co-founder and chief executive
Grace Mandarano
- Discipline
- co-founder and chief executive

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i. Biography
Grace Mandarano co-founded 100km Foods in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, in 2008, helping establish a company built around local supply before that term had settled into common culinary use. The work sat ahead of the language around it. As Mandarano noted, “The word 'local' was nowhere in anyone’s vocabulary in 2006.” That detail marks the conditions 100km Foods was built under: the idea had to be explained first, then repeated, then made workable in practice.
Coming Up
Since 2008, Grace Mandarano has held the combined work of co-founder and CFO at 100km Foods. The title points to both structure and administration, but the craft is in the continuity behind it: setting the foundation, maintaining the systems, and keeping the business legible as it grows. That kind of role is often measured in what it prevents from breaking, cash flow, process, coordination, yet it is also what gives a company room to keep moving. The early development of the business reads as a sequence of relationships and decisions rather than a single breakthrough. “We did the same with chefs, and then we built the business.” In that line, the sequence is the method: working with chefs, establishing trust, and then shaping the company around that exchange. It is a practical account of how a new supply model takes hold, through repetition, not rhetoric.
Where They Are Now
Grace Mandarano remains co-founder at 100km Foods, keeping her linked to the company she helped create in Toronto in 2008. Her position inside it is part of the company’s current operating shape.
In Their Words “The word 'local' was nowhere in anyone’s vocabulary in 2006.” “We did the same with chefs, and then we built the business.”
Career - Co-founder, 100km Foods (2008–present) - CFO, 100km Foods
Honors
in the approved facts.
FAQ What is Grace Mandarano's current role? She is Co-founder of 100km Foods.
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