Dear friends, family, allies, partners, and supporters,
When I started Simple, Good, and Tasty on February 26, 2009, I had no idea what it would become. Over the past 2 ½ years, my desire to connect average eaters with spectacular food producers and preparers has introduced me to people and ideas that have enriched my life considerably.
I’ve eaten delicious food, helped on organic farms, met passionate social entrepreneurs, worked with terrific writers, written for lefty publications, spoken with big ag, started a loyalty program, worked at the farmers market, been on the radio and TV, entered the health care arena, built a world-class team of designers and developers, and more. I’ve even grown my own garden and started composting. It’s amazing how many “firsts” I’ve experienced because of my involvement with SGT -- including starting a company.
SGT, now read by nearly 20,000 people all over the world each month, has become something of a local food institution. We’ve given away years of free organic milk, helped eliminate sugar cereal and chocolate milk from Minneapolis Public Schools, worked closely with local co-ops, hosted more than 15 local food events (including 2 successful community pig roasts), worked to educate the public on the Farm Bill, published more than 600 articles, and much, much more.
Nearly 400,000 visits and 800,000 page views into this great adventure, the truth is that we’re just getting started.
And yet, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to move on, and for new voices to take over the leadership of SGT. And so, I am proud and excited to tell you that SGT has changed hands, effective immediately.
The new owners of this web-based business, Karl Benson, Patrick O’Brien, and Lawrence Black, are no strangers to the local food community. Karl owns Cooks of Crocus Hill, which has been selling cookware, classes, and farm shares from both its St. Paul and Edina locations for many years. Patrick is an organizational development consultant whose clients include several of Minneapolis’ local food institutions. Lawrence, who will run the website and social media sites on a day-to-day basis as our new editor, is a writer, gardener, dad, chef, former restaurant owner, and advocate for sustainable systems. All three men are smart in business and entrepreneurial in nature and I’m lucky to have found them.
For now, I will remain an advisor to SGT in the hope that I can continue to help shape it in ways that it will do the most good for our community. I remain committed to supporting good food and the issues that SGT and I have discussed since day one.
Before I go, I want to thank our fantastic team of writers, designers, developers, teachers, growers, and helpers. Thank you for taking a chance on me and on SGT, and for doing work that truly makes a difference. Thank you to our partners for your support, financial and otherwise. And thank you to our readers, who continue to encourage us by reading and commenting, even when we don’t all agree.
I also want to publicly acknowledge Shari Danielson, who spent a year as SGT’s editorial director, helping to build our team, shape our voice, and challenge me to do better work, always. Thank you Shari, you are awesome.
Thanks to my wife Laura, who agreed that we should risk it all to make SGT work, and to my kids Eli and Davie, both enthusiastic and (mostly) supportive farm hands. I'm a lucky guy.
If you’re lucky, once in a while you get a chance to do something you really care about, something that requires real sacrifice but offers considerable rewards, better than you can even imagine. When you get the chance, like I did with SGT, I hope you go for it.
I’m not going anywhere, but you won’t find me here. Congratulations and best of luck to the new team. All I ask is that you do your best to leave SGT, like so much of what we write about, in a little bit better shape than it was when you took it over.
Thanks,
Lee
Lee Zukor is the founder of Simple, Good, and Tasty. Email him at lee@simplegoodandtasty.com.
