FAACT's Roundtable

Ep. 216: Special Diets - Solutions for Meetings and Events

• Tracy Stuckrath • Season 4 • Episode 216

Share episode

We’re exploring how businesses and organizations address the challenges of keeping guests on special diets safe and included with Tracy Stuckrath, the Founder and President of thrive! meetings & events. Tracy has over 20 years of extensive event planning experience, is a sought-after speaker, and will help listeners peek into her world of solutions. She has 30 years of experience as an event planner, 14+ years performing her current work, and 21 years living with a dietary need.

Resources to keep you in the know:

You can find FAACT's Roundtable Podcast on Apple Podcast, Pandora, Spotify, Podbay, iHeart Radio or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Follow us on Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, Threads, LinkedIn, Pinterest, TikTok, and YouTube.

 Sponsored by: National Peanut Board

Thanks for listening! FAACT invites you to discover more exciting food allergy resources at FoodAllergyAwareness.org!

Caroline: Welcome to FAACT's Roundtable, a podcast dedicated to navigating life with food allergies across the lifespan. Presented in a welcoming format with interviews and open discussions, each episode will explore a specific topic, leaving you with the facts to know or use. Information presented via this podcast is educational and not intended to provide individual medical advice. Please consult with your personal board certified allergist or healthcare providers for advice specific to your situation. Hi everyone. I'm Caroline Moassessi and I am your host for the Fact Roundtable podcast. I am a food allergy parenthood advocate and the founder of the Grateful Foodie blog and I am FAACT's Vice President of community relations. Before we start, we want to highlight FAACT's National Gold Sponsor the National Peanut Board, and thank them for the years of continued support and partnership. We're exploring how businesses and organizations address the challenges of keeping guests on special diets safe and included with Tracy Struckwrath, the founder and president of Thrive meetings and events. Tracy has more than 30 years experience as an event planner, 14 plus years of doing what she's been doing right now, and 21 years living with a dietary need herself. She's a sought after speaker and will help listeners peek into her world of solutions. Tracy, welcome to FAACT's Roundtable podcast. I have a feeling this is going to be the first of many. Your knowledge is crazy insane and I am so excited for today's podcast cause, you know, I have a personal connection with food and beverage and your work really is changing the industry and it's amazing. So welcome.

Tracy: Well, thank you so much. It's so excited to talk to you.

Caroline: I know, I'm really, really happy about today's podcast. So, as you know, Tracy, you and I go way back, and I've admired your work in changing the event planning and meeting landscape. However, some of our listeners might not be familiar with your story and your background and even why you founded thrive meetings and events. So can you share your story and background with us?

Tracy: Yeah, sure, I'd love to. So I am a meeting planner or event planner and have been since I graduated from college. Way back in the early nineties. In 2003, I was having all kinds of medical conditions. I was 29 years old and felt like I was going through menopause and things. It ended up being an allergy to yeast or an overgrowth to yeast. After going to a couple of different doctors and finally figuring that out, I removed that from my diet and I'm like, holy moly, I feel so much better. But I was a meeting planner in a corporation. I was doing 100 events a year and I could eat at any of them. And that was, let's see, 2003. So I've been there for a year, actually, probably not even a year, but it really had to. I had to think through how I was planning food and beverage at the events. And I wasn't an airborne allergy and I wasn't touch, it was more consumption. But I had to change the way that I thought. And I ended up, after just six years of eating minimally, trying to figure this out, I ended up taking a class, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. And I'm sitting in this Lincoln center in New York listening to all these people talk about all these different dietary needs. Not just food allergies, but celiac and vegan and vegetarian and variety of other ones. And I'm like, I need to start a business to educate my industry of meetings and events on how to feed me and everyone else in this room. That was 2009, and I started thrive in 2010. Thrive meetings and events in 2010 with the mission to make the world healthier one event at a time. It was the good theme around it, right? But it's more of. Over the last 14 years, it has really become a lot more than that. It's become a diversity, equity and inclusion conversation. It's become a food waste conversation, risk management. And not just, hey, let's feed these people, but this is why we need to feed these people. And this is a way that you can make money at it and reduce your risk from it. It's evolved over the 14 years. I've evolved over the 14 years in thinking about it, and I just love it. It opened up a lot of things. And then during COVID or just before COVID and before I even knew Covid existed, I started interviewing women for Women's History month. And I call it Herstory Month. So that's in March. And so I interviewed a variety of women for that on the amazing things that they're doing in food and beverage. And I interviewed our friend doctor Ruchi Gupta and Leanne Mandelbaum from know not traveler, and you really kind of kicked that off. And that has now become the eating at a meeting podcast. So similar to you all. I have my own podcast and 270 episodes in talking about all things food and beverage.

Caroline: Thank you for sharing.

Tracy: You're welcome.

Caroline: And listeners, I have to say it's a fantastic podcast. So definitely check it out. And as we talk throughout this conversation, I am going to make sure I put in our show notes, all the links to the podcast, to the website, to social media so you can follow Tracy. So just know everything's going to be in there. Now, let's dive right into your company. Thrive meetings and events. And then why is this business more critical than ever? You just kind of touched on it a little bit, but let's go deeper.

Tracy: Well, it really is critical because. So as an event planner, right, you go to an event, you're registering for it online, or, like, way back then, probably still on an invitation, right? And although you get wedding invitations. So. And you're registering it online, and is somebody actually asking you if you have a food allergy or if you have any kind of dietary need? Right. And you're either going to this event for personal reasons or you're going to this event for business reasons. Right. Your company is sending you to this conference, or your company is hosting a conference that you have to be at and you have a food allergy. You know, what do you do? And if nobody's asking you the question, who do you talk to? Is that information on a website? Is Carolyn's name listed there as the person to contact about registration? And then you show up to this event, and maybe the food's not labeled, and you walk through this buffet or this plated dish comes in front of you and you look at it and you're like, oh, that has dairy on it. Or that has not, you know, whatever your allergen is and you can't eat it. And you send it back, and I, 20 minutes later, maybe you get a response, well, here's the vegetarian dish. Well, that doesn't necessarily meet my needs. It still has dairy on it. So it's really, really important because there's a lot of people in what I call the event food chain. And I'm going to go through that really quickly, Carolyn, because I think it's really important for somebody who's in attending an event to do this. So you're the attendee, you're registering, you're going to pay $50, $500, $1,000 to go to a conference, right? Then you've got the person who's planning the event, and she or he has a variety of different people that they work with behind the scenes. And then there's the hotel salesperson who's just contracted with that meeting planner to book that space or convention center. And then that venue has a catering manager who has now taken over all of the details for the event given, given to her, given to them by the meeting planner. And that person is the person that talks to all of the people in that venue. But in that, in that venue aspect is also the chefs. And the chefs have a zillion cooks behind them. And then they also have the expedite or the expediters. And they have the people who are putting out the tables and chairs and the front of house staff. And then you have your banquet captain, who's responsible for making sure all the food gets laid out and it's structured and timed out correctly. And behind the banquet captain is all the bartenders and all the servers. And they sometimes those servers and those bartenders don't know anything about your event until they show up an hour before it starts. And so they are, the banquet captain is responsible for making the labels. And they typically, I'm going to tell you, they typically make those labels the day of. And they have not communicated with or confirmed with chef on what those allergens are. So my business is really, really important for the fact that we need to have that education all along that line, so that all of those people understand the importance of making sure that Carolyn doesn't die at that event.

Caroline: Well, and I'm so glad you talked about that chain, because I think we have a sense of, as a, you know, guest. Oh, I'm just saying. Yes, I have a dairy allergy on my wedding invitation. And I'm really not thinking that it's gone through probably twelve different people before it gets to me. And so I need to have some clarity and understanding that there is that chain and that it's being followed appropriately, too. Yeah, just quickly, you mentioned the word expediter. Can you explain what that means? Our listeners might not know that my.

Tracy: Expediter is the person that's in the back of the house, that chef. Who's the. Did anybody watch the bear? You know, the woman, if you watch the show, the bear. And I think it. I don't. I forgot what episode it is. But the woman's like, okay, table number six, there's a dairy allergy, there's a nut allergy. Table number seven. And, you know, and go. And then take these dishes, right? That's the person behind the scenes. That's between the chef and the servers who's saying, hey, this, this food goes to these different tables, right? And this is who gets this kind of food. So they're the ones orchestrating the day of execution of all of that food distribution.

Caroline: I want to digress just slightly on workplaces, because, again, events and large events and catering, that's a big deal. But then I also know you're an expert in workplaces, you know, where maybe you just have an office of 20 people, 30 people, but you're having meetings. I used to volunteer my time with the American Lung Association. I was on the board and the local board, and we had some board members who had some allergies and celiac, and so staff had to learn where we could order food and how to handle it. So it wasn't a large group, but it was really important because our meetings were over lunch or, you know, even for people who travel for work, like you mentioned, like, if you have to travel for work and they have a meeting at a seafood restaurant, but you're allergic to seafood, that's a problem. So do you mind touching on workplace?

Tracy: Yeah, no, I think it's a really important conversation to have because I'll tell you my story. When I first got diagnosed, this is back in 2003, and we were having a department birthday party, and my allergy was to yeast, and I couldn't have sugar, dairy, gluten, you know, variety things. And my boss's boss just looked at me and says, just eat the **** cake. And I'm like, I can't, and I'm not going to. Right. And so that, you know, that shut me down. Right. And how do you do this? Right. And what do you do? And so I think it's a really important aspect of food is in a very important aspect in the workplace, right. You have staff parties, you have staff meetings, et cetera. And they are over lunch. And you do need to understand how that person is feeling when you don't have food for them. Right. They're hangry. Are they going to do the work? Are they going to be focused in that meeting? And actually, my friend David, I have two books that I co authored about. One's called Humans at work and the other one's called you at work. And it really talks about this. But one of the stories that I bring up is my friend David, who had just gotten a new client and had heard he's a bear. And David does lunch and learns, and he decided after talking to me and learning about what I was teaching and consulting on, he's like, okay, well, I'm going to ask the restaurant, can I have, do you have any alternative menus, vegan, gluten free, whatever? And they're like, yeah, we do. Here you go. And that he sent it. He sent all of the menus to everybody. And that bear called him back and said, thank you so much. I typically am only eating the lettuce that's left on the tray that the sandwiches were on, because all of the sandwiches have bread or meat on them or whatever, because he was a vegetarian. And that changed that guy's demeanor. David had a new fan in a customer. And so. But think about that with your employees, you know, and how you're doing that and managing that, because that somebody might not come back to work, right? Or somebody. And another story that I know of, this woman who is anaphylactic to shellfish to the point that she could not, if somebody was microwaving fish in the microwave at work, she could not be on that floor. And it was dismissed by her company. And so she was looking for a new job.

Caroline: Actually have several friends who have personally moved on from jobs just for that. They could not manage the lunchroom. Or again, you know, meetings where it just became too stressful, like going to.

Tracy: The company cafeteria, you're going down, you're having lunch with your co workers. Right. And the culinary team doesn't know what's in the food that they're serving or. And I actually worked at a client, one of my contract clients, it says, hey, if you have food allergies, just beware. And I'm like, how welcoming is that for somebody to come in? On the flip side, my friend Amelia Ekis worked at a company, and she grew up with a sister, Sally, who has multiple food allergies, and went. And as Amelia was the manager of this company cafeteria, she worked to the company, and she said, I want to find out everybody's dietary needs and food allergies. So they made sure they labeled for all of those allergens when they came through the company cafeteria. And she also taught the team, the culinary team. You make it, you label it, right, because you're the only one that knows what's in it. And then she even went above and beyond. She got approval to get all halal meats that are served. So, because it was a tech company, and so there's a lot of people who were Muslim and were requesting halal meats. And so it really levels the playing field, right. Makes everybody feel safe and included at that table and really makes them feel cared for.

Caroline: That is exactly what one of my friends said when they left a job, is they said they felt that they were not cared for or important, and they felt that if they're not an important part of this team, they're on the wrong team.

Tracy: Yeah. Yeah.

Caroline: And that's so powerful, what you just said.

Tracy: So I speak to a lot of incentive travel planners, a meeting plan, event planner. So, like, you work for XYZ company and you sell widgets for them. Right. And you made your goal and you exceeded your goal. So their gift to you is to send you to Hawaii or Anchorage or wherever. Right. Jamaica. And you get to that event and they have. They're not. There's nothing for you to eat. Do you think that I'm going to come back and sell that many widgets the next year? Not at all.

Caroline: You couldn't enjoy the prize, the incentive.

Tracy: Exactly. Yeah.

Caroline: Thank you for touching on that. I think it's so important. So now, can you share with our listeners why they need to know a little more about the solutions that you offer? Because on your website, you do have a little solution section. But again, to me, you're a problem solver, you know, and. And you're looking at these different situations because each food situation is unique. And so let's talk about more of the solutions that you offer and what kind of solutions are out there in this world.

Tracy: Yeah, no, I love to do that because of that event food chain that I mentioned earlier. You know, the solutions fit a variety of different people. So there's a meeting planner. Right, or the event planner. So an event planner can hire me as a culinary concierge or as the food and beverage director. As that person, I am responsible for collecting everybody's dietary needs. I'm responsible for picking the menu and choosing the menus and working with the culinary team to pick the items that are going to be served. And I just worked on a budget yesterday for an event. And we have 32 food functions in four days. And I know the dietary needs of the people from the past because this is my fourth year doing it with them. But I will also make sure that we're asking those questions upfront so that I am then working with the chef to design the menus to make sure that, you know, if we have a nut allergy, I want to eliminate nuts completely if I possibly can. Right. Even if it's not a nut free environment, my food and beverage being served at that event is going to be nut free if it's that severe. Right. So that's what, with meeting planners, I can do, help them manage their food and beverage so that they have a safe environment. And then for the culinary side of the thing, of the table, I can work with the chefs and the banquet captains on making sure their labels are accurate when they go out, but also then educating their teams in the back of the house on. When somebody asks you if you have a dedicated fryer and your team says, well, we do, but it gets used for all kinds of other things. Well, you don't have a dedicated fryer. That happened to me twice at the same hotel in the restaurant, and two different servers. And I'm like, you don't have a dedicated fryer. Right. So I work with those teams to educate them on what safe practices are. I have my food safety. I actually need to renew it from Servsafe food handler certification and manager card from Servsafe to educate them on what that means. Right. And how do we store things in the back of the house? Right. How do we label things when they go through, how do we serve them so that they're being served with respect and I can actually help them also go through all their menus. One event I went to and my throat started closing up and I was drinking a drink, and come to find out that drink had pineapple in it, but it didn't label it. They had two recipes with the same name, but different ingredients, and the chef switched over. And thankfully, the server who had been there for 30 something years, when she went back to check, she watched the second chef make it and wrote down all the ingredients and came out and showed it to us on a napkin and said, this is what's in it. And I'm like, okay, I'm not doing it anymore. I'm not drinking it again. But thankfully, she had the forethought and the skillset to say, I need to watch this being made, because she's the one at the front of the house that's working with the attendees. And that's actually another component of my services, is educating the front of the house, because those the back of the house and the front of the house don't talk.

Caroline: And that is so, so crucial and so important. Now, on your website, you have this resources section, and it has a lot of information on being inclusive. So can you explain what you want people to understand about this section? And then there's one area that I was in awe of, and it's the religious and cultural practices section. So please touch on that. But what is it? Do you want everyone to know about this section and how to use it?

Tracy: Yeah, the research, the resources section on my website is really there to give you some education. It's not full, full fledged, you know, know everything, but it gives you some basic information about a variety of different things. Because we all have to eat, right? We all eat, and we all are from different parts of the world, different parts of the country, actually, somebody emailed me the other day, I need to help you update the hindu section of your website because depending on where you are in India, people eat differently, just like Georgia to San Francisco. Right. You know, here in the United States. So it's there to give you some basic information. So I've got a food allergy section. I have food laws and regulations, and that kind of really goes through different regulations in the United States, Europe, Canada, across the globe on what these regulations are that are related to food and beverage medical conditions, which would include celiac and diabetes, and then lifestyle preferences, which is your vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian. Really just some basic information about what you might hear from somebody. Right. Or even if it's your friend coming over for dinner. Right. And she says, oh, I'm a pescetarian. Or actually, I was watching four weddings and a funeral. No, no, it wasn't four weddings and a funeral. I was watching the one with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, the wedding one.

Caroline: What is it called? I know. Exactly. I could see it in front of me.

Tracy: Yeah. So he invites her over to her his sister's house for dinner, and they put the lamb in front of her, and his sister leans over, well, how'd you like lamb? And Julia Roberts is like, well, I'm actually a vegetarian. And so she just kind of skirted it around her plate. But that was a last minute thing. Right. They're not telling, you know, them that this movie star is coming through, but it's really kind of so that you have a basic understanding of what vegetarian is, what food allergies are, celiac, so you can better serve people and feed them. And the one on the religious and cultural practices, I think is really important because I think it's 84 days out of the year that do not have a federal or religious holiday on them. So really understanding how people eat because of their beliefs is important. And I will give you a clear example of this. I did an event a couple of years ago, and it was during Passover, and I had one woman, I had three people say, request kosher. And one woman is an orthodox jew. And during Passover, she has to eat, you know, no leavened bread, you know, nothing like that. Along with the no shellfish, no pork, you know, no meat and dairy together, etcetera. So I chatted with her, and she's like, all right, I'm orthodox. You. So we need to find a kosher caterer to do this. And then the other two gentlemen said, well, as long as you label the food for all of those things, including wheat, we'll eat off the buffet, right? Well, I had to order the kosher food. And just so you know, it's a lot more expensive because it has to come in from an outside catering company. By understanding that she is, like, my fan, you know, I'm a fan of hers and vice versa. And even this year's event, I'm like, wherever. Where's your order? She's like, oh, I'm pregnant. I'm not coming. So I didn't have to order it from her, but I respected her needs, and she is now like, okay, Tracy, I'm coming. This is what I need. And it shows so much respect. And the other two gentlemen were just as appreciative of me doing that. But in also that saved my client $2,500 by asking those questions. Because they could eat off the buffet as long as everything was labeled and that we had options for them versus spending $1,200 per person for them to eat over four days.

Caroline: Exactly. So there's a beautiful ethical element of it and an element of respect and inclusiveness and kindness, but then there is a financial cost behind it as well. And I think that's so important for all of us to remember.

Tracy: It is. You want to sit down and break bread with people. Who cares if they can't eat nuts? Who cares if they don't eat shellfish and pork, right? Or, I mean, you just want to have a meat, sit down and have a conversation and a meal. Why does it matter what they do and do not eat?

Caroline: Right, exactly. And you and I both know there's so many beautiful foods in this world. There is always a tasty, delicious solution. I've never not seen that happen. We have so much. And especially living in America, we can get almost anything any time of the year.

Tracy: Right, exactly. And one of the, I don't know, this just popped into my head. Like, say there's, you're at this conference, you and I, and I'm like, I'm fangirling you, Carolyn. Right. And I want to meet you. And you are allergic to something, or you couldn't find something to eat on the buffet or whatever, you get up and leave. Right. And you are now going out and spending more money on food. You're also spending time by yourself, but you're also not engaging with the rest of the group. So if you're there, if your client, if your company or your client has sent you there to do business, to sell more widgets, to find new customers or whatever, and you have to leave to go find food that won't kill you. You've just lost that whole opportunity. Because we're not connecting in an education session where somebody's talking at me, right? We're connecting over the food.

Caroline: I've actually witnessed that at events where you just see about 30 people just get up and leave, and they're going out to find food that is safe and appropriate for their diets. I've absolutely witnessed that multiple times. I mean, even myself with my kids, when we were, you know, at our state legislature working on bills and things, we had to bring our own food or we had to. To leave and couldn't participate. And then, actually, now that you're saying that, some of the senators became very sensitive to the allergens, and so when we were at something together, they actually spoke to the caterer ahead of time because they wanted the kids who were coming to some of these events to be comfortable. And you're right, we've been forever fans since.

Tracy: Yeah. Yeah. Because, I mean, I don't want to leave. I mean, I've spent a lot of money to be here. I want to network with you. I want to get to know you, and. And maybe you are my next big client. Right. And now I can't eat. Yeah.

Caroline: So, so true. So now, how can the average person help move this style forward in supporting the event planning and food service industry? By learning more about managing and serving guests with special diets. Before we went live here on our podcast to listeners here, Tracy and I were talking about a golf club here, and they need help. And so Tracy and I were just talking about that. So kind of. On that note, Tracy, you know, what can the average person do? So they've been listening to this podcast. They're getting all this great information. They're understanding the importance of this, but what next?

Tracy: I think it's having those conversations, and even, you know, in our conversation, it's like, how do you approach it, right. How do you think through it? And whether you're. If you're having a party for at your own house, right. Ask your guests, does anybody have a dietary need that I need to be aware of? And if somebody says they're allergic to such and such, pick up the telephone and call them. Right. Because you need to ask them. I mean, I want to say. You need to ask, how severe is it? Is it. Can you not have it in the room? Because I don't want to touch peanuts and then go shake your hand and you go into anaphylactic shock. Right. So ask that question and then say, hey, you know, in that conversation, can you also, maybe you can. They can help educate you on what to do. They can bring dishes that are free of. They can, you can also make some labels to put on your own food in your, at your restaurant or in your house. Right. To say this was made by, and this is what it contains. But I think having a, I like something that you said to me when you were saying this because we were talking about memberships of these clubs, right. And you're like, well, I'm downgrading my club membership. And they're like, well, why? Well, because it's really hard for my family to eat here. And they're like, why? And so state those whys. Right. I don't come to your restaurant because I can't eat here. Well, and you can't expect, I'm not saying every single restaurant has to accommodate every single allergen because it's not going to be possible. Right. Because if it's, if you're making fresh pasta every single day in your kitchen, the flour is floating in the air. So somebody who's gluten free or celiac or allergic to wheat is probably not the best person to come into that restaurant. Right. But if you can follow their, you know, really kind of ask the questions, what are your food safety practices? Right. Is there anyone on your staff that really understands allergens and cross contamination? Cross contact. Right. I really want to come eat here. I want to bring a party here. And especially if it's a club membership. Right. I can't eat here. You're losing out on my revenue, you know, on my family coming here. And because you don't understand this. And so one of the conversations to really think through when you're having a conversation with somebody about this is that it needs to be about the money. It's as much as you want it to be. And I, and I have this problem every single day. As much as you want it to be about the ethics of it and the safety of it, it has to come down for the financial opportunity that they have to feed you and to feed everybody that's going to, you're going to bring with you. Right. And so I think really thinking through that before you have that conversation. But even, and Allie Bond was in some foreign country this week, Prague or something, and she had a problem eating at a restaurant. They're like, oh, no, we can't do that. We can't do that. Right. And then she went back and she had a, when she walked away to go get food, find someplace that she could eat food. She went back the next day and said, I really would love to eat here. What can we do? And having that conversation upfront before just kind of walking through the door and not. And do it. I mean, walk through the door. I mean, we all do it, right? But also, how can you research it up front, right. And have a civil conversation saying, hey, this really looks good. Is there any way that you can accommodate me in this?

Caroline: Tracy, thank you. That was a great explanation. Time has come to an end. This has been fantastic. I could just go on and on and on. You know, this topic is close to my heart. But before we wrap up today, is there anything else you would like listeners to hear from you?

Tracy: If you're somebody that does have a dietary need, I want you to own it. I mean, I know you do own it. It's part of you. It's not going away. But I want you to step up, and I want you to advocate for yourself, because I cannot keep you safe as a meeting planner if I don't know that you have a food allergy or you have a different dietary need. And I want you to not go hungry at my events. Right. So I think that's really important. And you can be discreet about it. I don't want you to put a billboard out. Right. We're not announcing it to the world that you have a food allergy. I want you to make it discreet. Call up that bank, call up that venue, call up that meeting planner or that organization and say, hey, who's managing food and beverage? Kind of own it. And then on the other flip side of that, if you're in food service, own it as well. Own that safety. Own that opportunity for Tracy and Carolyn to come back. Right. And this just popped into my head. As a meeting planner, we work with a lot of banquet servers, you know, serving lots of food all day long. You have no idea how many of them thank us for bringing them the work to their property. We could have chosen another property. We could have chosen, you know, to take it to a restaurant or whatever. But these banquet captains, some of them who have worked for hotels for 30 years, thank us as meeting planners for bringing the business to their. To their hotel so they have the work. And so if you're one of those servers, if you're one of those culinary team members, own it. Own the food safety aspect of this and learn how to protect and bring more business back.

Caroline: That is perfect and beautiful advice. Thank you again, Tracy, for your time today and sharing your wisdom and knowledge. And I do look forward to seeing you soon at Facts digital influencer summit. It's going to be time. So again, listeners, everyone's invited, so come on down. But Tracy, thank you again so much. And I really do look forward to giving you a hug in person.

Tracy: Oh, I can't wait. Yay.

Caroline: Thank you.

Tracy: Thanks.

Caroline: Before we say goodbye today, we just want to highlight one more time, Facts national gold sponsor, the National Peanut Board, and we would like to thank them for their years of continued support and partnership. Thank you for listening to FAACT's Roundtable podcast. Stay tuned for future episodes coming soon. Please subscribe, leave a review, and listen to our podcast on Pandora, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Stitcher. Have a great day and always be kind to one another.