NJSBDC at Brookdale Community College invites entrepreneurs to attend our 4th annual no-cost, high-impact Foodiepreneur event. The workshop is geared towards people looking to grow or launch a food business in New Jersey such as a restaurant, food truck, commercial food product and/or artisan goods. This no-cost event will take place on Monday, May 6, 2019, from 9:00 am until 12:30 pm at Ocean County College. The event kicks off National Small Business Week. REGISTER TODAY.

Foodiepreneur: The Business of Food will give current and potential food entrepreneurs candid insight from the experts into one of the largest industries in our area. The goal of Foodiepreneur is to facilitate a real dialog about topics that are important to entrepreneurs in the food industry. This year our highly regarded panel is comprised of accomplished entrepreneurs such as food writer, cookbook author and restaurant marketer Deb Smith of JerseyBites.com, Executive Chef Meg Lamanna of B2 Bistro, and Bert Roling of Last Wave Brewing as well as essential resource partners such as John Lawson of Whole Foods Market, Esther Psarakis of Foodpreneur®, Richard McArdle, PhD of the Rutgers Food Innovation Center and Patricia High of the Ocean Health Department.
Seating is limited for this no-cost, high-impact event and seats will go fast.

To register click below:

On The Panel

Deborah Smith
Founder & Executive Editor, JerseyBites.com

Deborah Smith is a food writer, cookbook author, and restaurant marketer. She is the founder and Executive Editor of JerseyBites.com, an online publication covering the food and restaurant scene in New Jersey since 2007. Her marketing agency, Foxtrot Media, specializes in social media management, Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns, photo and video creation, review generation, and more for restaurants and other food-related businesses. She is also the author of the Jersey Shore Cookbook, a collection of 50 recipes from beloved restaurants along the Jersey coast.

Meg Lamanna
Executive Chef & Owner B2 Bistro 

Executive Chef Meg Lamanna embarked on her culinary career at age 19 when she enrolled in culinary school in Asbury Park, NJ. Upon finishing the CEC, the young chef worked at various popular Jersey Shore steakhouses and bistros.In 2012, Meg’s family opened 709 Restaurant in Point Pleasant Beach, NJ, a location she would call home in the succeeding three years. Eager to learn about different cuisines and an elevated level of cooking, Meg relocated to Miami where she worked at triple five-star rated LaMar by Gaston Acurio, Quality Meats of Miami, and two times James Beard award-winning chef Michelle Berstein’s, Cena. She later opened her own restaurant, The Garden, a small café offering local, seasonal, and organic small plates.
In Spring 2017, Meg returned home to New Jersey and recently partnered with Stephen Valentine to bring Point Pleasant’s 709 into the B2 Bistro + Bar family.

Bert Roling
Owner, Last Wave Brewery

Bert has lived at the Jersey Shore for the last 14 years and has been brewing beer for 10 of those with his partner Nick. When their passion for brewing started to become an all-consuming “obsession” (like a lot of homebrewers) they decided to make a go at the business side of brewing. Upon deciding that they were going to open up shop at the Jersey Shore, Nick moved to San Diego to get a year of brewery experience at Mission Brewing Company and Bert stayed home and fell in love with recipe creation and brew-specific chemistry.
They also built a business plan during that time. In 2015 they registered Last Wave Brewing Company, got some funding, and started building their long-awaited dream. On Memorial Day 2017 their dream was realized, and it hasn’t stopped snowballing since.
Stylistically, Last Wave takes the classic, true to style recipes and adapts them to the ever-evolving craft beer culture. Every sip of Last Wave beer pays homage to those that have come before, while still pushing the envelope in flavor experimentation and combination. If you visit the brewery, you’ll see the owners’ love of surfing, sharing stories, and tasty beer. While just drinking the beer itself can be rewarding, Bert and Nick assert that every Last Wave brew is “Best Enjoyed with Friends”. www.lastwavebrewing.com 

 John Lawson
 Whole Foods Market

  

John Lawson has lived in NYC the last 20 years or so, and he’s worked in food retail for nearly all of them. He has been with Whole Foods Market since 2005, and a Regional Buyer since 2009. John is most passionate about ethical & sustainable food sources and in his current role, he most enjoys partnering with brands for product development and growth.  Whole Foods Market

Foodpreneur®,

A strategic sales/marketing, and educational consultancy addressing the educational needs of entrepreneurial food, beverage, and consumer companies, offering a creative comprehensive curriculum to launch foodservice business. Representative works with established international companies seeking to enter the US market.

 

Rutgers Food Innovation Center

The Rutgers Food Innovation Center is a unique business incubation and economic development accelerator program, which is part of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The Center provides business and technology expertise to startup and established food companies in the mid-Atlantic region, and utilizes its outreach capacity to reach food and agribusinesses throughout the world. http://foodinnovation.rutgers.edu/

Ocean County Health Department

The Ocean County Health Department is committed to promoting healthy lifestyles and a clean and safe environment. We are dedicated to advocate for and to provide leadership in assuring consistent, quality healthcare in our community. We are guided by the following principles:

  • To assess the priority needs and wants of the community we serve through comprehensive health planning;
  • To inform and educate residents about public health issues;
  • To encourage people to take responsibility for their own and their neighbors’ health;
  • To utilize a team approach in achieving our mission;
  • To commit to problem-solving utilizing a systemic approach;
  • To promote a work environment which fosters creativity, innovation, respect, sense of caring, commitment, trust, quality, and dependability.