Title:Serving up support for veterans

In 2019, Jordan Foley (L’21) was studying at Georgetown Law when he received devastating news: a friend and fellow Navy veteran had died by suicide while struggling with debts as he launched his startup business.

“After looking into it, I asked, why weren’t there resources available for him? Did he not have support? How can we reduce those startup fail rates?” he says. “I knew there were many nonprofits helping veterans start businesses, but I wanted to help them longterm. I wanted to honor my friend.”

He began considering his longtime passion for food as a pathway to business ownership.

Foley has long been aware of food’s power to connect generations and cultures. He remembers standing on a footstool when he was young, watching his grandmother as she cooked. He remembers sharing a homemade deep dish pizza with a Navy member he didn’t know well in a submarine thousands of feet below the sea. He remembers a friend’s grandmother in China handing him a plate of dumplings and squeezing his shoulder when he felt alone during an overseas stint.

“I decided to hyper-focus on the culinary industry so that we can take a veteran from zero knowledge to business ownership,” he says. “I want them to be able to start a business with a safety net.”

Foley started with a food truck as his training ground. He designed a curriculum to help veterans and their spouses gain business and culinary training by running their own food trucks. He pitched the idea at the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Challenge and came in first for Georgetown Law.