04/09/2021
Today we introduce you to Board Member, Ed Swanson. Ed is a veteran who honorably served 12 years in the United States Marine Corps. He worked for 10 years in a Fortune 100 Company, Hewlett Packard and currently works for Marinette Marine. Ed has spent that last 10+ years developing his true passion, Tastee Bites LLC, maker of “Ready Eddy’s” frozen sandwiches located in Marinette, Wisconsin.
Ed understands more than most the barriers and the “ups and downs” faced by food entrepreneurs trying to start-up or scale-up a business. Ed would be the first to tell you that he could have avoided many of the costs and the “ups and downs” had he been able to seek out the assistance of an organization such as Food Start U.P. He could have received the expertise, solutions and resources necessary to succeed and to grow. Instead, he had to rely often on his gut and on the advice of those who too often may have had qualifications and good intentions but did not have the food business expertise that he truly needed. Ed is enthusiastic about being part of the Board of an organization that will provide the “go to” solutions that will help remove these critical and costly barriers faced by food entrepreneurs, like himself, and make possible the pursuit of a food business dream for so many in the region. Ed is also excited about the living-wage jobs that this will create and the locally produced food that this will supply to our region.
Ed’s entrepreneurial spirit and perseverance in all that he does is one of his many admirable qualities. His motto: “Not as lean. Not as mean…but still a marine.”
