We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Nena Hammer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Nena below.
Nena, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
Three years ago, I quit my reliable day job to pursue my hand at being an entrepreneur. Fresh into our marriage, with minimal prior restaurant experience, my husband and I opened and operated a farm/forage to table in the small town beside where we live. My husband, Tim, kept his day job as a landscaper, while I launched head-first into the restaurant. I learned about QuickBooks, business licenses, business taxes, and so much more. We had a decent savings put back, but neither of us had owned a business, let alone a restaurant. We both have a history and passion for local and AR-native foods, so that was what we focused on in the restaurant. I have connections with many local farms and was able to utilize those relationships to purchase beautiful, local produce. Tim is a forager and spent his free time foraging wild, edible fruits and vegetables for our customers. The town we opened the restaurant in is a rural town with a population of about 100 people. We knew this would be a tough market to enter into with the “weird” and “unusual” foods we would be serving. However, we were hopeful to reconnect our neighbors with local and wild foods. Opening the restaurant was a huge risk. We had no idea how it would go or how long it would last, but we were hopeful. Tim and I owned and operated every part of the restaurant (from bookkeeping to serving to cleaning) with only one part time employee for one year. In the end, we had some disagreements with our landlord that led to our closing. It was a wild ride and we learned a lot, but overall, I’m glad we took the risk.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
For as long as I can remember, food has been an important part of my life. As a child, I have fond memories of picking sugar snap peas and cherry tomatoes in my family garden. Pulling weeds was like therapy on difficult days. Tending the garden with my family instilled a love of food and farming that has never left me. Throughout college and my professional career, I have had the opportunity to be a part of several local food-based organizations, from serving as an AR GardenCorps member, to owning/operating a farm/forage to table restaurant, to managing livestock and garden operations at Cobblestone Farms (a non-profit farm based in Fayetteville, AR). Through all these roles, my love and connection to food have grown. With that love has come the desire to own my own farm and support other farmers throughout Arkansas. While our own farm is a work in progress, I currently have the opportunity to support other farmers through my role as the Director of Operatioins and Farmer Relations at Spring Creek Food Hub. In this role, I work to streamline our operations and build relationships with our local farms, learning about their successes, challenges, goals, and how we can help them achieve those goals. Through these relationships, we are working to cultivate a vibrant, resilient local food network and ultimately put more fresh, local food on local tables. In my free time, I also teach sourdough baking classes, empowering people to bake their own fresh, preservative-free sourdough bread. I have been teaching classes for the past three years and have taught over 150 individual students.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
To me, managing a team and maintaining high morale means connecting with each team member on an individual and human level. This means learning about them as people, not just about them as employees. Find out what they like to do for fun, what their favorite coffee or other morning beverage is, or what plans they have for the weekend. I love learning everyone’s favorite drink order and surprising them occasionally with that drink. This comes in handy when they have done exceptional work, when it’s been a hard week, or just when you want to give your team a little pick-me-up. Everyone wants to be seen and valued, and this is a simple and fun way to do that. It’s also important to carve out time to have fun as a team. It’s easy to get caught up in the day-to-day work and burn people out if you’re not careful. Taking time out monthly or quarterly to have team outings (happy hours, bowling, etc.) is a good way to break up the day-to-day and bring fun into your work.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Consistency. Working in local food inherently brings inconsistency, but by providing a consistence presence, message, and support to farmers and customers alike has helped Spring Creek Food Hub build our reputation. We have only been open for just under two years, but we have already seen a 400% growth in business during that time. This is largely due to our continued presence in the market and the steady, thorough support we offer to those who work with us. Personally, consistency has also served me well. I have been consistent in my efforts to work in local foods and support local farms, and that has garnered me a reputation of reliability and trust within the local food and farming community.
Image Credits
Spring Creek Food Hub