Food Donor Spotlight: How The Fire Society Turns Surplus into Impact
The Fire Society is a California-based, full-service hospitality company that heavily prioritizes quality and sustainability. The organization and its associated catering brands are some of Replate’s longest-standing food recovery partners.
Their events brand, Foxtail, is known throughout the Bay Area for producing high-quality events with innovative menus - while Radish, their workplace catering service, provides consistent, creative, and healthy meal services for dozens of corporate clients on a daily basis.
We recently sat down with their founder, Tommy Halvorson, to learn more about the origins of the company and how they came to prioritize sustainability as a core part of their operations.
Founding and Origins
Before becoming an established brand, The Fire Society began in 2009 as a series of pop-up dining experiences. Some of their first events featured pop-up dinners in secret locations, complete with coordinated transportation and custom menus - creating a unique and immersive dining experience.
While the pop-ups definitely generated buzz for the business, these events also revealed how difficult it can be to break into the food service industry. Focusing on catering as the core business quickly proved to be the most viable path, allowing the team to scale their operations and generate steady revenue.
The company eventually evolved into Foxtail Catering, marking a major expansion for the business.
What started as a single table and a small team grew into an operation producing roughly 500+ events per year and employing hundreds of people. Building a strong and organized kitchen infrastructure also became a key factor in enabling that growth.
Brands and Services
Today, The Fire Society (TFS) functions as an umbrella organization that houses several food and hospitality brands.
Radish manages workplace dining and corporate food programs, providing a wide range of food and beverage services for offices and other workplaces with fully staffed programs. Foxtail focuses on large-scale event production and catering, often extending beyond food to support full event experiences.
The events they produce can be quite large in scope - with their biggest to date serving roughly 39,000 guests over three days!
The Fire Society also operates Tonic, which specializes in beverage catering and handles the specialized licensing required to run professional bar programs.
Their newest venture, Wolfsbane, is a restaurant in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood offering a high-end, multi-course tasting experience - and Tommy notes that the team is even aiming to achieve a Michelin star rating with this new restaurant!
Culinary Approach
Rather than focusing on a small set of signature dishes, the team builds highly customized menus across many cuisines depending on the event or client. Their distinctive approach is less about a single menu item, and more about how food is integrated into the overall event design.
The company places a strong emphasis on food-forward experiences, ensuring that culinary quality remains central even when events are large or complex.
Service Area
The Fire Society primarily serves California’s greater Bay Area, from Wine Country down to Carmel. While the Bay Area is their core operational focus, the team is generally open to traveling if the right opportunity arises.
Core Values and Approach
A strong service culture is central to the company’s identity. Their goal is to guide clients through the entire process, from planning to execution, rather than fragmenting the experience across multiple vendors or contacts.
The Fire Society is also deeply focused on food waste reduction and workforce opportunities for those in the food service/catering industry. Their leadership team recognizes that much of their work happens within a space of relative privilege, and constantly looks for ways to create meaningful impact through responsible operations and community support.
Their awareness of and commitment to food waste reduction predates California’s SB1383 regulations, and reducing waste has remained an important part of the company’s culture and brand identity.
Impact and Operational Metrics
In addition to revenue and operational performance, The Fire Society tracks several impact-oriented metrics.
Through its partnership with Replate, TFS has donated more than 144,000 pounds of surplus food - creating hundreds of thousands of meals for their local community, all in addition to diverting this surplus food out of landfills.
The impact of these donations has resulted in nearly 42 million gallons of water saved, 317k lbs of carbon dioxide diverted from the atmosphere, and more than $1.9 million in economic value created.
Internally, they also closely monitor service volume across brands, such as the number of Radish workplace programs delivered.
Workforce opportunity is another key metric. Over the course of a year, the company supports approximately 31,000 employee shifts, with about 92% of team members classified as W-2 employees, reflecting their emphasis on stable employment.
Food Recovery in Daily Operations
Food recovery is built directly into the company’s operational systems. Staff members are trained on food recovery procedures, and processes are in place to ensure surplus food is properly handled and redistributed.
In large-scale catering and event production, Tommy notes that some degree of overproduction is unavoidable.
For example, an event may be planned for 800 guests, but attendance might only reach 100. Because of this inherent uncertainty, surplus food is often inevitable. By planning for recovery ahead of time, the organization ensures that excess food can be redirected to people in need rather than going to waste.
All of these factors combine to make The Fire Society one of the most environmentally sustainable, quality-focused catering brands around! We’re thankful for their commitment to diverting food surplus and for the continued partnership.