How Mesa Komal brings together food and community

Earlier this month, Mesa Komal Cafe opened at Belmont University. The cafe is a unique partnership between Belmont, the hospitality company Sodexo and Conexión Américas that will feature chefs from the Mesa Komal culinary incubator program at Casa Azafrán on a rotating roster. First up: longtime chef and caterer Karla Ruiz. For nearly a decade, the Mesa Komal program at Conexión Américas has provided work space in their commercial kitchen for food entrepreneurs, often connecting immigrant and first-generation small businesses with their first access to the kind of facility that enables them to make the jump, in some cases, from informal homespun venture to full-fledged business. We hear from current and former chefs about this new partnership and the ongoing commissary, as well as from one of its creators. But first, an update on how harm reduction efforts are advancing even as some drug use remains criminalized in Tennessee. Guests: Blake Farmer, WPLN senior health care reporter Karla Ruiz, chef, Viva La Vida José González, assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship, Belmont University Nadine Moore, chef, Birria Babe Ragab Rashwan, chef, King Tut’s