We have been long overdue for a new Button-O-Matic series and we can’t wait for our latest one to be out in the world! This year, we’ve collabed with Pilot Light for our 2024 Artist Series edition! Students from all over the country submitted drawings of their favorite meals to be turned into buttons! We brought them to life with our matte finish to help these illustrations pop! I sat down with Lily Stark, the Communications and Development Associate at Pilot Light, to dive into their mission, our partnership, and her favorite foods.
ED: Can you tell me a little bit about Pilot Light?
LS: Absolutely! Pilot Light is a Chicago chef-founded Food Education nonprofit that partners with teachers in the city and nationally to utilize food and cooking as a teaching tool in everyday classroom learning. Food is crucial to all of our lives, but it’s not traditionally taught in schools outside of electives or after-school programs. Through Pilot Light, teachers use food to teach every subject: math, science, social studies, language arts, you name it. That way, students are learning about food as well as learning through food.
Pilot Light’s model offers students a hands-on approach to school that is relevant to their lives outside of the classroom. As an adult, I use math and science the most when I’m cooking, so tying these practical skills to school subjects is something that just makes sense, especially for kids who have different learning styles and needs!
ED: What is your role at Pilot Light? Favorite thing about your job?
LS: In true nonprofit fashion, everyone on our team wears many hats - my official title is Development and Communications Associate. I handle our marketing, social media, and online communications such as our monthly newsletter and website.
Easily my favorite part of the job is the opportunity to talk about the work our teachers are doing with people new to Pilot Light. There’s that “aha!” moment when people realize the potential Food Education has to transform the way we look at our food system. Everyone has their own way into Pilot Light: a love of our Founding Chefs’ restaurants, an educator that impacted them, they work in the food system…finding each individual’s personal connections to our mission is the best part for me.
ED: Why do you think buttons are particularly helpful tools in spreading your message?
LS: It’s simple, but I think buttons help people identify themselves with a cause they care about. It’s like entering a club - marking yourself as a “Pilot Light Chef.” They’re also great conversation starters! We did a special run of buttons for our SnackTime Explorers program featuring Puprika, our puppy chef mascot. People love a cute design, but they also love the chance to talk about a cause they love - wearing something like the Puprika button gives our supporters and teachers that chance to spread Pilot Light’s message which is invaluable to us as a small team.
ED: How does Pilot Light use the button packs and the fridge magnets that y’all have previously ordered from us? Why these specific products?
LS: We’ve used the buttons as giveaways during lots of different events and conferences. We had custom buttons made for our volunteers at our annual Feed Your Mind Gala. We take buttons to every in-person event we attend, whether it be fundraising-focused or trying to raise awareness for teachers and administrators.
The flat packs are great because they function as a button and a business card all in one: we include our logo and website, a QR code, plus information about our Food Education Standards and programs. It’s especially great for a conference setting. People who attend an event are often learning about us for the first time, so when they get home and look through all the cards and things they collected during the event, they have both the Pilot Light button and that reminder of what we do.
We used the magnets as our holiday party favors this past year. Everyone on our staff and board of directors absolutely loved them! It was a nice way to incorporate our mission into a useful gift - I always need more magnets!
ED: Pilot Light students made the artwork for this year’s 2024 Button-O-Matic Artist Series. What are you most looking forward to about this Button-O-Matic partnership?
LS: I can’t WAIT to see the buttons out in the wild! I live in Logan Square and frequent a lot of the businesses that have Button-O-Matic machines, so I can’t wait to see people in my neighborhood wearing the buttons and trying to get their favorite design from the machine at places like Lula Cafe or Best Intentions. It’s also a great way for my friends to get involved and show support - I’ll be reminding them constantly to go buy some buttons!
ED: What was the process like obtaining the artwork for this series and narrowing down the artwork? I know you had so many submissions!
LS: We sent out emails to all of our teachers giving them the option of joining the button contest. As an organization, it’s important to us to never put too much on a teacher’s plate or ask too much of them, so the opt-in contest format gave the teachers who wanted to participate that extra chance to engage. We had teachers from New York, Chicago, Gurnee, and San Francisco submit - some even mailed the original drawings to us. It was so fun seeing the submissions come in, and now the physical copies are now hanging up in our office!
ED: Was there one specific design from this series that really spoke to you personally or you felt particularly aligned with the mission of Pilot Light?
LS: All of the students did such a great job showing their personalities in their designs, so it’s hard to pick a “favorite” of the bunch! I love the Strawberry Galaxy design, I think it’s so creative. But I also love the Sopa de Cangrejo button because I learned something from it! Several submissions from our NYC schools including the crab soup design had Ecuadorian flags drawn on them, and that led me to start researching different recipes and learn more about Ecuadorian cuisine. I love that I got to learn something new from our students because of this series - it’s so perfectly Pilot Light.
ED: What is your favorite food to make? Favorite Chicago restaurant?
LS: I cook a lot but I rarely repeat dishes exactly – I don’t usually follow recipes. I love cooking anything with cauliflower because it’s so versatile, like cooking with a blank canvas. It’s so hard to pick a favorite. I truly believe Chicago is one of the best food cities in the U.S. If I had to choose, a few of my Logan Square favorites are Ramen Wasabi and the old standby Red Hot Ranch: you can’t beat their burger and cheddar fries!
A huge thank you to Lily for taking the time to chat with me! I also can’t wait to see this series out in the wild. Make sure to keep up with Pilot Light on Instagram and sign up for their newsletter to stay up to date with all their latest news! This series will debut in May, but we’ll be sharing some sneak peeks on Instagram.
