In our “Stakeholder Board Spotlight” series, we get to hear stories from our Stakeholder Board members across Michigan’s food system, including what sparked their career path and their thoughts on Michigan Good Food Fund’s next chapter. Next up is Michigan Good Food Fund Stakeholder Board Chair Tony Vu.
Tony Vu
Owner/Operator MaMang, The Good Bowl, and Flint Social Club
When Inc. Magazine namechecks you in the same article as Elon Musk, you are…Tony Vu.
The Michigan Good Food Fund’s Stakeholder Board Speaker and co-owner and executive chef of Traverse City’s Good Bowl garners such accolades because he infuses “the best pho in Flint” with influences from his mother’s cooking and trips back to Vietnam, from where his family fled during the U.S. war with that country.
His decade-plus years of food-justice activism motivates him to give back to his community, from donating over $100,000 to local charities through his Good Bowl’s dollar per bowl donations to mentoring and assisting chefs from marginalized groups in the Flint area who run their own food businesses through his Flint Social Club.
Because of Vu’s advocacy, he has appeared in media outlets such as The Food Network, Vice Magazine, the Detroit Free Press, the documentary Forged in Flint, as well as being named a fellow of the 2020 Detroit Food Lab Fellowship for Change in Food and Labor.
“[Michigan Good Food Fund] would be a great resource where there aren’t many resources available for our startup community. The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Flint and support for our community would help us build a more diverse and representative business community.”
— Tony Vu