BOOKS
My books grew from the Takeout 25 experience and a simple belief: communities become stronger when people find meaningful ways to connect and act together.
One tells the story and explores the ideas behind the movement. The other celebrates the food, restaurants and people that make a community worth supporting.
Stories, food and the power of community.
COMMUNITY · LEADERSHIP · COLLECTIVE ACTION
The Takeout 25 Effect
What happens when a community decides to act?
What began as a simple idea during the pandemic—encouraging households to spend $25 a week at local restaurants—grew into something none of us could have predicted.
The Takeout 25 Effect tells the story of that journey and explores what it taught me about community, leadership and the extraordinary things that can happen when many people take small actions toward a shared purpose.
It's a story about restaurants and a pandemic. But more than that, it's about what becomes possible when a community decides to act.
FOOD · PEOPLE · COMMUNITY
Takeout 25 Community Cookbook
Recipes that tell the story of a community.
Food has always been at the heart of Takeout 25.
The Takeout 25 Community Cookbook brings together recipes and stories that celebrate the restaurants, people and relationships that make our communities special.
Part cookbook and part community story, it explores the intersection of food and community building—inviting readers not only to make something delicious, but to discover the people, traditions and ideas behind what we eat.
Because food does more than nourish us. It gives us a reason to gather.
Community is built around both ideas and tables.
ONE STORY, TWO PERSPECTIVES
The Takeout 25 Effect
How communities mobilize.
Leadership, collective action, relationships and the lessons behind building a movement.
Takeout 25 Community Cookbook
How communities connect.
Food, restaurants, recipes, traditions and the shared experiences that bring people together.
BEYOND THE BOOKS
The Story Continues…
Neither book was intended to mark the end of the Takeout 25 story.
What began as a pandemic response continues to evolve through work around local restaurants, sustainability, food security and community building.
The books capture parts of that journey. The community continues to write the rest.