Meet Jennifer Piette, an entrepreneur and a responsible Community member of SoCal. She started ‘The Narrative Food’ in 2010 to serve the locals with amazing ingredients and spiced up their lives in the most unique way.
With the goal of inspiring people to get back to their kitchens to create magic with exquisite ingredients, Jennifer Piette founded Out of the Box Collective in 2010. It is a farm to table home delivery service in Southern California, also known as SoCal. What started as a grocery delivery service is now a certified B Corp with many awards under its belt. Recently in 2019, she rebranded the company into ‘The Narrative Food’ where food tells a story of the local, seasonal ingredients, and the food makers. From personalized meal planning to home chef services, the company takes care of it all.
Talking about her childhood in Washington DC, Piette mingled with a diverse group of people from all around the world in school. Her father was an entrepreneur himself, so they faced a few ups and downs when she was a child. It wasn’t always a smooth ride, but this is something that silently braced her for the entrepreneur life ahead. She knows how the business world works and that the ups and downs are a part of the game.
Before starting out as an entrepreneur, Jennifer worked as a screenwriter in Europe for 25 years. She came back to the USA in 2008 during a time of financial crisis. It wasn’t easy for her to rise as a successful entrepreneur at such a time, let alone be one. But she took a leap of faith with ‘The Narrative Food’ (formerly known as the Out of the Box Collective). She overcame all the obstacles whilst taking care of her three beautiful kids.
Initially, she self-funded the startup and continued to do so for years. The sale only started increasing recently due to COVID, owing to which now she has access to some funding.
While COVID was hard on the each one of us, ‘The Narrative Food’ came forward as a rescue in these trying times. As it was not even safe to step out of the house, the company became a one-stop solution to all the nutritional needs.
Piette firmly believes that “we cannot talk about individual health without thinking about the health of the community and the health of our soil”. ‘The Narrative Food’ sources their food from organic growers and curates them into boxes that are inspired by different traditions, cultures, restaurants, and chefs. As Jennifer explains, ‘The Narrative Food’ works to take the burden of grocery shopping and meal planning from the customers’ shoulders. They want them to enjoy their cooking and spend more time at the table enjoying with their family and friends.
Piette has been working tirelessly for the last 10 years. She has learned that there’s always a solution to every problem. It might take time for things to happen, even a pandemic, like in her case, but eventually, everything will fall into place. It is important to keep thriving and check and double-check everything. She believes in giving her best in every task she takes up. Jennifer inspires all the women out there who want to carve out a name for themselves. She even wishes to support like-minded women-owned businesses, farmers, ranchers, and chefs. Her company is more than a means of living. It’s about serving the community and building long-lasting memories and relationships. Not often do we come across such individuals who care about the community equally.
When asked what her ultimate mantra is to stay motivated, she says- “When you feel overwhelmed, just break down what might seem a monumental task- go day by day, hour by hour, or even minute by minute if that makes things more manageable. Tomorrow is another day”.