On March 3rd, 2020, we held a fascinating conference with the strong voices of women in Food Tech to celebrate International Women’s Day. All our brilliant female guests shared their journeys and provided their visions for the future of our food system.

The Event

Women in Food Tech Conference was hosted by our CMO Lesley Stonier together with Mecca Ibrahim, co-founder of Women in the Food Industry. The two started off by giving a brief introduction to their respective work.

Lesley described the importance of sharing the stories behind startups and entrepreneurs.

‘Big corporations spend millions creating brand stories and brand identities to create trust with their audiences. Whereas entrepreneurs and startups already have that story. That is the journey of the founder to where they are right now and having that passion and desire to go out there and bring their product to the world’.

Lesley Stonier, CMO of Forward Fooding

Mecca Ibrahim was formerly Head of Marketing & Social Media at Great British Chefs – the UK’s fastest-growing food website. 

After eight years in that role, Mecca co-founded Women in the Food Industry. Women in the Food Industry is a pioneering new initiative championing and discussing the issues facing women in the food industry. Mecca’s expertise includes sustainability, food entrepreneurs, equality within the food industry and ethical eating.

After a brief introduction, we went on to discover the stories of our panelists. In the following paragraph, we share how Olivia, Hara, and Tarryn got into food tech and the missions they have set to achieve with their companies.

Olivia O’Brien, from Growing Underground

Growing Underground is an underground farm based in Clapham, London. They also are one of Forward Fooding’s FoodTech 500 finalists (you can read their full interview here). 

Our first guest and woman in food tech was Olivia O’Brien, Business Development Director at Growing Underground. Olivia joined Growing Underground in March 2016. Since then she has managed all areas of the business and has helped steer its strategic trajectory through various stages of growth with a focus on Operations, Sales and Technical Compliance.

She shared how 33 meters below the streets of London, Growing Underground are producing fresh vegetables and herbs in a disused bomb shelter and tube tunnel.⁠ Farms like this are a glimpse into the future of food production. We learned how companies such as Ocado are installing hydroponic farms in their warehouses. ⁠ 

It was also fascinating to hear how the system at Growing Underground uses 70% less water versus traditional open-field farming methods. This year-round production negates seasonality, the necessity to import produce and also drastically reduces food miles for retailers and consumers. Additionally, all of their crops are free from pesticides.

Hara Mihailidou, co-Founder of Todelli 

Todelli is a curated online farm-to-table marketplace for chefs & restaurateurs. 

Hara has been in the tech industry for more than 6 years. She was previously Head of Design & UX at the Lloyds Banking Group, at JustGiving and at Microsoft & Skype where she designed solutions for millions of users.

Hara grew up in a family where everything was coming from their farm straight to their table. The female founder talked about the importance of putting people & the user experience at the core of the business. This is what she does at Todelli, as her career in the technology space has taught her.

Tarryn Gorre – CEO & Co-founder of Kafoodle

Lastly, we heard of Tarryn and Kafoodle. Tarryn is another great female founder as well as one of the FoodTech 500 winners (read our interview with Tarryn here).

Kafoodle is a fast-growing food tech company that matches people to food within the contract catering, hospitality and healthcare space.

Tarryn founded Kafoodle in 2014 to help foodservice businesses better manage and communicate allergen information following the EU food information regulations. Her Mum was a Cordon Bleu-trained chef. This ignited a passion in the hospitality industry that has not been dampened ever since.

Previously, Tarryn spent 12 years in hospitality strategy, sales, marketing and management. She is a proud supporter of women in business and STEM.

Tarryn shared her belief that when the right technology is introduced and embraced, it can provide operators with simpler and better controls. On the other hand, it provides consumers with the information they need to make safer and healthier food choices.

Aida Khan – founder of Shola Kitchen

After the panelists’ talks and a Q& A with the audience, we had a short talk from Aida Khan – founder of Shola Kitchen. 

Aida’s restaurant is next door to our Food & FoodTech Innovation Hub at White City Place. 

The brilliant female founder shared her story and journey of bringing flavourful Pakistani food from the streets of Karachi to West London.

Cherry on the Cake

We then got to enjoy the most wonderful selection of some of Aida’s delicious dishes. Prosecco was offered by Prosecco DOC and soft drinks from our generous sponsor, Dash Water.

Thanks to all of the above for being so generous, and to MyLegoman for her photos of the event. Another huge thank you to all the brilliant women who came along and helped us celebrate International Women’s Day in style!

At Forward Fooding, we are incredibly proud to have hosted this Women in Food Tech conference. We loved hearing our guests’ inspiring stories of enriching challenges and entrepreneurial success.

A special thanks to Lesley Stonier, our CMO, for organizing and co-hosting this wonderful event. We look forward to hosting more Women in Food Tech meetups in the future!