← The PM Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
I joke with people that I live in a world of kitty cats and rainbows. You know, that I am, I'm a very hope filled and optimistic person. But for me, I think it is recognizing that this, this is a mission that's about serving people every day and serving them time after time, however long they need it. And that even if they need help tomorrow, that doesn't mean the system is failing. It actually means the system is working because we'll still be here and they can get what they need.
- [00:28]
B
Welcome to the PM Podcast brought to you by Donor Search, the show that takes you inside the lives of thought leaders, innovators and change makers in fundraising, philanthropy and civil society. I'm your host, Jay Frost. Julie Yeriko is president and CEO of the Northern Illinois Food bank where she leads a neighbor centric transformation of the charitable food system to deliver dignified, equitable access across 13 counties. A respected nonprofit leader and past president of APRA International, she serves on the boards of the Global Food Banking Network, Better Business Bureau of Chicago, Feeding Illinois and the Thrivent Member Network. In this episode we trace Julie's path from Telus student and Chicago Symphony Orchestra fundraiser to crisis tested food bank chief exploring how faith lived experience and innovative community partnerships shape her vision to end hunger. Julie, thank you so much for taking time to talk. I wanted to ask you about a bunch of things since it's been such a long time since we have spoken, but maybe I should start with what's most immediate and then we can circle back to it later. We're talking right now on November 12th and it's a day when Congress is perhaps getting together and discussing whether or not to release certain benefits back to the public, make government available again to the public. That must be a big part of your work where you work today. Let's start there. What has the pressure been like to provide for the community when maybe the government as a partner hasn't been available for the last 40 days?
- [02:10]
A
Yes, yes, that's a great place to start and so glad to be here talking with you again. So for us, when the federal shutdown began, we'd already gone through some changes due to current events in the new administration. And then this came upon us. And typically during a shutdown, neighbors receiving benefits like SNAP or WIC is kind of always on the table. They are receiving those benefits regardless of what's happening within the federal government. We learned in late October that that the USDA announced that it was not going to take advantage of emergency funding they have and distribute SNAP benefits in November SNAP has been around for over 60 years. This has never happened before. In terms of SNAP, it's about $8 billion a month that is going out to over 40 million Americans. So when you think about that impact on families and on our economy, it's going to quite startling. In Illinois, where I work, in our 13 counties, which is the suburbs of Chicago into rural Illinois, we have 445,000 people that are on SNAP. So it's a lot of families that are utilizing SNAP. And for our state alone, it's $350 million. So all of that is being taken out of bank accounts of people to go to the grocery store and is not being put into the economy at the grocery store. And what we know about SNAP for sure is when a person gets a dollar benefit, it actually turns into $1.50 of economic impact when you think about buying and supply chain and workers and all that good stuff. So it was unprecedented for us. And last time we spoke, we were in unprecedented times because of COVID And so we saw that coming. We saw what was happening and we knew we were going to see more people coming to us. We did our analysis. We did it based on what happened during COVID when snap, benefits were increased and then decreased as they should be at the end of the pandemic. And we estimate 100,000 additional visits coming to our network in terms of size or scope every month on average for the past two and a half years, we've been welcoming 570,000 people to our network. So we were going to increase that by we were anticipating a little less than 20% just based on kind of behaviors that we had seen before and the number of our neighbors that receive SNAP and don't receive snap. In order to meet that need, we would need an additional three and a half to four and a half million meals, which cost us about three to four million dollars. So what we did with our board support was say if not now, when? And we chose to make the commitment to purchase food to meet the demand to thankfully we have a reserve that we can access if we need to. But we started ordering food right away. And last I heard this week we have 61 semi truckloads of food coming into the food bank. This kind of additional food will take us from distributing about 7 million meals to somewhere between 10 and 12 million meals this month. And what we're seeing out in our network in our own programs is a 26% increase. So we're actually exceeding our estimate, which is not good in this case, when we compare the first week in November to the first week in October, we're seeing a 26% increase in need. So when you think of a hunger crisis, this is it.
- [06:05]
B
There are a lot of numbers in there. And I know you're really good at also helping us bring it down to one person, one experience, which is really, I know a lot of what your work and your inspiration for the work is about, but can you help us to see what that is? That 570,000 turned into one, what that really looks like for a family coming in to get help?
- [06:28]
A
Sure. So last week we had a town hall about this issue with school superintendents and our agencies and elected officials and our food bank and our neighbors. And there was a neighbor there. Her name is Tina, and she is a mom. She has kids in the home. She has a husband who is disabled and unable to work, and she works two jobs. She's a school bus driver and she is a in home care provider to some folks in her neighborhood. She's piecing it all together. She's making it all work. They receive over $200 a month in benefits. So what it means for her, in her words, is that she is taking money that she was going to use to pay her bills and she's now using that to buy food because that's the most urgent need. And she says, so what it means for me is I'm getting myself financially behind the eight ball. I'm gonna now have late fees, right. I'm at folks. I'm going to be feeling the stress and the pressure. I'm going to have folks saying to me, like, you owe us this money. She's. She's robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it's heartbreaking because she's not doing anything wrong. You know, she's not doing anything wrong. She's working two jobs, she's raising her family, she's taking care of her husband. To say in today's economy that she doesn't have enough to stretch to cover all of her bills. That makes perfect sense to me as a mom, right. As a person living in today's economy. So. So for that person, my heart breaks. And there are 445,000 of them across our service area.
- [08:08]
B
It's a big service area. I think you're the seventh largest food bank in the country, something like that. Is that right?
- [08:13]
A
Oh, you know, I don't know exactly. I believe in terms of revenue, right now we're sitting about 20. The latest report I saw for the.
- [08:21]
B
20Th largest in terms of the service, the Number of people you're serving, but I'm not even sure.
- [08:25]
A
Right?
- [08:25]
B
Yeah, but I know it's large, it's very significant. And you do have a big physical area as well as a lot of different people within that area that you're serving, different experiences. Which kind of guides me to the origin question, at least at this part of your life, which is where all this started. And I think it's even before you got the job there. When did you make the connection in your own life to the importance of this work? When did it become real for you?
- [08:55]
A
Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm very open about my personal life and, you know, there was a point in my adult life where I was a stay at home mom and my husband lost his job. And we had four young children ranging from one to 11. And all of a sudden we had no income coming into the house. And I hadn't really experienced fear like that before. And again, we had done everything right. He had done nothing wrong. It was a great recession when this happened and we had stretched every dollar to have maybe a stay at home mom with four kids. We weren't living large. Thankfully, we had some savings put away. But when all of a sudden something happens and you're not expecting it, I call it unexpected life. It throws you for a loop, an emotional loop, a financial loop. And that was where I reached out to a friend, and not really knowing the gerbil food system, she said, you know, get the kids on free and reduce lunch and get them on healthcare. The state provided health care. Never did she ever say, or did I ever think I should go to a food pantry and relieve my budget even more. Because that's what I was trying to stretch it out, stretch out my budget even more. And that's what really motivates me today in this work. The irony in the story is that after a few months, three. Three months, a friend of mine sent me a job, and it was a job here at Northern Illinois Food Bank. And I had been praying over. I'd like this to be very grassroots fundraising. I've always been a fundraiser, but I really wanted to do something grassroots. Want to do something in human services or to help children with disabilities. And my friend sends me this job. It's per Capitol campaign here for the food bank to build the warehouse I'm in today. And it was a perfect fit, nine miles from home. And so to be able to walk from the situation I was in and be able to see so poignantly, the importance of this work has motivated me for the past 16 years.
- [11:11]
B
It's funny, a minute ago you said you weren't familiar with that charitable system, even though you were working the world of charity. So I guess when you and I met was. You were at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
- [11:22]
A
Yes. Yeah.
- [11:23]
B
Is that right? So you knew the world of charitable organizations, but they aren't all the same. They aren't serving all the same purposes. They're all great, but they're very different from one another. So maybe you can take us even further back. I know that you studied music. First of all. Is that cello that you.
- [11:47]
A
Yes, yes.
- [11:49]
B
So you were studying music and business. So how did those two things, first of all, what was the passion there? And then how did that then translate into the world you entered into in this world of charity? Charitable fundraising? Yeah.
- [12:04]
A
Yeah. I love sharing this part of my life because I think right now, my youngest, my daughter Claire, who was one when I started working for the food bank, is 17 and is graduating high school. And she seems to know what she wants to do, but so many kids don't write like, they don't always know what they want to do. And I was like, I had no idea really what I wanted to do. And I had played cello growing up and loved it. And my parents were kind enough to say, yes, go ahead, get a music degree. That's a great idea. And I was at a Northern Illinois university here in the. In rural Illinois, getting a music degree. And I realized I wasn't going to be a performer or a teacher that wasn't calling me. And that was a long time ago. And they didn't have all the wonderful nonprofit degrees that they have now. But I was in the honors program, and I was able to do some special one on one work with a Professor Tony Garcia. And he was very into music business. I said, oh, I'd like to learn more about music business and the way orchestras work. And ended up getting, as part of that honors program, getting an internship for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, which is not affiliated officially with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, but it's very closely aligned. And I went there and I realized how fascinating I thought the nonprofit world was. And management administration really liked fundraising, liked begging people to support something I care deeply about. I say I'm a professional beggar. And so that's how I got started in the work. Once I graduated, I literally took what is now the association of Fundraising Professionals book, and it was, you know, it was the directory. It was an actual directory. And I started cold calling organizations that I wanted to work for no Kidding. Like how, like audacious am I? Like, I'm like, I'd like to work here. And I'd call. And I called the zoo here in Chicago, Brookfield Zoo, and they had an opening and fundraising, and I was, I was considered the secretary. I got promoted to a development associate and I processed all the gifts and I wrote grants. So that's, that's my mighty start in fundraising and administration.
- [14:21]
B
How a lot of people start, I guess, kind of that was. Yeah, I was a development associate too. So it's doing everything at the zoo, but that was not, as you just said, your calling, I guess, but working in the field, for sure. Yeah. Why is that? Where's the. That must have come even earlier. So is your family a family of service?
- [14:43]
A
Yes, 100%. I'm laughing a little bit when you say that because yesterday I'm getting texts and my son, my son Branford, who works for Amazon and he, he has, you know that he has the Amazon hours. So when he's not working at Amazon, sometimes he comes to volunteer. Right. So he's there often early in the morning or later at night, and he'll. It's literally across the street, so he'll come by and volunteer. Well, and my dad was here. My dad. I'm getting text from my dad and dad's got. They're volunteering together. I could see them down there. And that was just part of our family culture.
- [15:17]
B
What are you doing there as volunteers? How are they?
- [15:19]
A
They were repacking onions. We buy produce and totes, huge totes. We can get them cheaper at bulk. And then we have volunteers put them into three to five pound bags so we can distribute them out to family. So, yeah, Branford and dad were down there repacking onions yesterday afternoon.
- [15:40]
B
A job to cry over. Yes, with the onions.
- [15:45]
A
Yeah. So that was my, that was my growing up. My. My parents were always very engaged, always giving back. We had a fair family, traditional family structure. You know, dad worked and mom was home when she did go back to work. She's a teacher, but, you know, always involved in school, always involved in church. Always saying, you know, serving, serving is important. And it, it just, it fills me up. You know, you're created in a certain way and that's what I love to do.
- [16:12]
B
So a church family. Where were you going? To church.
- [16:16]
A
We. They. I would. I will call us Protestants. They would. We. I was baptized Presbyterian, but then, you know, confirmed United Church of Christ. And then when we moved out, because we moved to DC for a while, we were Methodists for a while, and now they go to an evangelical church. And I'm Lutheran now. So, you know, we're protesters.
- [16:38]
B
It's a. It's a long tradition. Yes. Of people who are protesters, but then also insurance service. Right. I mean, I guess that's. That's the thing you're describing. So. And it sounds like your family is now physically still all together, even though, as you just pointed out, you were in different places.
- [16:55]
A
Yes. Yes. So for the past 20 plus years, almost 25 years, when I moved my family to a community here in Northern Illinois called Winfield or Wheaton, Illinois, mom and dad followed. They were kind of retiring out of their jobs, and they followed. And they have been the best grandpapa living close to us. There have been my kids, Ubers. Now my kids are their Ubers. We have dinner on a weekly basis.
- [17:26]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [17:27]
A
They're terrific.
- [17:28]
B
So before we totally leave the education behind, does music still play a role in your life or the life of your family? Because I know sometimes that's also part of church.
- [17:40]
A
Yeah. So we have. We have participated in music at church. Right now. It is. I'm gonna say it is not like I'm not playing. My older children both played through college, were big music enthusiasts. My oldest still plays the guitar all the time. He's. He's moved from violin to guitar. Not surprising for someone in their 20s. But I would say, other than appreciating greatly, we aren't actively participating as musicians.
- [18:12]
B
But the business part of your. Of your educational background is playing a big role, I'm sure, in what you do. I mean, when you started this conversation, you rolled off a bunch of statistics which you would have been very comfortable delivering before a committee hearing in Congress. So that's probably something that people on the Hill would benefit from hearing once in a while. But those two. I know this is not exactly true about the brain, but those two halves of your brain, getting. Getting the ability or utilizing the ability to both see the detail as well as to understand its. Its application to a single family or a single individual. That must have been very important in taking on this work and then evolving into the role that you have now.
- [18:57]
A
Oh, I think storytelling, but more importantly, listening to the voice of the person you're trying to serve. So that's been another. When you come in with what we call lived experience, you realize how much charities unintentionally do to the person we're trying to serve rather than with. That's something we work very hard here. We're creating a system with people who are the actual customers and the experts in it? When we're telling stories, we're working with our neighbors and we are asking not only their permission, but we actually compensate neighbors for sharing their stories with us because they're the experts. It's really important to me, like I said, having had lived experience, to make sure that we are honoring and working together with the person that we're serving. A long time ago, when helping Hurts, there was a book too. And it is this idea of often systems like a food bank system is created around the person who. Who has help to give, not the person who's receiving it. Simplest example is food pantries are often open during the day for a couple of hours when you can get the volunteers, not when the working mom can actually get there or when. Or in a place where the senior can actually find transportation to get there. And so that's something we're trying. That's a paradigm shift we're trying to do here. And it's all based out of my own experience and listening and learning from a lot of people.
- [20:38]
B
Right. It sounds like that must have been kind of unwinding of things that were in place not just there, but at other food banks, certainly at all kinds of charitable organizations and businesses for that matter. Kind of focusing on what is our system for distributing the good into the marketplace. How has that been for you and for all the people working with you, from the board to the staff to the volunteers, to kind of unwind that and focus on listening?
- [21:09]
A
I'd like to believe it's been powerful and empowering. It started years ago. We were looking to create an online food pantry. And it was one of those moments where I realized I had privilege and being able to pre order a Christmas gift of Barbie Dream House and being able to find the best price and know that it will be there. And I could pick it up. Right. Going to the Target store to pick it up and realizing that families that don't have the privilege of having enough resources couldn't do that to get their food, like something much more basic. And so it was something I really wanted to do. And I reached out to our national organization, Feeding America, and a woman named Maura Shea, who was there at the time working innovation and said, we have to build this. Like, help me. We have to build this. And she said, why don't we talk to the neighbors about what they want first? And I was like, that is a good idea, isn't it? We should talk to our customers. And so as we started that conversation and learned we started with, what prevents you from coming to a food pantry? Rather than going in and saying, do you want this? We said, why wouldn't you come to us? And we learned the reasons. You don't know about us. You can't get to us, or you're ashamed for needing help. We said, what could we build to address those issues? I was pretty dogged. We ended up building the online food pantry. We also did some other experiments around meals and around spreading the word, helping people understand who we are and what we do. But that led to this paradigm shift for us, and I'm proud to say it has been adopted across the Feeding America network, where we have a framework that was adopted by the whole network a year ago. And within that, we are all using the same language around serving with our neighbors. And we actually have a whole strategy around neighbor centricity.
- [23:14]
B
And for those who are unfamiliar with this, is this similar to being able to go to Safeway or Giant and have everything already ready for you and delivered to your car? Is that the kind of concept?
- [23:27]
A
Yes, that is the exact concept where you can go online. You can choose groceries that you would like. We always have fresh produce, protein, and dairy. And then we have about 35 other items. So it's not nearly as extensive as a grocery store, but you can place your own order. We have 20 different pickup sites across our 13 counties. It includes a couple of Walmart stores and a Farm and Fleet, and we've had Goodwill and Food bank and food pantry sites. Or you can have it delivered for free by DoorDash. And so we are one of Doordash's largest charity partners. They are distributing 800. I'm sorry, delivering 800 online orders for us every week. And during the pandemic, they're doing all of that, or we're not in the pandemic during the shutdown, they're doing all that for free.
- [24:18]
B
I have to ask you, does it feel a little bit like you just switched words there with the pandemic? Because I know that situation was different, but there must be some eerie similarities.
- [24:29]
A
Very similar. Very similar in terms of a rapid upscaling, you know, a rapid response, trying to monitor what's happening and what's the best way for us to help. We. We learned a lot during COVID which has been really helpful in this moment. I think we're able to move forward faster and more aligned because of what we learned. And we. We do joke a little bit. You know, when we were first talking about some of the huge distributions, we're doing. I looked at the team and there were a lot of folks here who were still here at that time and still here with us today. And I was like, is anyone in the corner rocking, sucking their thumb? Are we all okay? Is this too much? Is there PTSD going on here? These food bankers, they are resilient, they're brilliant, they're caring. Nothing stops them. They just want to get the work done. And they are once again rising to the occasion.
- [25:31]
B
Wow. I mean, so many thoughts about that. I mean, the first is how you're finding these people because unless they have the, as you put it, the lived experience, they've been through something like, let's say what you did or a thousand other kinds of experiences that lead people to seek some level of assistance in the community that they didn't know they needed before and they don't know how to get tomorrow. Unless they have lived through that, how would they even know how to volunteer or what the need would be or how to come to you or whether or not their volunteer service would be desired? How do you find these people and connect them with you?
- [26:07]
A
Yeah, well, what's, what's fun is we do have a self reported demographic survey that we do here with our volunteers, including our board and our team. And over a third of our team has lived experience. So we're a team of about 170. We have a lot of drivers and a lot of warehouse workers. So we have a lot of people that come to us that could be working in the for profit sector. And then of course we have all of our program people and our fundraisers and our, you know, HR and finance. But I do think it's, it's telling that a third of the folks here know what it feels like. And over 40% or 0 of our board has lived experience. That is something we don't screen for. As we are recruiting someone for the board, we look at how you've been engaged with us, that you've committed to us in lots of different ways. I think it's fascinating. About 42% of our board has lived experience.
- [27:10]
B
So they're really seeking you out. Which says a lot about trust. In the same way that when you went out on kind of a listening tour or asking people really what they needed. It's one thing to ask, it's another thing to get a response. And there are so many ways that we can try to survey people that don't work. You are clearly getting answers that were material to delivering services that people needed in the ways they needed them. But that only works when people trust you. So trust must be a big part of. Of the work. Can you talk about that?
- [27:47]
A
Yes. Yes. And what we have learned when we are working together with our neighbors who need help is you need to give that time. You and I are fundraisers, right? You need to give fundraising time. You know, you have someone, they give to you, you want to get that second gift. Right. You continue to steward and as time goes on and you continue to keep up that relationship, but also communicate impact of what they're doing. Right. They begun. They begin to trust you. And we've learned the same thing with our neighbors is as they get to know us and as we serve them well. And we continue to go back and say, you're the expert, help us. You know, how can we help you? We brought our neighbor council together a couple of weeks ago and said, you know, the situation. What should we be doing? And I have right here, right. These are all the things that neighbors are saying we need to do in order to make sure that we are communicating well and providing the right benefits to our neighbors. So I think it is all about trust. But you can't. We've been. We've been doing this for years now. And the folks that serve on our council, which we go to on a regular cadence right there, think of any kind of board you would have for a nonprofit. They function like that, an advisory board. We have taken the time to build trust and to honor them in that. And unlike a nonprofit board, they are compensated because they are experts.
- [29:18]
B
Oh, yeah, that's a totally different model. Have you ever gotten pushback for that from people who don't understand that initially? The kind of reaction that we get, especially from people outside the sector who think that everybody should be a volunteer, including people like yourself.
- [29:35]
A
Oh, yeah, we have not. We have not gotten pushback on it. I think as everything about our organization, we. We talk about caring for people, helping all people thrive. And I think because of. It's so clear in our strategic plan and in our values that the folks that are interacting with us, they. They understand and we don't get pushback on that.
- [30:01]
B
Yeah. When you were talking about, again, Covid to the government shutdown and anything that probably preceded that and may come in the future, I imagine that even though people always need food, a lot of the people who are coming for it today versus in 2008, 2009, or 2020, they may not be the same people. So those people may need food, but they aren't necessarily aware of all this. So Communicating is important, as you were just saying. I'm wondering how much you have to be adjusting for changes in the environment and changes in the marketplace. That may not be the right word, but the people themselves. Because when you asked questions of folks a few years ago, those were truthful answers at that time. But the people who you may be serving tomorrow at the next emergency, who aren't aware of this at all and are coming to you for the first time, are you constantly revisiting what is it that you think you know and talking to people in a new way.
- [31:07]
A
And, and what, what, what should we be communicating? Sometimes it changes, sometimes it's the same. One of the things we hear a lot about is this is food safe to eat? So much is given to us and when something's given to us, it might have a date issue about it. So you know, you have Best Buy, you have used buy, you have destroy buy. And so we get a lot of Best Buy, right? Like that. It's perfectly good to eat. It just may not be the top notch quality that you would get if you're purchasing it. I remember talking to chief marketing officer at kind of every years ago, you know, about Pam Spray, and they're like, yeah, it's kind of best if you, if you replace it about every year. Like you're getting the best product. So we put a best buy date. But you can use it for years after that, of course, you know, and so that's a communication that we have to be very consistent on. We call them, you know, myth versus facts. And we have all sorts of communication out about the food you're receiving and what's safe and when isn't it safe? It's an education and an honoring. Right? You're not getting food that's garbage. Because people think, well, like, am I the last stop before the dumpster? No.
- [32:27]
B
Yeah, that way. That's, that's the, that's part of the issue. It's not just do they feel like they can eat it and feed it to their children, but am I being treated like my neighbor?
- [32:38]
A
Right? Yes, yes. I would say something that I've seen shift a little bit and I'm sure like I won't become, I won't be political in this, but we have certainly seen in the last 12 months need to alter communication based on people living in a, in with some fear about what are you going to ask me when I show up? What documentation do I need?
- [33:07]
B
Oh, I see.
- [33:09]
A
What if I don't speak the language? And so we have seen a Need to increase information about what you can expect, particularly with a population, any immigrant population. One of our. We've got all neighbors from all around the globe that are new to America and making sure that they can not only understand what we're presenting, but understand what's going to happen and what we're going to ask them for. And I would say that's been a shift for us in the past 12 months.
- [33:39]
B
Well, I think I just heard a statistic about 18% of the people living in Chicago are immigrants. So if that's true, that's a lot of people. I know that you're not serving Chicago proper, or whatever you call it there, but there are a lot of people from all over the world, as you say, that you're in touch with.
- [34:00]
A
And so many people who might start in Chicago come out into the suburbs. And so we know our communities, we map our communities, we know the demographics of our communities. And so we are very cognizant of how are we working with communities that are living in that fear, and how might we look at different distribution models according to what they want, who they want, giving them the food. Right. They need trust, and so kind of working a little bit differently during these times.
- [34:32]
B
So that anonymity portion that you talked about earlier, that sometimes had to do with, I guess, stigma. This also might be just concern or fear in this case. Wow, that's so interesting. I hadn't thought about it, and again, I don't mean this as a political question, but I'm just trying to understand the logistics of it. So is it true for the Northern Illinois Food bank, but also other food banks in the system around the country, that the idea is if people are hungry, you provide them food?
- [35:03]
A
Yes.
- [35:04]
B
Regardless of who they are, where they're from?
- [35:06]
A
Yes. Yes. That is part of our mission. Right. We serve. We serve everyone who comes to us looking for help. We are supported so generously by the community. For us, it's ranged over the past few years, but typically about 10 to 12% of our resources, including our food, is from the government. So the vast majority is privately funded. So kind of regardless of any. Any constraints that might be put on us from the government, we have plenty to give out without any restraint. And so I'm. I'm really grateful for that, that we have that kind of support and that network so that we can serve everybody.
- [35:51]
B
Yeah, that's. That's very important to hear. Thank you so much for, for sharing that. I, you know, I wonder if for you now, you've been doing this For a good number of years. This is how many years now?
- [36:07]
A
16.
- [36:07]
B
16 years. What has been the hardest part so far?
- [36:13]
A
Oh, that's a good question. I would say two things. The hardest part professionally is being a good people leader. So this place runs on the goodness of others. So again, raising the fundraising world, you know, how do you nurture these relationships? We've got, we have a thousand volunteer spots a week that are coming to our four locations. Yeah, a thousand spots. We have all of these wonderful people coming in together with our donors. We have an agency network that's very robust. And then we have these food bankers, these friendly, fabulous food bankers. And I think when I came in, I thought it was all about impact measuring, setting the goals, setting the strategies, making sure you're achieving on them. And of course that's important, but I think the longer I'm in this role, I realize it's around common vision, purpose and values and how you help every person thrive within what their role is here at the food bank. And that takes a lot of time and effort. You know, whether it's professional development or the right benefits or, you know, you have the whole remote versus in the office, you know, all of those things. How do you reward, retain, you know, really engage, have an engaged team here, whether they are an official food banker or a volunteer or a donor or an agency. So that's, that's one thing that's been hard. Like, not hard, but just a learning for me personally, it's the stamina. It's the stamina when you're in this work and you think, oh, it's got to get better. We're distributing over 90 million meals every year. We're doing it in a way that is more neighbor centered. Right. We're doing it, you know, larger scale, all of it. And you think, I don't think we're any further ahead than we were 16 years ago. You know, we're distributing more, more people are coming to us. It doesn't, the future doesn't look super bright right now in this work. And so it's finding the stamina, finding the hope and realizing that in this, in this role in this organization, it is about feeding people today and giving them hope for tomorrow. And if we have full bellies every night, then we're winning. Maybe we have to fill them up every day, but we always do.
- [38:54]
B
So for you because you, you bring a lot of, I don't know if optimism is the right word, but got this positive energy to the work. It's clear you always been like that there and elsewhere, but, but particularly for this, how do you keep that going for yourself so that when you go in and you know that you cannot solve this problem today because people will still be hungry, maybe different people will be hungry tomorrow. How do you sustain your own level of enthusiasm for getting out there and doing the work?
- [39:32]
A
Yeah, yeah. So, so many ways I would think of, and you're right, I joke with people that I live in a world of kitty cats and rainbows, you know, that I am, I'm a very hope filled and optimistic person. But for me, I think it is recognizing that this, this is a, this is a mission that's about serving people every day and serving them time after time, however long they need it. And that even if they need help tomorrow, that doesn't mean the system is failing. It actually means the system is working because we'll still be here and they can get what they need. You know, I think about people who might be, you know, living with a disability or, you know, they may have a chronic health issue, like the fact that they get the food that they need in a way that serves them, that's winning. And so I, I, I, I kind of lean into that. I also have a strong faith and for me, when times are hard, I, I lean into that quite a bit. And whatever a person's faith may be, I think most faith traditions are about what I might call the universe, if I was not talking about it like that the universe conspires for good, that the world was created for good. Yes, we seem to be really good at messing it up, but at the end of the day, when you see a thousand volunteers showing up every week and this magnificent agency network working and folks choosing to support us and invest in us, you see hope every day. I lean into my faith and my belief in the universe.
- [41:17]
B
You've talked about how at one level you are a fundraiser. You're much more than that, but that's part of the work. In fact, I heard you answering a question recently with some folks down in Florida saying, who asked you if you now were a better or stronger fundraiser than you were a leader or the other way around, which were you first? Are you a leader or a fundraiser? Which I thought was very interesting. And actually I should give you a chance to answer that question here because that is very interesting. There are a lot of leaders who think, well, fundraising is just this thing I have to do, not the thing that I want to do. You have, I think, found a way to bridge these. And I wonder if part of that is because maybe, I don't know, maybe it's grounded in your faith, but talk to me about how you bring together the practical part. Going out and talking to someone who may be a little more cynical than yourself, but you're still going to get them to give together with that part that just makes it work. For 9 million. Did you say 9 million? 9 million meals a year, which is 90. 90 million.
- [42:24]
A
Yeah. Yeah. You know, that's funny that you say that. And I do remember that question, and I don't. I don't honestly remember what I answered. What I will tell you is, you know, how do you use fundraising in this role or what? What should I be. How should I be supporting fundraising? What are my learnings from it? First, when I got this job, I looked at the fundraising team and I said, you're never going to have to ask me twice. I said, I have worked with way too many CEOs who you have to ask them two or three times. You got to go make this call. You got to go make this ask, right? I'm like, please hold me accountable that you only that you asked me once, and I get it done for you. Because I know that people put trust in the CEO. It's a position trust, hopefully it's earned by the person in it, but they will trust the CEO. And I said, I want to make sure that I make your life easier, that we're more successful together. So in bridging them, I would say, because I feel this business, and it's a business runs on the goodness of others. I consistently talk about not so much how are we acquiring people in, but how are we stewarding them. We have done really great work with our volunteers. We even had the privilege. We had Chick Fil a national global. The folks from Atlanta came up and we talked about hospitality. They spent a day with us talking about hospitality. Because we really want to serve everyone through that lens. But when you come here, we want you to have a certain experience. We just happened to have that in, so we took advantage of it, certainly with our donors, with our neighbors. I've talked about how hard we've worked at that. And I would say my kind of last standing stakeholder group is our agencies. And how do we work with our agencies? They come in all different shapes and sizes. And I keep saying to our group, and we're getting there, we need to look at agencies with different attributes and who bring different value. All the value is important, but bring different value to us and what our relationships are with those agencies. We've been a little slower than I wanted. But we're getting there, right? Like, we're getting there, you know, like, we know we have agencies. They are huge organizations. They are professional, they are professionally run. They're distributing millions of meals every year. Right. They're incredible organizations, professional nonprofit organizations. And then we have organizations that may not have those resources in that scale, but they have all the passion behind them. You know, I'm going to one of our senior sites. It's completely volunteer run. They do a distribution every month for seniors living in low income housing. They give it everything they have. They are all important, but they need a different relationship with the food bank based on who they are and what their impact is on our work. And so that's why I'm applying fundraising, I think, across the. The organization.
- [45:32]
B
It's a lovely way to think about it. So it's not. So not only pedestrian, but it's also completely grounded in the work that it's. Yeah, everybody has a role to play in feeding these folks that you work with. What's the dream for you? What do you imagine is next? Not just the organization, but for you.
- [45:59]
A
For the organization. I'm a rule follower. We have a strategic plan how we can provide food plus to our neighbors. We've done experiments in workforce development and we have wonderful healthcare programs. But I'd really love for us to be the trusted source for. If I need to know what organization to work with for housing or for financial literacy or for transportation. We have a whole team, seven or eight strong. They take phone calls all day, helping sign folks up for benefits and directing them to help. I'd love to. We call them wraparound services. I'd love to build really, really strong partnerships with lots of different types of organizations so that if I'm a person in need, I'm not having to make four phone calls. I can make one and get the help I need. So that's what I'm hoping for in the next five years that we can get that done here. For me, I'm just. I'm just happy as a pig and slop. Like, I'm so happy I have, like this. I've been serving this community for so long. The folks that trust me, I trust them right back. The privilege of serving, like, it all works for me. I have thought, like, oh, is there something else? I don't know. I'm a woman of a certain age and I think as long as they'll have me, I'll be here. Because I just love. I love this work.
- [47:34]
B
Maybe. I imagine that when you are your parents age or you'll still be doing this work in one way or another, it seems like that runs in the, in the DNA of your family.
- [47:47]
A
Oh, I am sure that I will be doing something right when I, when I am no longer working here at the food bank. When I'm retired, I'm sure I'll be doing something. I also this in this day and I'm kind of teasing. I'm kind of not. I mentioned that we have Walmart stores where we have my Pantry Express distributions and one of the things I always thought would be fun, and this is the fundraiser in me is I'd like to be a Walmart greeter and I'd like to go in and say, all right, what are your sales here? Like, I want to know your sales and I want to increase those and pick a percentage. And it wouldn't be to like try and finagle people to buy more stuff. I'd be like, what are you looking for today? What do you need? Is there something I can help you with? I think I could raise the sales of a Walmart store by being a greeter. Everyone's got a dream, right? Everyone's got a dream. You know, they got great clothes.
- [48:38]
B
Right.
- [48:39]
A
They've got all the craft supplies. Like folks who go there and you know, you might not always get great customer service. I don't know. But like, for me, just be like, what you looking for today? Can I help you find it? You know, wouldn't that be fun? Just chit chat with the people.
- [48:53]
B
Absolutely. And I hope in the meantime Walmart is listening and decides to, you know, send over a great big donation your way because you deserve it.
- [49:03]
A
Yeah, I just think those greeters are fun.
- [49:06]
B
So thank you, Julie. I don't know if there's anything else I should have asked you. I know this is kind of organic. I hope that's okay.
- [49:15]
A
It was great.
- [49:16]
B
Yeah, thank you.
- [49:18]
A
I would say the only thing I would want to add, there are 200 food banks across the country. We cover every county, every state. We're in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico. These are great organizations. They particularly need help today. So if someone listening has helped to give, look up your local food bank, you can go to feedingamerica.org and there's a food bank finder. Find your local food bank. Think about helping, but also be cognizant of who in your community might be struggling today. The federal worker, I'm sure in your community, the federal workers. Folks that may not have enough and please recommend that they look into the charitable food network. We are all here. We are all, like I said, friendly, fabulous food bankers. We want to help. The number one reason someone will come to the charitable food sector is because someone they trust has recommended they do it. So be an ambassador and help folks get what they need today.
- [50:23]
B
Well, that's it for this episode of the PM Podcast. You can learn more more about the Northern Illinois food bank@solvehungertoday.org and to find your local food bank, go to feedingamerica.org Our thanks to our sponsor, Donor Search, the global leader in AI powered fundraising intelligence solutions for the nonprofit sector. Our producer is Jack Frost and our theme music is Moving Out, Moving in by Jay Taylor and it's provided courtesy of Epidemic Sound. If you like what you heard, make sure to subscribe wherever you like to listen. Check out our sister shows, Front Lines of Social Good and How to Raise, and come back next weekend for another conversation with a leader in the world of social good. Until then, this is Jay Frost. Thanks for joining me.