. The serial entrepreneurs behind the pizzeria also created other ventures including GT Services, a logistics and federal contracting company.

Prior to starting Slim & Husky’s, EJ jumped into entrepreneurship with his fellow partners shortly after graduating college. With just $3000 in startup funds, his first entrepreneurial venture, The Green Truck Moving Company, was established in April 2010. Green Truck provided complete moving solutions while being dedicated to serving the community by using eco-friendly products, offering recycling services and planting trees in underserved communities with each move.

Following a successful 7-year run, the trio sold The Green Truck Moving Co and opened the business they always dreamed of—a hip-hop inspired spot featuring Artisan pizzas in historic North Nashville.

The Slim + Husky’s brand has grown to include 11 Southeast locations with restaurants in Nashville, TN, Atlanta, GA, Memphis, TN, and Murfreesboro, TN as well as locations on the campuses of Belmont University, Morehouse College, Middle Tennessee State University, and the Nashville International Airport.

EJ often uses the mantra, Progress (or in some cases Pizza) Rules Everything Around Me (PREAM), to fuel his passion for using food as a vehicle for social change. This mantra is an ode to the company’s purpose-filled mission, which centers around empowering underserved youth and communities by way of financial literacy, highlighting the arts, and educational and entrepreneurial programs.

EJ is a graduate of Tennessee State University where he received a bachelor’s in economics and finance, and Belmont University where he earned his MBA. He is a member of the 2023-2024 class of Leadership Nashville. He currently sits on several boards including Nashville Business Incubation Center and the Nashville Black Chamber of Commerce. His goal is to grow Slim + Husky’s into a global brand while holding true to its core values and principles of giving back to underserved communities.

Laura Wilson

Laura Wilson was an Executive Chef of 25 years in Nashville, New Orleans, and Chattanooga before working at the Nashville Farmers Market and developing the Grow Local Kitchen. She founded Citizen Incubator Kitchens in 2015.

Tonya Lewis (panel moderator)

Full bio coming soon!

Photo from urbaanite.com

Danny Goldberg

Danny Goldberg is co-founder the Grow2Learn Cooperative, now serving as the co-op’s Board Secretary, Research Director, and design consultant for the GOOD—Grow Our Own Democracy-- Food Ambassadors program at schools, youth programs, recovery centers and community sites throughout Nashville.  The research component of the GOOD Food program resulted in the recent publication of a chapter on Food Sovereignty and the Social Determinant of Health in a medical textbook for a series on Primary Care: Clinics in Office Practice. His research now focuses on cooperative impact investment models that apply cross-sector strategies to improve health in neighborhoods and communities with poor health outcomes.

Finis Stribling, III

Director of New Farmer Academy and Small Farms at Tennessee State University.

Full bio coming soon!

This event is in collaboration with: