Meet Quinn: The Heart Behind The Grazing Goat

Some dreams arrive all at once. Others take years of experiences, relationships, and ideas quietly coming together until the time finally feels right.

For me, The Grazing Goat has been the second kind of dream.

I grew up in Dowagiac, Michigan, and after graduating from the University of Michigan, life took me away from Southwest Michigan for a while—including several years in San Antonio, Texas. But Michigan's Great Southwest has always been home, and eventually my husband, George, and I found our way back here to raise our family. Today, we are the proud parents of two boys, Jorin, 18, and Carter, 14. We are an outdoors-loving family, and much of our life has revolved around our boys, our community, and building a life together in the place where George and I first met as high school sweethearts.

For nearly two decades, my professional life has revolved around something else I love: bringing people together through food.

My career has taken me through nearly every side of the food and hospitality world. At Lake Michigan College’s Mendel Center, I worked in food and beverage management and sales, taught hospitality management courses, helped establish local food and beverage events, and developed a three-year Farm-to-Table initiative that connected our kitchens directly with area farmers and producers. 

Later, I worked in business development for Green Spirit Farms in New Buffalo, helping build relationships with restaurants and retailers and learning even more about the business of producing and selling food locally. 

Then came nearly a decade in school food service leadership. Over the years, I worked with more than 30 school districts across seven states and spent nine years as a school food service director in Michigan and Indiana.

Most recently, I had the privilege of serving as Food Service Director for Benton Harbor Area Schools. There, my focus went beyond simply feeding students. We introduced freshly prepared, scratch-made entrées, worked with staff to help them understand the larger impact their work could have on the community, and even partnered with the art department and district administration to bring student-created murals into the high school cafeteria. 

Leaving Benton Harbor Area Schools was not an easy decision.

I left that position with a heavy heart because I genuinely loved the work, the people, and the community. But for a long time, I had been carrying an idea of my own—one that brought together so many of the things I had spent my career learning and caring about.

Eventually, I realized it was time to pursue it.

And so, The Grazing Goat was born.

For years, I have helped other organizations grow. I have supported my children as they have discovered who they are becoming. And I have watched and supported George as he, along with life-long friend Randy Hyrns, built their own business R.Hyrns Building, Construction and Remodeling from the ground up nearly 14 years ago.

The Grazing Goat is my turn to build something.

But I don’t see this simply as starting a charcuterie business.

To me, it is the culmination of almost 18 years of living and working in Southwest Michigan—meeting farmers, producers, business owners, educators, families, and people who care deeply about this community.

I have seen firsthand what happens when you take wonderful ingredients, source them thoughtfully, prepare them with care, and present them beautifully. Food becomes more than something to eat. It becomes part of the experience.

That’s what I want The Grazing Goat to create.

Whether we’re preparing individual Char-cutie Boxes for a business meeting, building a gorgeous spread for a graduation or celebration, or bringing our charcuterie cart to a wedding where guests can create something uniquely their own, I want the food to be beautiful, delicious, approachable, and memorable.

And whenever possible, I want what we serve to tell a little bit of the story of Southwest Michigan.

My commitment to local food isn’t something created for The Grazing Goat’s marketing. It has been part of my professional life for years—from developing Farm-to-Table programs and working directly with farmers to introducing locally sourced produce into large school food programs and serving on the Southwest Michigan Sustainable Business Forum and its Local Foods Committee. 

Now I get to take everything those experiences taught me and do it on a much more personal scale.

Food made for gathering.

I believe some of life’s best moments happen when people gather around food.

A wedding. A graduation. A birthday. An afternoon with friends. A business meeting where people actually put their laptops down for a few minutes. Or simply opening a beautiful box of food and sharing it with someone you love.

Those moments don’t have to be elaborate to be special.

The Grazing Goat is my opportunity to help create more of them—and my chance to give something back to the Southwest Michigan community that has given my family and me so much.

I can’t wait to see what we create together.

— Quinn Tabbert Founder, The Grazing Goat