MEMBER FEATURE: ALLGOOD EATS LOCAL

Member Feature: a conversation with Erin Allgood, Allgood Eats Local

"There is no sincerer love than the love of food" 
~ George Bernard Shaw

This is a quote you can find on Erin Allgood’s website and, as a fellow lover of food, the sentiment certainly resonates. We recently sat down with Erinto talk about her love of food and how she became a food system consultant. Erin’s energy is infectious and we are certain that you, like us, will enjoy speaking with her when you do. We thank Susan O’Neil of @Website Publicity for introducing Erin to NHBSR and are grateful to have them both as members of NHBSR. 

It is fascinating to talk with Erin about her path to food and the start of Allgood Eats Local- a path she herself calls circuitous, when in fact it all makes sense. Erin started studied biochemistry in college and it wasn’t until her junior year that she realized how much biochemistry focuses on food and how the body breaks down and uses food. As we’ve mentioned in previous stories, timing plays such an integral role in decisions many people make. For Erin, the gift of Michael Pollan’s book An Ominvore’s Dilemma served as inspiration for her to dive deeper into nutrition, leading to a Master’s degree in nutrition, with an emphasis on nutritional biochemistry. Her thesis focused on the interaction of environmental pollutants and diet, examining the effects on metabolism. Early on, Erin developed an interest in the connection between food and the environment.

At the time she graduated in 2009 there were limited job possibilities, so she did what so many New Englanders do in such times—she got creative, taking a job outside of her field of study for several years, while maintaining her pursuit of food and nutrition through volunteer efforts as well as coaching and cooking. She regularly volunteers at farmers markets and serves on Seacoast Eat Local’s SNAP committee, advising on ways to connect low-income residents to local food.

Since then Erin has completed two certificate programs at the University of Vermont- Leadership in Sustainable Food Systems and Sustainable Business, which provided the impetus to launch Allgood Eats Local, a food systems consulting business, in 2014. The mission of Allgood Eats Local is to empower change by promoting equity, collaboration, and deeper understanding throughout the food system through facilitating meetings in multi stakeholder collaborations, network and organizational development, and process and strategy design. She works with both non-profit organizations and businesses.

More recently, she has taken on projects related to some of the most complicated issues in the food system, such as childhood hunger, local food distribution, public health nutrition. Erin explains that there is much work to do in these areas as it relates to policy and social change.

Erin is based in Dover, where she lives and has an office in downtown. You may just as easily find her at Flight, the local coffee shop, which is sometimes her office away from the office.  And if not in one of the offices you will probably find her working with her husband Kevin Johnson. Erin and Kevin co-own Embers Bakery, a mobile, wood-fired, sourdough bread and pizza business. On weekends, Erin and Kevin serve up gourmet pizza featuring local ingredients at public and private events like festivals and weddings. The bakery is quiet for the winter, but I for one am excited to try their sourdough bread when they start up again in the Spring.

Erin is excited to join NHBSR and this network of like-minded businesses across the state and she hopes to connect, and potentially collaborate, on food systems projects!

We hope that you have a chance to meet her at an upcoming event. Erin welcomes the chance to meet and speak with fellow members. She can be reached at erin@allgoodeatslocal.com  or by phone (603) 953 5765.

Please help us welcome Erin to the NHBSR community!