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Today we begin the countdown on an incredible year.

And we need your help closing out 2019 with a bang.

On December 3, MAD will participate in Giving Tuesday, an international day of philanthropy and the official start of our annual fundraising season. It’s an important moment for us: You see, MAD is a non-profit organization that is powered by the generosity of its community. All of our talks, events, digital tools, publications, and opportunities to connect are funded by donations large and small from people like you. Together we are planting seeds of change in the restaurant industry, and when you make a donation you are funding the tools to inspire chefs, servers, and eaters alike to make a difference.

Every gift will support our operations, help us host more MAD events–including MAD Symposium in Copenhagen–and further develop MAD Academy, a unique institution for hospitality professionals to connect, lead, and steward the health of our planet.

With gratitude for your support,

The MAD Team

Today is Giving Tuesday, friends! And MAD is counting on the generosity of people like you.

December 3 is Giving Tuesday, an international day of philanthropy that kicks off our year-end fundraising season. All of our talks, publications, events like MAD Symposium and MAD Mondays, public initiatives like VILD MAD, and opportunities to connect are funded by donations large and small.

Restaurants serve more than food: they serve values. They build culture, they shape economies, and they exist at a crucial spot in the value chain which allows them to influence every step in getting food from farm to plate. With our most ambitious project to date–MAD Academy–we will provide the space, guidance, and inspiration for cooks, servers, and eaters to lead and steward the health of our planet. 

With your support, next year there will be much to celebrate. Help us make it one for the record books by making a donation today.

With appreciation,

The MAD Team

Yep, we said it.

Because our work doesn't end at chopping the onions.

It’s time to think differently about restaurants. At our last MAD Symposium, we set a goal: together we can better equip restaurants to meet the world’s most pressing challenges. This year we took a giant step forward when we embarked on our most ambitious project to date: MAD Academy, a new institution that goes beyond the boundaries of the red tent to reimagine education for today’s hospitality professionals. 

MAD Academy will bring together cooks, servers, farmers, artisans, and academics to learn, collaborate, and lead. The idea is simple: when we give people in hospitality the tools, time, and space to innovate outside of the daily demands of restaurants, we inspire solutions to drive change from within our industry.

But friends, we can’t do it alone. That’s why we’re asking for help from our community—people like you who see the restaurant world’s potential.

Your annual gift will power our operations in 2020, helping us get one or even a few steps closer to building MAD Academy while we continue to create MAD Mondays and begin planning our next MAD Symposium.

If you’d prefer to spread your giving over the year, you can make a monthly donation to MAD. No contribution is too small; even a monthly gift of just $10 would help advance our work in 2020.

Thank you for supporting our vision—and for being part of the MAD community.

Melina and the MAD Team

Friends: there are just a few hours left to give to MAD before the new year begins.

MAD is a non-profit, which means your gift will help make our work possible in 2020. It promises to be an exciting year, with more talks, events, resources, and opportunities to connect with, and learn from one another.

Will you pay it forward and make a gift to MAD today?

All gifts are tax deductible, and no donation is too small; even a gift of just $10 will help cultivate the MAD community in the year ahead.

MAD community, 

We’re writing to share exciting news: Magnus Nilsson is joining MAD as our first Academy Director, effective today. As many of you know, Magnus has long been a part of the MAD family. This builds on a long tradition at MAD of tapping into the expertise and knowledge within the restaurant world for the greater benefit of the MAD community. Our work and our results are stronger for it.

We are thrilled to have a chef, leader and thinker of Magnus’ caliber on the team. Magnus was the chef and driving force behind Fäviken Magasinet, the internationally-renowned restaurant.

As the Academy Director, Magnus will not only oversee the development of the Academy’s programming, but he’ll be able to share his experience and insight with the MAD community. Magnus will be an integral part of our most ambitious project yet: developing an academy that equips the restaurant world with the skills, tools and perspectives to make positive change.

The very first time I met Magnus, I was struck by his experience and intellect; his enthusiasm for the Academy idea; and his commitment to solving the most challenging problems in the industry. Over the last few years, he has been an informal advisor to our work, and I’m excited that these conversations have led to him joining us full-time. 

Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll keep you updated on the opportunities to get involved in MAD’s programming and events. Feel free to forward this note to friends who may want to be involved in MAD; as always, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for the latest updates.

Melina

Friends,

We are happy to announce that applications for the MAD Academy’s 2020 programs are now open!

MAD Academy is a school that aims to support the hospitality and food industry with tools and knowledge for making positive change. In 2020 we invite anyone who actively works in hospitality to apply for a spot in one of two different 5-day programs: Environment & Sustainability and Leadership & Business. Both programs will run twice with a new group of participants each time and feature a mix of inspiring lectures by leading experts, workshops, and field trips in and around Copenhagen. 

As a student of the MAD Academy you’ll gain proven knowledge and tools to help in your professional life, and you will become part of a group of people committed to making a difference in the world. We encourage you to apply and, or, spread the word to any person in hospitality who wants to drive change in our food systems.

While MAD Academy is still in its development stage, our programming is fully funded by the Danish government and MAD foundation, meaning that all tuition costs and materials needed will be covered by us. This won’t be the case in the future, so don’t miss out! All you have to do if you get selected is to get yourself to Copenhagen and back before and after the specified dates and to find a place to stay for the five days in question.

We look forward to your applications!

MAD Team

As we look forward to the year ahead, we want to take a moment to say how much you kick ass.

Last month we asked our community to support MAD, and so many of you stepped up to make a donation to power our work in 2020. Thanks to your generosity, we reached our year-end fundraising goal, and MAD is now poised to create more opportunities for you to connect and collaborate with fellow industry professionals in the coming year.

Here's one tangible way your gift is already building impact in 2020:

Soon we’ll be opening applications for the next class of students at MAD Academy, a new institution that reimagines education for today’s hospitality professionals. We’ll be sharing details on the application process soon, so stay tuned.

Until then, we wish you a MAD new year and best of luck in 2020.
Melina and the MAD Team

Dear Friend,

MAD presents the first MAD Monday of the year on March 9. Join us in Copenhagen where this time around we host an evening discussion all on the art and craft of hospitality, delving into the world of waiters, bartenders, concierges, and sommeliers. Tickets are now available.

We'll see you there!

Dear Friends,

MAD is a non-profit organization powered by the generosity of its community. And today, #GivingTuesday, is an international day of philanthropy. We're asking you to support scholarships for emerging leaders to attend the MAD Academy.

At the MAD Academy we believe in a core principle: knowledge is for action. Every student who walks into the MAD Academy leaves with new foundational insights, practical skills, and real inspiration to change the world.

This year has shown us just how crucial new approaches and training are for the future of restaurants. When students attend the MAD Academy they learn new skills. They define their values. They gain a vital network of colleagues. Then they return home to make a difference in their restaurants and communities.

Your donation today on #GivingTuesday will help to provide scholarships for chefs, servers, sommeliers, and bartenders to attend the MAD Academy in 2021. This means more students returning to their restaurants and communities to make the world better.

Thank you for building the future of the MAD Academy and for being part of our MAD community.

With gratitude,

Melina, Magnus, and the MAD Team

Dear Friends,

MAD is reimagining education for chefs, servers, sommeliers, and bartenders through the MAD Academy. This year, 100 students representing 31 countries came to the Academy. They are each committed to making a difference in their restaurants and the world.

After the Academy, these students returned home better prepared to lead through this devastating pandemic and build a resilient industry for the future. Next year, we will bring 360 emerging leaders to the Academy so that together we can build the future of restaurants.

Your donation today will help to provide scholarships to the Academy in 2021. Your support will empower these emerging leaders to bring new skills, determination, and passion to their restaurants and communities.

Thank you for supporting the MAD Academy.

With great appreciation,
Melina, Magnus, and the MAD Team

Dear Friends,

MAD is a global community of hospitality professionals making a difference in their restaurants and the world. Never before has our industry been challenged as it has through COVID-19, and never before have we seen our industry show up with such generosity and resilience to continue caring for the communities we serve even as the virus has shuttered hospitality businesses.

We see you providing for the hungry. We see you feeding medical workers on the frontline. We see you redesigning your restaurants for today-and the future.

And friends, we see you taking care of each other too. Today, Tuesday, May 5 is a new global day of giving called #GivingTuesdayNow, and here are 5 ways you can support the MAD community:

1. Buy a gift card or order take-out from your favorite local restaurants, cafes, and bars.
2. Support those sending meals to frontline workers or out-of-work hospitality employees.
3. Go directly to the farmers and suppliers to support local supply chains and prevent food waste.
4. Donate or volunteer your time with local organizations and initiatives providing food and essentials for families in need (while being safe!).
5. Sign a petition calling for assistance for small businesses and independent restaurants.

Check our Instagram @themadfeed and our website madfeed.co for more ways to support MAD and our friends and colleagues across the hospitality industry.

We can't wait to welcome you back,
The MAD Team

P.S. While visiting the website, take a look at some of our favorite videos of past MAD Talks:

Save Your Food, Save Your Life - Ron Finley
Finding Peace in the Kitchen and the Mind - Michael Miller
Beautiful People Eat Ugly Fruit - Isabel Soares
How to Reverse Climate Change - Chad Frischmann
Preserving Identity Through Coffee Traceability - Arthur Karuletwa
Rediscovering Food Through Resilience - Indira Naidoo

Apply to become a MAD Research Fellow!

Friends,

MAD is launching a new MAD Research Fellowship. For this paid position, we're looking for a great researcher or scholar who wants put their skills to work at MAD for six months this year. The research fellow will propose a project in either environment, sustainability, leadership, or business with real applicability to the hospitality world.

Head to our website for details and submit your applications by Tuesday, March 24.

The MAD Team

Friends, 

Applications for MAD Academy's Spring 2021 programs are now open!

This Fall we hosted a hundred students from all walks of hospitality to attend our first programw. We can''t wait to see what these first students do as they put the tools and skills they gained in their week at Academy to work.

In Spring 2021, MAD will hold four five-day sessions in Copenhagen repeating our core programs: Leadership & Business and Environment & Sustainability. Over five days you'll sit in on fascinating lectures, join field trips, and share inspiring experiences with peers from across the globe.

As a student of the MAD Academy, you'll gain proven knowledge and tools to help in your professional life, and you will become part of a group of people committed to making a difference in the world. We encourage you to apply or spread the word to any person pursuing a career in hospitality who wants to drive change in our food systems.

Read about our programs and how to apply on our website.

We look forward to your applications,

The MAD Team

Dear friends,

Today we''re started an initiative on Instagram. We need your help to support our own local community and reach far beyond it.

Please get on Instagram and DM @themadfeed all the great examples you know of restaurants that have found ways to lessen the impact of this crisis on their businesses.

We will repost them and help spread the word as widely as we can.

None of us who are working with MAD at the moment are running restaurants, and we are not facing the immediate challenges to our own business that so many of you do. But we are a part of the hospitality community too, and we feel the hurt through our friends and colleagues every day.

Our mission is to serve everyone working in restaurants and running hospitality business with knowledge to create positive change.

As a team we have been thinking about how to help. We are not experts on health care or epidemiology, and we don't feel that we can give better advice than the respective governments of the world. We would never pretend to know how you could run your business better than you already do.

We see restaurateurs under so much stress at the moment given the great uncertainty and all the decisions forced upon them, and we understand that it can seem impossible for people to see a path forward.

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention, and we can share all of the great initiatives and creative solutions that people are coming up with right now to save their businesses, whether it is by adapting to a format that works with the restrictions in place across the world, or whether it is by figuring out how to help those who depend on these businesses for their livelihood when they have been forced to close.

MAD can make a difference by spreading the word.

By presenting good examples and highlighting what others have done already, we can help those of you who are still at a loss with a bit of inspiration. And we can make it easier for those out there looking for great food and community to find the places that are adapting their service and are still open for business.

There are restaurants that will close this week and never reopen. We're all part of an extraordinary industry, let's come together and make that number as small as possible.

Melina, Magnus, and the whole MAD team

Hej Friends,

MAD is a global community of hospitality professionals making a difference in their restaurants and the world. When students attend the MAD Academy they learn new skills, define their values, gain a vital network of colleagues, and become important members of our shared MAD community.

"The MAD Academy changed completely the way I look at food, food systems, and how I operate my business as a cook. It has inspired me in such a way it's hard to describe. I was extremely lucky to be part of such a beautiful experience."

- Ezio, MAD Academy student, 2020

By donating before the year is over, you are supporting scholarships for students committed to improving their restaurants and communities. Your gift-no matter the size-will help to bring talented, emerging leaders to the Academy and prepare them to lead.

Together the MAD community is making a difference in the world.

Tusind tak,
Melina, Magnus, and the MAD Team