Welcome Allison!
We are pleased to welcome Allison Sandbeck to our co-op Leadership Team as the Prepared Foods Manager.
Allison comes to us with over two decades of culinary experience and a passion for creating delicious and nutritious meals using local and fresh ingredients.
We sat down with Allison to talk about her new role!
What brought you to a career in food service? That’s actually kind of a funny story. Shortly after I graduated from college with a double major in Art and Art History, a friend of mine who started a catering company called me and asked me to make 12 batches of different muffins and cupcakes for an event she had the next day. I asked why she called me as I wasn’t a baker and she said, “I know you will make them pretty.” It was this event (and friend) that sparked my interest in culinary arts.
How does your passion for art transfer to cooking? Designing menus and producing meals from fresh ingredients is a creative process. It’s not set like a painting. Cooking is constant creation, an ever-evolving art form that starts with simple ingredients and transforms into something beautiful. The satisfaction and gratitude people express over a good meal that I created is really rewarding.
What excites you about your new role? The co-op is such a friendly place. Every day people stop me on the floor excited to see me here. I have met new people and have seen many familiar faces. It is great to be in a supportive, welcoming environment and to share my love of food with people.
I am also excited to get to know and work with a new team. There are great folks here doing a lot of hard work every day. I love building a team and helping people develop their skills. I am excited to see what we can create together.
With Allison and her team on board, you will be delighted to see some of our old standards and a variety of new choices on our shelves with so much more to come.