SHORTS 9 | Mallory Garneau with the FOCO Cafe

Welcome to the Loco Shorts Podcast from Loco Think Tank. In this podcast series, Loco Business Developer Rory Shah will help unfold bite-sized business learnings through the crazy experiences the business owners face along their small business journey. Listen in and listen up because these short business stories may just have the secret ingredient to taking your business to its next level of success. All right, so I'm Rory Shah and with Loco Think Tank and today's Loco Shorts episode, we get to talk to the wonderful Mallory Garnal and she is the executive director at the Fort Collins Foco Cafe. So Mallory, I'll let you share more about yourself, more about what the Foco Cafe is and we can dive into unpacking your business story and really how you got here. Yeah, awesome. Thank you for the introduction. Again, my name is Mallory Garnal and I'm the executive director of Foco Cafe going on four years now. We did just celebrate our six anniversary so we've been around a little bit longer than I have been there. I came to the cafe through getting my masters in social work at CSU. So I did a one-year internship with them and was lucky enough to be offered the position of executive director right out of school. So that's kind of how I came to me at the cafe. I really was interested in the first place because it was such a different concept than everywhere else. I got my masters in social work not necessarily to be a therapist or a counselor or someone that works one-on-one but I really wanted to work with communities and big groups of people on basic human needs and human rights issues. So food security is obviously part of that. So it felt like a really good fit. I've also worked in restaurants since I was 16 so I had at least 10 years of experience on that end of things as well as kind of the education on the other end. So they felt like I was a good fit and I'm still still here. So very grateful for that opportunity and to have made it this far. There's definitely been ups and downs and lessons along the way and I'm excited to kind of share that with you guys but yeah it's a little bit about me and then the Foco Cafe. Our legal name which Foco stands for is feeding our community ourselves but it's also a playoff at Fort Collins. So it's that kind of a double meeting and a lot of people don't know about that so I like to share it when I can. It is the first and only nonprofit restaurant pay what you can kind of see to table farm to table as much as we were able to. Our mission is to build community through providing delicious and nutritious meals to all people regardless of their ability to pay while using mostly local organic and sustainably grown ingredients. So we work with local farmers, the local food cooperative and we just try and source literally the healthiest food possible through doing that while also supporting the local economy and offering a service that's available to anyone and everyone regardless of if they qualify for food stamps or if they're you know if they have plenty of means and the only reason the cafe really works is because we do see all walks of life and all sorts of people participating with us. So yeah that's kind of the gist of it but I'm happy to go into more specifics as we move on. Sure well thank you Mallory. I'm curious to know what it was like when you transitioned from school into this role and how how was that was it kind of seamless because you had already been there and you know first you're stepping up with roles do these expectations and stuff like that. So what was that transition like? Yeah I mean I had it was a whole semester there's a two semester internship so it was August to May and I had kind of the hint of the possibility in March. So I had multiple months you know under my belt in terms of knowing how it runs, what we do, what's expected, where we hope to be. So obviously it was a lot less stressful than you know finding a job on indeed and having to really jump into a huge role like this because I was working very closely with the previous executive director so I wouldn't say it was seamless but it was a much better situation than you know just finding someone else that maybe even better qualified than I was you know through a site like Indeed or something like that so yeah and when I mean you know it wasn't seamless it's not like it didn't go smoothly it was just a big change for me. I haven't had you know that much experience in doing things on my own I was more like the assistant and I did have the opportunities to do things on my own but they you know as I transitioned into the role and I did a couple months more of training our co-founders one of which was the previous executive director they moved to Hawaii so they were still very much you know available via email for questions and stuff but I've really kind of had to pick everything up on my own when they moved because they were kind of moving on to a new chapter and while they've always shown their support it's I just kind of had to take it and run with it and it took a little while to get used to but what would you say the areas of like the biggest growth or progress you made in that time would be I think my confidence was a big one in my ability because I think I always had it there and that's probably what they saw on me but you know I was a young woman straight out of college and not everyone would take things seriously you know or they wouldn't understand what my role really was or they didn't think I was a person to go to for certain things and that obviously didn't help the confidence but once I really found it myself it seemed like other people saw that and yeah so it took a little while you know people just didn't I felt like I wasn't really believed in by a lot of people for a while because our previous executive director was just so loved and she she started it obviously as a founder so people were really attached to the cafe being part of these people and so really transitioning from this being their baby to this being my baby or to being the whole communities baby and not have that kind of obvious connection took a little bit but definitely ended up working out in the end so yeah I'm curious what are what were some of the strategies you used knowing key leaders made come and go in businesses like you said but it sometimes a business doesn't necessarily need to be rooted to a person it needs to be rooted to how you get or the concept or your product or your service so in what ways did you find opportunities to kind of like unravel the previous expectations and create your own space and your own imprint on the on the company and the community yeah I think you know the our co-founders and previous executive directors so supportive of the transition and that was one of the reasons they wanted to make her transition was because it wasn't about them it was it's about the community and they really wanted it to feel like it you know they didn't have owners because you know as a nonprofit we don't have owners having that's what everyone thought because it was so connected to them and they'd recognize that and they you know we're ready for the next step but not only that they wanted it to kind of have a different feel and different vision from the community and so I think things that I did or you know the first thing that helped us out with that was their support and so I was introduced to the community as the new executive director months before they left so I was able to still have her there or whatever and she was still able to you know introduce me to everyone she knew so it wasn't just a a clean cut and I had to you know start over so that that slow you know during training when I was getting to know everyone and she was still there to introduce me and explain things I think was really really helpful but beyond that you know when they left I think the main thing was my structured messaging was a big thing that I focused on so saying things very intentionally and saying us and we and just small things that I think make a big difference and so yeah just making sure that the message messaging was clear there's a couple little like slogans I came up with myself like by community for community or building community one played at a time so things that were just really community centric and also you know through that structured messaging when we're looking for volunteers or donors always talking about how you know we wouldn't be where we are if it weren't for not just our monetary support but also our volunteerism and so really getting people to feel like they have ownership in the cafe giving our volunteers the recognition that they need to really feel like you know this is a place for them and this is something that they have a part in and that they can make a difference at. I love that I mean that makes a lot of sense as well I mean it sounds like you're very thoughtful about how you approach that so I'm curious now that we are out of 2020 I want to know how 2020 went for the organization but I also want to know what happened maybe before that to set the stage 4 how 2020 went so can you talk to us a little bit about your first few years there and then how last year it was for you all yeah that's a loaded question so the first couple year you know the first year was really just trying to get gather my you know footing and really feel confident know what I was doing and do it all accurately and Bayon just doing things that I'm supposed to do but going out and finding new opportunities new partners new ways to spread the word things like that you know we do a lot of fundraisers we do a lot beyond just our lunch service so we have our lunch service we have now we have a delivery meal service through COVID that started and we have a kids program we have outdoor community resources that are give what you can take what you need we just we added a new garden with the growing project out at the cafe which we get a lot of food from for our menu and is also a great beautiful spot to enjoy lunch so a lot of new additions since since I joined and in 2018 we actually had to potentially almost close our doors we did a save the focal cafe campaign in October 2018 and you know it was kind of our last itch effort I had made made a lot of different efforts in making changes at the cafe you know we moved the donation box it had gotten stolen ones so we you know like bolted it down we switched up the the flow of service we changed staffing we did you know everything we could think of we added more fundraisers that were off site and none of those really had a big oomph effect they helped but they weren't gonna you know save us so we did this whole campaign where we were looking for sustaining members which are monthly donors who give anywhere from 10 to 500 dollars a month and you know most people are giving $10 a month but when there's a hundred people doing it makes a big difference and this was so that we could not only have this one time lump sum because again that's not sustainable we really wanted to be a sustainable thing that we we move forward with and so yeah we gained about 120 sustaining members through that campaign and we also added a host stand at the cafe which increased our our donation per plate by three to five dollars I can't remember the exact number right now but it made a big difference as well so it was kind of a multifaceted thing long story short we were overwhelmed by the community support we the cafe was saved and 2019 was really just looking forward and trying to figure out you know where's our time best spent we had several fundraisers like our biking music festival that took you know eight months to plan and didn't make very much money so we're really we're just trying to maximize kind of our time and efforts so we got rid of a couple things out a couple things 2019 we added a new big spring sware event where we bring in a bunch of local restaurants to do kind of a big tasting event the ideas to you know have dinner there instead of having to spend a hundred dollars at each one of these restaurants to try them out and you get to try a couple different things on the menu so in the beginning of 2020 I was busy planning that which usually happens in April so obviously January February March I was you know ready to go with that and then everything kind of shut down everything kind of you know just as everyone else experienced it was very ambiguous up in the air confusing not sure what to do and by May you know we used April to kind of figure out what our plan was and how we could continue to respond to the communities means without you know depleting our bank account and not being here when COVID is over because since COVID you know probably 70 to 80 percent of our meals go to low income or homeless or in need individuals or families and you know even that 30 percent that can pay monetarily to cover the cost of their meal aren't always covering the full cost so there's it it was really scary for us to look ahead and think you know how are we going to make this pay what you can thing work when the need is greater than it's ever been and everyone's being really free will ask you know they should be so our response was to create this new free delivery program we got overwhelming grant funding for that and COVID response funding so we kind of hit the ground running with that we started off serving 500 meals a week 100 a day yeah to all different people and it was all people that we didn't necessarily serve before so it was really cool because we were able to reach new community members that weren't coming into the cafe but um through the delivery program they um they were still we were still able to interact with them and connect with them um there's also a bunch of different opportunities for pay what or pay it forward um because another thing about the cafe is beyond the food people come for the community connection um and without having our physical space how can we you know continue to allow the community to connect with each other beyond us just connecting with the community so we've we did a lot of fundraisers that were very well not attended but the response was great they all typically sold out an example of that as we did treat boxes on Halloween and Christmas where a few buy one for $25 you get a bunch of handmade treats that our chef makes and a box and a box is paid forward to one of those families we deliver those meals too um so it's been really fun because people just love being able to know that you know they get to enjoy something but it's also supporting us and supporting you know a family and given them something a little special in the holidays so while we couldn't have our regular fundraisers and stuff you know which made me nervous about our financials we really were able to get creative and come up with these other ideas that might have been better than our regular fundraisers would have been in the first place um so yeah I think you know we we had one of our strongest years ever and it was only our second year of um ending in the black so ending on a you know um positive note I guess you could say and it was our second year in a row so 2018 2000 or 2019 in 2020 were our best years yet which is kind of crazy to think about especially after the unknown of save the cafe and yeah you know moving forward into 2021 we we have a good footing because of you know how 2020 went um we continue to apply for a bunch of grants um and we're considering potentially doing the free meal delivery program beyond COVID um but right now it really is a COVID response program um so we're just going to kind of play that bay you're depending on how everything moves forward um but you know I think our bit my biggest fear or worry moving into 2021 is probably still that ambiguity and the unknown of um you know there was so much COVID response spending last year but you know what about this year um we got a lot of funding last year that we had never gotten before and I just don't know what this year is going to look like and if in person events or you know what that's going to look like so there's still a lot of unknown but I think that's one of the main like lessons I've learned in general is to trust in the process and just do your best and believe in the mission and what you're doing and in my experience it tends to work out so yeah absolutely uh you started answering some of the questions I had for you so I ran the brain brain pack but I wasn't asked like you know what are you taking from that year and how are you applying it to this year what it sounds like you're you're already moving forward without like still pursuing grants I love that you said that you were able to adapt pretty quickly and really creatively with how you served the community and then also found money um and then it seems like people were very responsive giving you um I guess volunteering then also like financial support and then now you have essentially a new service so it's a surprise yeah it's like I never would have expected to be where we are but um yeah it's just crazy and so um yeah I think again just trusting in the process and taking you know some lessons we learned from last year kind of similar to the like the fundraising ideas doing more virtual things things that don't take as much you know effort but people still relate to and connect with I think is going to be a big thing and again you know another fear with yeah the unknown aspect is that as I had mentioned before you know as a pay what you can restaurant and the only one in the area um you know how long are we going to continue to see people feel like they're struggling or struggling in general and you know when can we get back to having a hundred percent pay what you can lunch service um after this because you know we've gotten great responses for the meal delivery program but we're still serving very few meals from the cafe on a pay what you can basis which is our general mission um so transitioning backs that might be tough and we're really going to be seeking and asking for community sport through that um because you know we've always said we don't do free meals um it's that's the kind of the biggest difference between us in a stupid kitchen or um that kind of thing because you must give something out of yourself and during COVID we don't have as many opportunities for volunteers to come bus tables clean dishes do the gardening help cook um and we also don't want you know 20 random um guests in the cafe with neighbor on touching everything so um it's been kind of difficult offering that same opportunity of pay what you can um but it's not free so we really have had to transition to you know if there's an opportunity to volunteer and you can that's fantastic or like you know an honor system of an IOU you know come some other day when there's an opportunity but I mean there's just there's no really way around it for us right now besides getting grant funding to cover the cost of those free meals because we just don't have the opportunity to to offer as many chances for people to to get involved in other ways you see it open up it opens up a whole other level of problems solving for you so yeah so it'll be interesting it's going to be another kind of crazy year I feel like but um I'm really excited for it and I feel you know positive about it so I love that so tell me I will this is two questions it's got a good sign to bed so no I I'm curious to note looking back um at 2020 or beyond since the whole time you've been at the focal cafe what's one of your biggest lessons that you've learned um you know I know that I can be good or bad and then what's one of the things that you've been most proud of biggest lesson and most proud of yeah okay so I think um I might have mentioned it a little bit earlier but my biggest lesson I think is just trusting in the process um there's because there's there's been so many things that I've stressed about you know not not knowing how the event's going to turn out and it's the Monday before and we've only sold half the tickets or whatever it might be um there's been so many stressors along the way that um you know everything turned out fine so while you know there's obvious worry that needs to go in there to ensure you know you're you're doing what you need to do I think that's important but I think really just you know trusting in what you're doing and knowing that you know if you work hard enough that it's all it's all gonna pan out the way you need it to another thing is especially through 2020 you know solutions can are so in the gray area like you know when I came into the role I wasn't black and white I've never been a black and white person but um I've really had to like exercise my creativity muscles since I've had this job because you know oh we've always done the bike in and so we're just gonna do it and it's like well no like is it worth it are people really relating to it responding to it well um and then yeah again like I said especially through 2020 having to completely switch things up um was the only reason we really made it through a lot um if we just kept doing what we were doing we might have to close our doors for good you know by now we're after the pandemic because we deplete a lot all of our resources so really creativity and trusting in the process I think is my biggest biggest lessons and it sounds like a little bit of even like challenging like what you've thought to be normal or yeah I don't know that that's the right thing yeah I think another thing is also you know um bringing other people into the conversation um that's a big thing with the cafe because we're so commuicentric but even when it's uh um something that I should be making on my own I love you know collaborating and getting other people's ideas because I don't know everything I never will I never have I'm not gonna you know pretend like I have all the answers so really being able to again challenge your your thoughts and bring other people in even if you don't agree with them you know really being able to see their side of things and um stepping back and being like you know what's best for for everyone not just what do I think I need to do um absolutely well it's obviously very similar to what goes on within the thing tank group and you are a member and one of the builders chapters so I speak to that for a minute like what's that process like having other other experts in the room in different areas um be able to give you different perspective and encouragement for your situations yeah that's actually kind of where like the creativity and solutions and problem solving came from um when I was thinking through this and that's because you know while my local thing tank group has so many different um backgrounds and it took me a while to even understand what one of um one of their jobs was it's like a currency trading and um so we're all in such different sectors but we all have you know employees we all our small business owners we all you know have certain aspects that overlap and so I think you know through the brainstorming and you know when I've had really big questions that you know maybe I'd usually just go to my board for but um they they have a certain narrow minded view of things because they're just all board members they're not you know just random premium members that have other experience so being able to brainstorm through some of these things with them has been so incredibly helpful um because like I said I mean they've they've mentioned things that I would never think of and they're just like why didn't I think of that I can't remember how many times I've said it in our sessions but it's always like how could I not have thought of that before you said it um because it's my job and here you are you know just with the best idea ever um so I've been very very grateful for that opportunity and I think it's really cool how um how meaningful the the feedback can be from someone that doesn't even really understand what you're doing but they they understand you know what your customer might want or just whatever it is they have a different perspective so um yeah logo has been fantastic that's awesome I think I got you off track a little bit so forgive me um so we're talking about my initial question was um something that you learned a maybe difficult or good lesson from and then something that you're really proud of yeah okay did I answer the lesson question yeah I think so okay all right really proud of um well I guess I could say there's multiple things but one of the biggest things that comes to my first is probably um the TED talk that I did in 2018 so that was obviously a life dream that I didn't know I had because I just didn't think it was possible um and you know it was at CSU so it was a TED X event um and I didn't have very much time to plan for it but just that opportunity was incredible and being able to not just grow professionally but personally being able to talk to a crowd of like 500 people um both professionally and personally and with preparation little little nerve wracking little bit yeah and I had less than a month of preparation so um it that it was all kind of nerve wracking but again you know once once we did it it was really great to kind of in the way that the local think tank experience was or has been is you know being in this group of other people that are also giving TED talks you know they have these really awesome ideas also um and you know being able to to practice with them we you know we had a couple of sessions where we got to practice with each other and give each other feedback and just being in the same room as these other people that are super you know intuitive and creative and innovative was just a really cool experience and I was really proud to be able to be a part of that awesome so I can link the TED talk in the show notes but for those who are curious about what you spoke about um what was the topic yeah um the topic was um hope so it was like the power of hope or power of choice sorry the title is the power of choice um and it was basically it's about the cafe and it was all about how um the power of choice can change life um you know we we serve food but like I said the the community connection the connection to others makes such a big difference and so it was basically comprised of a couple different stories that I had experienced and things I used to use at the cafe that showed um the pretty simple concept behind having a choice or not having a choice um yeah I could go into more detail but it I'd probably go on so I love that we'll all link it so we can make sure uh people can click on it and watch it if they'd like to right uh Mallory I'm curious what what feels your cup personally so you can be this epic leader at work that's a great question I think just I just have this I feel like I just have this innate passion that I could never get rid of it's just been there and is there um for the again those just helping people on the basic the basic human rights and human needs of of things I um I studied abroad in South Africa when I was getting my bachelor's in social work um and that really kind of put me on the path of not doing one-on-one social work not your typical counselor therapist role but really looking broader I was very interested in international social work for a while still and um because you know every every time you think about you know access to food and water people are you know think about Africa or something and so it's just you know these problems are right here in our backyard um and being able to have such a great organization that was right my backyard to be able to to still you know tackle these these problems um I think was just a perfect fit and so I also did teach English in Thailand for a little under a year um so just seeing these other cultures and understanding the way people see the world differently and how they have different needs and how you know again black and white isn't the way the world works and that's kind of how the cafe works you know you don't have to qualify you know other nonprofits get funding because they give data to funders and funders don't want to just give you money without any information back on how exactly it affected how many people um but we don't do that and it does make us shovel a little bit more financially because we can't give all the data that other people do because we do serve everyone not just those that qualify for our service um so the cafe is kind of a great area because you might see a millionaire walk in and then a homeless person walk in and um it's just it's also a way for people to feel more comfortable um a lot of people think that you know if they're down on their luck that they don't belong certain places around certain people um and so the cafe is kind of a place to for people to feel more comfortable so for me I just think it's such a great concept and I have again this kind of previous personal experience on culture and needs and different viewpoints and I think that that's probably my my main driver do you see any of that at coming into action or any of your projects at the focal cafe um in like in upcoming years what what's what's the question sorry yeah no sorry it was a bad question um I I'm wondering um like with with your drive to I mean frankly like tap this this higher level impact um you're even more internationally um of course you've got the community thing figured out but do you ever see yourself um through the focal cafe um kind of changing or incorporating different elements that have like a bigger impact sure yeah that's a good question um I think one of the main ways that we're trying to do that right now and that we've been trying to do that um is just through spreading the word and helping to like mentor other um people that are interested in making a similar concept so just spreading the the idea and the concept of a non-profit cafe um I don't know about the world like worldwide but the United States has a lot last time I checked last year it was like 60-something non-profit cafes cross-country um there's this umbrella organization called one world everybody eats and they basically help start up non-profit restaurants they have semits and all sorts of things where we can all come together and and share ideas and stories and challenges and things like that um so being a part of something bigger than just our location I think helps with that um and through that you know we've seen our kind of sister cafe we we're not directly related but we got our we spent a lot of time with them and got a lot of our the way we carry things out from them um they now have I think they have the first um green pay what you can food truck um in Denver and that's going really well they they take it to food deserts um but apparently it's still you know people are still donating um for meals food that and they're looking at a second location and so um there's potential for us to expand in ways like they have um but yeah I who knows maybe in 10 years I'll move to Africa and started non-profit cafe but yeah for now it's mostly spreading the word and then put you know potentially looking at what could be possible in the future so my last question for you Mallory would be do you have any advice for our audience so business owner is key leaders of businesses um to I don't know I guess give them advice on approaching this next you're really any topic that that kind of comes to mind for you yeah I'm trying I'm trying not to be repetitive here um but the main I mean this is the first main thing that comes to mind is like you know having the confidence and belief that what you're doing is what you should be doing and um I'm a big believer in like synchronicity and not actually fate but in being able to kind of control the future um but knowing that there's something kind of greater and that you know energy has a lot to do with things and um yeah just just trusting the process while also not just sitting back and letting things happen without doing anything um and you know another thing that I think helps me immensely is you know confidence was important but also understanding that I didn't know everything and that I was more than happy to get help from almost anyone that wanted to give it to me um Kurt Barrett was one of those people and that's kind of why I became part of Locos because you know he wasn't in the nonprofit realm really he doesn't he knows about the cafe but he you know as a whole in a whole different kind of sector and he was more than willing to sit down with me and talk about anything I need to talk about um and I was more than happy to like have that opportunity so um through my first year or two I had multiple mentors that were casual and they were just because I had asked them hey would you be willing to kind of be this person for me um and so yeah I mean I had a marketer I had Kurt who was in financial I had I had all sorts of different people that helped in all sorts of different ways that would take time other day to meet with me on the side and um not being scared to ask for help so I think that was a big big reason that I was successful is that you know again confidence is great but it's don't be scared to ask for help but I'm a humility in there as well yeah Mallory thank you so much for your time today I appreciate you answering some some questions and taking us on a little bit of a journey to to know more about where you came from and how the focal cafe is doing and what you're you're up against for the upcoming year so thank you for your time I appreciate you being on our local short podcast yeah thanks for having me I really appreciate it thank you for listening to today's episode of the local experience podcast this is Kurt bear founder of the local think tank and hosted the local experience and I'm here with Rory Sharr local business developer and hosted the local shorts episodes we hope you heard some new ideas and business perspectives in this episode our mission and all that we do including this podcast is to share collaborative business ideas and solutions that uplift the business community subscribe and follow us where you listen to podcasts to get new episodes as they are released curious about local you can learn more about us at localthinktank.com where you'll find more information about our chapters business resources and events for business owners and key leaders if you're looking for perspective accountability and encouragement along your business journey why not apply for a chapter near you today why not why not why not we'll catch you next time on the in-depth local experience podcast with me Kurt and with me Rory for bite size business lessons in the local shorts bye