The turkey pot pie nearly went through my kitchen window. Standing there, surrounded by Thanksgiving leftovers and what felt like seventeen different steps just to make a simple sauce, my ADHD brain hit its limit. That moment of pure frustration could have ended with shattered glass and wasted food. Instead, it became the first thread in a tapestry of connections that would transform how I think about food systems.
This epiphany didn’t come immediately. A huge shift came while I was standing in the bulk food section of a Winco supermarket and realized the true sustainability and impact potential of a pantry staple focused retail food solution. As I watched customers scooping simple commodity ingredients into bags, I wondered where the store sourced the food and whether local farmers could benefit from new markets. Here were the basic building blocks of nutrition, delivered in a manner that lasts week, months or longer and that can be activated as part of the cooking process just by adding water and heat, stripped of complexity and packaging.
What if we could build a food system around this simplicity?
My ADHD brain, which moments before had been overwhelmed by options, suddenly lit up with connections. The same barriers that made cooking a challenge for me – complex steps, time blindness, decision fatigue – were mirrored throughout our food system. But here, in this humble bulk section, was a model of accessibility that predated modern supermarkets.
Traditional research might never have made this connection. Innovation doesn’t always come from careful study – sometimes it requires the kind of leap that only happens when frustration meets inspiration. My military training in systems thinking combined with entrepreneurial experience started connecting dots:
- Simple healthy ingredients, combined with equally simple yet powerful equipment like Instant Pots and air fryer could bypass both executive function and fresh food scarcity barriers
- Community infrastructure could support individual needs
- Market-aligned strategies could make solutions sustainable
Today, I’m pursuing development of innovative food system infrastructure based on these insights. Not because I found the answer in a book or study, but because a moment of kitchen rage led to unexpected observations that traditional approaches might have missed.
This isn’t just about food, or ADHD, or even system design. It’s about recognizing that our greatest challenges often contain their own solutions – if we’re willing to look at them differently. Sometimes the most powerful innovations come not from careful planning, but from those moments when necessity forces us to see new connections.
Are you seeing connections others might miss? Let’s build something remarkable together.
#FoodSystems #Innovation #SystemicChange #Entrepreneurship #SocialImpact
