Juan Saenz and Jim Murphy get together to discuss Juan’s journey through his career. He touches on his previous work with Nonprofit organizations, along with his work in the food industry.

Juan Saenz shares how he treats and interacts with many of his Local Foods customers and how he is able to create a very comfortable experience in his store.

Juan Saenz and Jim Murphy discuss the nonprofit work that Juan did in the Little Village area in Chicago. He touches on how he was able to improve and provide various resources for the local community.

Juan Saenz tells Jim Murphy his experience being Produce Manager at Local foods. He shares information on some of the responsibilities he holds as manager and how he works with various farmers to bring in the best local produce.

Grow Forward portfolio brand LocalCoho raises sustainable salmon and tackles a new protein frontier. In an interview with FoodBytes!, LocalCoho strategic advisor Daphne Mazarakis discusses how the company is uniquely positioned to tackle the challenges of the seafood industry while bringing affordable and sustainable seafood to the masses.

Murphy Scholars through the decades (1990s, 2000s, and 2010s) discuss their experiences with DMSF in light of the organization’s 30th Anniversary.

Listen as Daphne Mazarakis presents LocalCoho at FoodBytes! Chicago 2019.

Hear from LocalCoho (Daphne Mazarakis) and other prize winners at FoodBytes! Chicago 2019

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Elizabeth Shaw sits down with Jim Murphy to discuss her experiences working with CICS and discusses her history working in the education field.

Elizabeth Shaw meets with Jim Murphy to discuss the differences between charter and public schools in the Chicago area. Elizabeth discusses her side of the argument that charter schools take money away from the public schools.

Having grown up in Chicago, Elizabeth Shaw talks about her experience attending a CPS school. She explains how she values CPS and made the decision to move back to Chicago to enroll her own children in CPS.

Elizabeth Shaw discusses her relationship and experience working with Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS). She also touches on how her work with CICS has shown her how bright the future of education is in Chicago.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Phyllis Lockett sits down with Jim Murphy to discuss how her background in business helped her gain knowledge in education and how to better the Chicago Public School system.

Phyllis Lockett meets with Jim Murphy to discuss her implementation of the LEAP program into many Chicago Public Schools.

Phyllis Lockett meets with Jim Murphy to discuss her educational path, along with her business school experiences.

Phyllis Lockett meets with Jim Murphy to discuss her experiences growing up in Chicago and to talk about her experience with attending Chicago Public Schools.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Today we are meeting with Ellen Yiadom Hoover, a local Chicago Lawyer, who describes her educational path that lead her to her success. She touches on her transition to America, her educational endeavors, and her […]

Ellen describes her school career as she blended in with many American students and created success for herself. She touches on her experiences with how she found a community within her peers at school, which helped her create more success for herself.

Ellen is here with us today to discuss her life growing up in Ghana. She touches on some of the hardships she faced as a child, as well as her adoption process which led her to finding her home in the United States.

Ellen shares her point of view on CPS diversity and how it has affected the classroom diversity. She touches on her views on classroom diversity and her prediction on how it can be changed.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Jim Murphy interviews Frank Holmes, Warehouse Manager at Local Foods in Chicago, is an inspiring story of how one man succeeded in turning his life around.

Frank Holmes, who works as a Warehouse Manager at Local Foods in Chicago, is interviewed by Jim Murphy about getting his start at Growing Home, an urban farm-based training environment for people with employment limitations. Through opportunities at Growing Home, Frank explains how job-readiness training helped him land a higher-paying job in less time than […]

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Jim Murphy invited Rob Levitt to discuss his lifelong experiences by getting involved in the food industry. They touch on Rob’s family life, education, and his story with opening up a successful butcher shop.  

Jim Murphy hosts Rob Levitt at Grow Forward’s new office. Rob discusses his experience opening up a butcher shop, and the strategy behind his ideas for running a successful butcher shop.

Has a butcher ever told you to eat less meat? Rob Levitt of Butcher & Larder in Chicago will, but he will also tell you to eat higher quality meat as well. In this segment, Rob opens up about selling meat to consumers, and how buying high-quality, locally sourced meat can be affordable at any […]

Rob Levitt had the opportunity to work with Rick Bayless, how impressive is that?  In this segment, Rob discusses the experience he had working with Rick Bayless in the food community, and how that has impacted his career.    

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Jim Murphy meets with Kevin Corsello, founder of Pork and Mindy’s, to discuss the history of Kevin’s growing up in Chicago and how he became an entrepreneur.

Jim welcomes Kevin Corsello, founder of Pork and Mindy’s, to Local Foods to discuss the mentors Kevin had when starting his business, along with the insight he gained from other entrepreneurs along the way.

Jim Murphy meets with the founder of Pork and Mindy’s to discuss how he was able to keep his business up and running during the market crash.

Kevin Corsello visits Local Foods to discuss how he’s used a foreign investment to build his businesses successfully. Jim and Kevin also discuss a few great strategies Kevin learned about at Harvard while completing his MBA.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Jim Murphy meets with Terry Olson, CEO of Local Foods. Terry discusses his previous endeavours and what influenced his idea to open a farm-to-table food company.

Jim Murphy and Terry Olson talk about how Local Foods provides chefs with the perfect ingredients to bring their creativity to the table. He goes on to discuss how the nutritional quality of locally sourced foods helps create a unique taste for restaurants around the city.

Jim Murphy meets with Terry Olson, CEO of Local Foods, to discuss the engineering behind how the ice cream bar was created. He touches on the history of how different companies were able to develop these technologies to become successful in pioneering a classic treat.

Terry Olson, CEO of Local Foods, discusses how local companies should start using more local food suppliers. He also talks about how providing other metropolitan areas access to local foods benefits their food products.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Daphne Mazarakis of Finger Lakes Fish (now LocalCoho) speaks with Jim Murphy at Local Foods to talk about mindfulness, women entrepreneurs, and growing sustainable fish.  

Like those 75% of startups, Whey of Life did not make it to its 10 year anniversary, but Mazarakis gained valuable experience and started a practice that has served her well to this day: mindfulness. While it may be a trendy buzzword today, mindfulness was barely on anyone’s radar in 2011 when Mazarakis first took […]

Although most food sectors have experienced some amount of upheaval and adjustment with the advent of the organic and sustainability movements, a lot of misinformation and confusion remains among consumers in the seafood isle. Even the “gold standard of wild-caught” can mean different things depending on where it was caught, and over-fishing remains a problem […]

Taking a new product to market is no easy task, but luckily Daphne is not unfamiliar with the challenges many entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, face. When Daphne was at Northwestern in the 1990s, her college classes had “between 20 and 30 percent women,” numbers that have only increased slightly in the past 20 years. Even […]

Rob Baan recently sat down with me as the Stock Cafe crew was setting up for the day (quiet down back there!) and his passion for his work was immediately apparent.

In this segment, Koppert Cress CEO Rob Baan discusses our history with food and the societal shifts that have changed how we eat over time.

Jim and Rob discuss plans to add parkland to Lake Shore Drive, and the Netherland’s history of gaining landmass by reclaiming coastlines. This land, the result of a reclaimed lake, allowed for greater food production to support the growing population of Renaissance-era Amsterdam.

Rob discusses ways that his company, Koppert Cress, is helping teach children about healthy eating by “taste tests,” or having kids try to match flavors to certain produce. He even offers some advice for parents on how to get their kids to eat more vegetables.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Gary Lazarski of MightyVine Tomatoes drops by Local Foods to talk about sustainability, the importance of nutrition, and growing hydroponic tomatoes. Gary explains that industry success is predicated on growing crops in sunny, temperate places […]

Gary Lazarski, MightyVine CEO, discusses how the local company has helped rejuvenate the economy of Rochelle, Illinois. This is something that helps the products further resonate with community members and consumers at large.

At MightyVine, sustainability is just as important for business reasons as it is environmental reasons. For example, MightyVine’s production uses 10% of the water needed to produce their field grown counterparts. Furthermore, none of the water filters down into the water table – another important way they’re helping protect the local environment.

How much do you know about hydroponic farming techniques? In this video segment, MightyVine CEO Gary Lazarski discusses hydroponic farming techniques, and how it’s better for the environment as well as the flavor.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Mike Kieser had a vision to create an environmentally friendly golf course that focuses more on improving the environmental and economic factors of a golf course. The environmental aspect he focused on was using land […]

Much like the disconnect between golf course developers and local communities, Keiser observes a similar phenomenon among Chicago youth today. He was raised with an expectation of giving back to the community he grew up in, even as a child.

Mike Keiser shares his journey of how he started fresh out of college with the idea of starting a greeting cards business and how he ended up building eleven countrywide golf courses. He shares his journey of how he transitioned from the greeting card business into becoming the golf mogul he has become.

In this clip, Mike Keiser shares his tips for entrepreneurs based on his decades of experience in a variety of industries. Watch for his business tips on: 1. Translating vision 2. Finding your genius 3. Learning from mistakes 4. Understanding customer motivation (especially when it’s completely different from what you expected!)

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. This week, Loyola University Environmental Science students visited Local Foods to discuss a plethora of topics that revolve around the local environment. Many of the students voice their opinion about local pollution, ethanol usage, and […]

This week, Loyola University Environmental Science students visited Local Foods to discuss a plethora of topics that revolve around the local environment. Many of the students voice their opinion about local pollution, ethanol usage, and sustainability.  

In 2014, Nate Laurell was on Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 list, which recognizes the best of Chicago’s young businessmen and women.

Nate Laurell, CEO of Here.co, discusses how he pushes for local foods to be bought more and for these foods to be sold in stores. He makes the case for local products and to supporting local farmers whenever possible.

Nate Laurell, CEO of Here.co, describes how the Acumen Fund works and further debriefs about the impact the Acumen fund has a positive effect on poverty around the world. The Acumen Fund helps strengthen businesses, agriculture, energy, water, healthcare, and education in regions such as: East Africa, West Africa, Pakistan, and India, with his goal […]

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Father Stephen Katsouros of Loyola University Arrupe College talks to Jim Murphy at Local Foods in Chicago about the founding of Aruppe College and Jesuits. You will have to hear Father Stephen speak about the […]

Father Stephen Katsouros discusses the importance of Arrupe College’s Associate Degree program. Arrupe College of Loyola University Chicago is a two year college that offers a debt-free degree program for Chicago’s undeserved and hard-working students. The college partners with four year programs and scholarships to make a four year degree attainable to anyone – the […]

Father Stephen Katsouros recently founded Loyola University’s Arrupe College. Stephen reflects on this experience in his first book, Come To Believe: How Jesuits Are Reinventing Education (Again). In this segment Father Katsouros discusses writing his first book, and how he hopes the Arrupe College model inspires other colleges throughout the nation.

Don’t have time to watch the full video? Download or stream the podcast and catch all the same great information. Hersch Klaff, founder at Klaff Realty, discusses his journey of success from his beginnings as a farmer on his father’s farm in South Africa, to his first property and how his development of that property […]

Hersch Klaff, founder at Klaff Realty, discusses his lifestyle growing up on a farm near Johannesburg, South Africa. His work with his father on the farm led to him discovering a true passion of his, farming, which continues to affect his everyday life.

Hersch Klaff, the founder of Klaff Realty, talks about what led him to buy his first building. He then goes into discussing how he took the building and developed it into becoming a successful living and working environment for many Chicago residents.

Jim and Gary discuss the value of locally grown food, and how it helps increase nutritional value. For example, locally grown tomatoes can be left on the vine much longer, allowing for better produce development.

We need to emphasize the importance of individuals sharing their intelligence and success to better their hometowns rather than succeeding in spite of our origins.

The Chicago Tribune meets with Mike Keiser to interview him about his successes of all eleven of the golf courses that he has built. Mike tells the story of how he built his golf courses with the intentions of making them environmentally friendly and economically friendly as well.

When asked what his top five favorite courses include, there’s a clear trend in his responses. You would think this golf aficionado would have no trouble with this question, but one aspect of it had him stumped.

Mike Keiser describes how he was able to purchase land in New Buffalo, MI and how he began planning to build a golf course that emulates his favorite course in Philadelphia. He discusses the use of the land before he built the course and how he got the inspiration to build the course from a […]

Listen to company CEO Gary Lazarski, State Rep. Tom Demmer and MightyVine’s Director of Business Development, Danny Murphy, on how, why and where they are growing more than 10-million pounds of Illinois tomatoes each year. Listen to “A Taste of Summer this Winter” on Spreaker.

Precious metals expert and the CEO of PM Capital is here to give you a walk through to his initial conversation with prospective clients. He starts by asking them what their favorite fairytale character is…yeah, seriously!

Jim and Danny Murphy work with Eataly to host a pizza cook off raising money for the Daniel Murphy Scholarship Foundation. This foundation was created to help send kids who cannot afford to pay for school a chance to go to school and get an education. Jim and Danny also brought MightyVine tomatoes to the […]