What We Ate Then, How We Work Now: Food, Family, and Defining Roles in a Family Business

Homegrown Meals and Missing Treats: Recalling Food Traditions

Some of the most nostalgic moments in any family, especially a family business, start with food. During our conversation, Shirley vividly described an era when almost everything on the table was homemade, from bread and buns to the meats and vegetables grown right on the farm. Breakfast was a hearty affair of bacon and eggs fried in old-fashioned lard, and dinner never went without potatoes and gravy.

It struck me how much has changed. Before I was 12, there were no Oscar Meyer Lunchables or juice boxes, for example, and soda was a rare treat. Shirley recalled saving up for a whole candy bar rather than splitting a single bar five ways. A story that not only brought back the taste of long-gone treats but also highlighted how closely food and family resourcefulness were interwoven.

Meanwhile, Kim and Tom reminisced about how rare certain items were, like store-bought bread and pies, with almost all baked goods coming from family recipes. Canned vegetables? Only if they were canned by hand and stashed in the root cellar. Even the candy was different: candy cigarettes, hard Christmas candies, and the excitement when something like Bubble Yum gum first hit the market. All these details underscored how family, tradition, and resourcefulness shaped both our meals and, as it turns out, our approach to business.

Clear Roles: The Secret Ingredient in Family Business

After sharing memories from the family farm, we dove into how those lessons translate directly into managing a business alongside loved ones. In family businesses, ambiguity over “who does what” can quickly create confusion, resentment, and missed opportunities. As Tom pointed out, not defining clear roles means chaos: “Well, I thought you were going to do that. No, I thought you were going to do that.” That confusion bleeds into inefficiency and sometimes, damaged relationships.

There’s a parallel to kitchen routines of the past. Someone grew the potatoes, someone baked the bread, someone milked the cows. When we don’t define jobs and don’t match tasks with the right talents, it’s the business equivalent of someone burning the bread and nobody milking the cows. Everyone ends up frustrated, and the end product no longer serves its purpose.

Matching Roles to Strengths: Growing Beyond the Basics

If food traditions taught us to appreciate everyone’s contribution, business challenges taught us the importance of matching jobs to people’s strengths. Promoting someone because they’re great at their current job doesn’t always mean they’ll be great in a new, unrelated role. Sometimes, as Tom said, you accidentally “set someone up to fail.”

That’s why we’ve learned to revisit roles regularly and not expect to get everything perfect from the start. As Kim reminded us, it often takes a couple of years and several iterations before everyone is in the right seat, much like it takes a couple of planting seasons to know which vegetables thrive in your garden soil.

Tips for Defining Roles and Making It Work

For those looking to define business roles from scratch, our humble, hard-earned advice is this: Make a list of every major responsibility in your business, from accounting to training. Assign them out, try it for a while, then review and adjust. It’s tempting to avoid these conversations until things “suck” enough to force change, but starting early saves a lot of pain.

And don’t forget to ask for help. Just as we once swapped recipes and canning tips on the farm, sharing challenges with peers can bring fresh, simple solutions. In both food and business, it’s never wrong to admit you don’t have all the answers.

Wrapping Up: From Kitchen Table to Conference Table

Our family’s story is proof that the basics: good food, shared responsibilities, and willingness to adapt are timeless. The specifics of what we eat or how we organize our workflow might change, but the underlying principle endures: Clear roles, built on trust and self-awareness, help every family (and every business) thrive.

If you have your own stories, whether about missing food traditions or hard-won business lessons, let us know. We love learning from each other, just as we did sharing these memories on the podcast.

Here’s to homemade buns, clear roles, and a table where everyone brings their best.

Make sure to listen to the full episode here!