Giving Broadly Is Our New Go-To for Holiday Gifting

While there's no shortage of gift guides to peruse this time of year, Giving Broadly is sure to become a permanent fixture on our bookmark bars.

Founded by former longtime Food & Wine Editor-in-Chief Dana Cowin, the new project spotlights interviews with female makers in the food and beverage spaces, like Sana Javeri Kadri, Hawa Hassan, Cara Nicoletti, in the hopes that readers will support small businesses, while also feeding themselves and their loved ones.

"When I was at Food & Wine, I literally never cooked—the test kitchen took very good care of me," Cowin told us, laughing. "Now, for these past few months, I've cooked almost every single night, and I've been relying on these incredible products, like Omsom."

She realized that there had to be lots of products with incredible stories behind them that she hadn't yet tried, a hunch confirmed immediately after tapping into her network of chefs, food writers, and entrepreneurs. Of the 39 makers currently included in Giving Broadly, some are one-woman operations, while others have small, rapidly growing teams behind them.

"What they have in common is that they're often representing a point of view that isn't being heard," she said. "These businesses are labors of love and passion."

Giving Broadly is, similarly, a labor of love. Cowin, who is not using affiliate links, has personally tried each product on the site, along with a group of trusted tasters in upstate New York. She intends to expand the number of product categories—of which there are currently six, including "Spicy," "Farmy," and "Snacky"—but emphasizes that the number of makers on the site will stay tightly curated, instead of developing into an exhaustive marketplace.

Despite launching during the holidays, Cowin feels many readers will use the site to refresh their own cooking routines in the new year, thanks to products like Afia's frozen falafel, founded by Farrah Moussallati Sibai, or Cara Nicoletti's vegetable-forward Seemore's sausages.

That said, the gifting appeal is undeniable. "For each of these founders, a sale is meaningful, so it's like giving a gift that has a story with a lot of power," Cowin said. "I really want everyone to know about these women."