We’re introducing you to our passionate team of experts. Today’s featured Deli crew member is our Marketing and Communications Manager, Jenny Santi!
Jenny from the Block
No, not really. Jenny grew up in Troy, Michigan, but fell in love with Ann Arbor early on. In high school, she came here twice for summer debate camps and lived in a sorority house. She got to experience the walkability and urban feel of the town—very different from her suburban upbringing, where a car was essential for getting around.
Jenny came here for school in 1992 and got two degrees from the University of Michigan (more on that in a minute). After graduation, she moved to Minneapolis for six years, then returned to this area to be near family, and was a stay-at-home mom for about nine years. During that time, Jenny was also focused on the community, serving on a variety of city boards, city commissions, and non-profit boards.
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
She’s sure a friend to the environment, which might in part stem from her maternal grandmother, a very practical cook who taught Jenny how to be thrifty and economical in the kitchen.
Jenny’s degrees from U of M are a BS in Environmental Policy from the School of Natural Resources and Environment (now called SEAS) and an MS in Conservation Biology. Jenny put them to use as a Conservation Planner for The Nature Conservancy for six years, working mostly in the Great Plains region. Jenny was responsible for leading planning projects in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota to identify conservation priorities and direct the implementation of conservation actions.
Now, she’s the board chair for ZeroWaste.Org, a non-profit working to reduce waste through education, advocacy, and behavior change. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because it is the organization that leads the Ann Arbor Reduce, Reuse, Return (A2R3) returnable container program, of which we’re a founding member. We’re big on visioning at Zingerman’s, and we recently finalized a new one for the Deli. Jenny’s very excited to be a part of it, “especially the parts about sustainability and making the Deli a gathering place for our community.”
Jenny, Jenny, Who Can I Turn To?
We’ve all got Jenny’s number, as the Marketing and Communications Manager, she takes the “communications” part of her job title very seriously. She shares information lavishly with Deli staffers, making sure to use more than just email to communicate and reach as many people as possible—huddles, posters, one-on-one conversations—but also lots of emails. She initially joined us at the Deli in 2013 for a fun, part-time job … that pretty quickly turned into a fun, full-time job! Now she’s on the leadership team and loving what she does. As she says, “I consider myself so lucky to be here in a moment in time, as a steward of what was and what is yet to come.” When asked about the best part of her job, she said,
My favorite part about working here is my coworkers, learning their stories and what brought them to the Deli, watching them care for each other and care for our guests, and seeing them get excited about food or our art or making something better. We’re all so different and yet, we’re all here!
Jenny’s also big on communicating with guests. You can often find her talking up the salad case to guests (especially when one of her favorite dishes is in there, like Bulgarian Cucumber Soup, Spicy Eggplant, or Spicy Green Beans). Jenny also loves to talk to gu.ests about our artwork. As she says, “It’s pretty special to me that we put so much value on the visual experience in our spaces and how we present ourselves to the outside world.”
5 Fun Facts
1. Most days, Jenny has a #616 Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad (with house dressing instead of Caesar) for lunch.
2. Jenny’s serious about physical fitness. She’s completed an Ironman Triathlon, run the Boston Marathon, and ridden her bike to the top of Alp d’Huez in France. She’s not repeating those anytime soon, but she loves to exercise, and rumor has it you can find her in a hip-hop dance class from time to time.
3. She’s 25% Sammarinese. Her paternal grandfather is from San Marino, a landlocked country in Italy, and the 5th smallest country in the world. He taught Jenny how to make bolognese and eggs cooked in olive oil.
4. Jenny’s pantry is stocked at all times with Koeze peanut butter, Roi pesto, Brooklyn Delhi Tikka Masala sauce, Alziari olive oil, and 16-year balsamic vinegar. Not surprising, these are the favorites of her daughter Ella too!
5. Her son Miles had a sandwich named after him (and his love of math at the time) on the kids’ menu for a few years. The Miles’s Math-mozz-tician was mozzarella on Sicilian Sesame Semolina bread from the Bakehouse, cut into fingers and served with marinara dipping sauce.
