Forget “farm to fork,” Dillion Nguyen, Competitive Specialist for Xfinity Communities is taking “fork to foster” by fostering relationships with property managers in California. But this comes pretty naturally to Nguyen. Nguyen was raised in the hospitality industry and grew up working in his family’s sports bar. After immigrating to the United States from Vietnam, his parent’s opened up their own place to fulfill their vision of the American Dream.
“Growing up in the New Orleans area, hospitality has always been a part of my upbringing. My family doesn’t come from a lot of money so to get through college, I worked at my family’s sports bar, a neighborhood restaurant, and interned for a local festival. I knew that I wanted to my career to be focused on bringing joy to people through experiences”, said Nguyen.
Through his struggles of being a child of immigrant parents, growing up in hurricane prone New Orleans, and moving to California on his own after college, Dillion was able to take his experiences with him and continue to incorporate his background into his life and career.
This month, Xfinity Communities partnered with Joint Venture Kitchen, a fully equipped restaurant and event space for aspiring chefs to host pop up restaurants. Joint Venture Kitchen is a startup in San Francisco that assists in alleviating the many challenges of opening a restaurant by giving local chefs everything they need to run their own kitchen for a few hours, a day, a week, or even a month.
Xfinity Communities has been hosting these immersive experiences with local chefs and venues throughout San Francisco since 2017. It focuses on providing valuable experiences to the community through things like event sponsorships, private dinners, and partnering with local businesses. Nguyen developed this successful project and now leads it.
“The idea for Xfinity experiences stemmed from having conversations with our Community Account Reps, thinking of ways to go above and beyond for our property managers to push our relationships to the next level,” said Nguyen.
Nguyen discovered the pop up restaurant, Joint Venture Kitchen, while searching for venues to host his Xfinity experiences. Their most recent event together was an Xfinity experience dinner featuring traditional Jamaican cuisine for 30 property influencers.
“We learned from meeting you about the community outreach effort Comcast is making to bring people together and create opportunity which we fully embrace”, said Steven Paoli, cofounder on Joint Venture Kitchen. “Comcast, with your team’s help, is certainly on a positive customer service track and we were proud to be part of the plan.”
Nguyen continues to think of ways to give back to the property staff the Community Account Representatives (CAR) work with. He discovered the amount of local, aspiring chefs that San Francisco had to offer.
“I found chefs specializing in cuisines from the Philippines to Jamaica; connecting these aspiring chefs with our property managers to create a unique experience for them while expanding their reach in the community seemed like the perfect storm. I think for most chefs who have dedicated their livelihood to create dishes that reflect their personalities and showcase their story is something that I gravitate to the most. Growing up in a food centric area such as New Orleans has benefitted me in the fact that I was able to have great discussions with the local food and beverage pioneers in San Francisco and relate to them on a personal level. It makes me understand the value of the work that I do and how we can really use our company to lift others,” said Nguyen.
Apart from connecting with the food and beverage industry, Xfinity Communities partners with local businesses all over the city.
“In the past we’ve worked with businesses like music festivals, local mom and pop businesses, pet groomers, hospitals and more”, said Nguyen. “We’ve found that when we partner with others (small – medium businesses) to expand their reach in the community, it also gives us the opportunity to help a local business thrive.”
To learn more about Xfinity Communities, visit https://comca.st/2NufSIs.
