While many parlay their passion for food into a restaurant or product development, Lauren McNamara has always been interested in how food gets on the shelf. In middle school, she did a report on the Minute Maid orange juice supply chain. “It’s just so tangible with food,” she says. “Other industries don’t have that same connection.” Following stints with General Mills and Flagstone Foods, she joined SunOpta, where she’s been a driver behind the Eden Prairie-based organic and natural food and beverage maker’s better-for-you fruit snacks and its new SOWN organic oat creamer. She’s also a mentor to food startups, and she serves on the board of the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, an ag think tank.