Carleton’s Regional Carls Program

Food, Community, and Equity:
using Consumers for Good
Perspectives from a coffee shop owner,
a small-business promoter,
and a food systems researcher

Sunday, December 6, 2020
2:00 - 3:00 p.m. CST
via Zoom

Food businesses are the heart of our local and national economies, communities, and societies. As eaters, we all engage in and have a hand at shaping the food system – through demand, allyship, and advocacy. How can we use our power as consumers to support community and promote equitable business practices? A coffee shop owner, a small-business promoter, and a food systems researcher offer different perspectives.

Register to receive Zoom meeting link.

Katy Rice '03 has been in the specialty coffee industry for over 15 years. She is the owner of Coal Town Coffee and Tea, a tiny cafe with a big heart, in Homer, Alaska.

Laura Clise '01 is the founder and CEO of Intentionalist, a Seattle-based social purpose corporation focused on making it easy to support small businesses and more connected, inclusive communities through everyday decisions about where we eat, drink, and shop. Prior to Intentionalist, Laura held a variety of executive roles leading sustainability, corporate responsibility, supplier diversity, and external communications at AREVA, Plum Creek, and Weyerhaeuser.

Laura received an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and a BA in International Relations from Carleton College. She is a 2013 Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow, the recipient of an Exceptional Individual Achievement Award from the Human Rights Campaign, and serves on the Board of Directors of Athlete Ally and the Net Impact Corporate Advisory Council.

Vera L. Chang '09 is a University of California Berkeley Environmental Science, Policy, and Management doctoral student, National Science Foundation Fellow, and Berkeley Food Institute Researcher. Her research uses ethnographic methods to study how change can occur to prevent ubiquitous labor rights violations among low-wage agri-food chain workers. Vera’s writing on social, environmental, and agricultural issues has received national attention in such venues as Food & Wine, The Guardian, and Bitch magazine; her photographs have been published in TIME, CNBC, and The Salt (of National Public Radio); and her research and reporting have been noted by Politico, LA Weekly, and the Aspen Institute. Vera received a 2018 Rachel Tanur Memorial Prize for Visual Sociology and was a Dorothea Lange Documentary Photography Fellowship finalist. She was also recently a Fellow with Solutions Journalism Network and Clif Bar Family Foundation.

As a student at Carleton College (Global Ethics, magna cum laude, 2009) Vera founded two organizations – Food Truth to probe critical food systems issues and Phase II to examine multiracial students’ experience on campus – and also chaired the college’s Dining Board Social Responsibility Taskforce. Her contributions to the community were honored by the Maitland-Will Prize, Stewsie Sustainability Award, and Student Leadership Award and were recognized in Inside Higher Education, Minneapolis Star Tribune, and as a Carleton Voice cover story.