Social entrepreneur and philanthropist Kimbal Musk, one of the founding fathers of the “farm-to-table movement,” gave a talk on the CU Boulder campus Friday, Oct. 20, titled “Real Food for Everyone.”
From civil engineering to energy, water and our environment—engineering plays a central role in how food goes from farms to tables across the country,” Dean of Engineering Bobby Braun said. “It is a pleasure to welcome Kimbal to our campus to talk about his passion for sustainable food production and his passion for improving our quality of life.”
Musk, who believes all Americans should have the opportunity to eat local, affordable food, is a former Silicon Valley executive and co-founder of The Kitchen in Boulder, which opened in 2004 and serves local foods. There are now Kitchen restaurants in Denver, Fort Collins, Chicago, Memphis and Indianapolis.
Musk is focused on building “scalable food” networks for his restaurants that focus on working with local farmers and ranchers to bring natural food to the table.
Musk also co-founded a nonprofit, The Kitchen Community, in 2011 that has spurred the development of several hundred “learning gardens” at K–12 schools around the country to help teach kids about nutrition and eating healthy.
In 2011 he co-founded a restaurant in Boulder called Next Door, a more affordable counterpart to The Kitchen, which has expanded to include four additional restaurants in the Denver area. Musk is on the boards of Chipotle, Tesla and SpaceX.
