← RKD Group: Thinkers
RKD Group: Thinkers
Opening doors to opportunity: A food bank leader’s nonlinear path to impact
00:36:08
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- [00:00]
Katherine Fritz
I grew up with a Native American father, and he always said, you can't close doors. You have to open the doors.
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How do you eat an elephant?
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One bite at a time.
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Nipa Eason
Okay.
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Katherine Fritz
So, you know, it's when you have big things, you can't eat an elephant.
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Nipa Eason
Don't do it all at once.
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Katherine Fritz
No.
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So what's the first thing? What's the first step?
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Nipa Eason
Welcome to the RKD Group Chat podcast, where we bring you behind the scenes of nonprofit life. We shed light on the compassion and purpose behind the individuals solving the world's most challenging problems. I'm your host, Nipa Eason, and today we're chatting with Katherine Fritz, president and CEO of Long Island Cares. Katherine shares her journey through marine biology research and nonprofits to reach the position she's in today. With 30 years of nonprofit leadership experience, her career has centered around advancing equity, strengthening organizations, and connecting people to causes that change lives. Let's chat. Hi, Katherine. It is so nice to see you, and I'm so excited to chat with you today. How are you?
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Katherine Fritz
I'm good. It's been a busy already, but I'm looking forward to having a conversation with you.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah. So I was looking into your background a little bit. You know, I have to do a little bit of research. Right. And, you know, find out more information about you, but you have worked in so many different nonprofits, and I wanted to hear a little bit about this journey of yours because it's so interesting.
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Katherine Fritz
Sure. Thank you. I have been in the nonprofit world for more than 30 years. I quite literally started when I was about 19 years old. I actually, at 19, got my first director's position working in a very small environmental center.
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I was a marine biology major, and
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I started working in the summers in between college at an environmental center doing environmental education programs. Eventually kind of left that world. Because of my background in research as a marine biologist, I ended up working for a small hospital in a breast cancer research study that was being done on Long island way back in the 90s with the CDC and the long Island Breast Cancer Study Project. So I directed a small portion of the larger breast cancer research project and then was recruited by American Cancer Society to come and work in programs with with them. So I spent more than a decade with American Cancer Society starting on the program side. And then at the time, American Cancer Society was starting this. This little tiny event called Making Strides against Breast Cancer. And everyone, regardless of your role in American Cancer Society, became a fundraiser. We had to recruit teams to come out to Jones beach on Long island and walk for breast cancer. And I loved that. I loved meeting new people, creating new teams, sort of stewarding those relationships, and growing fundraising. And I suddenly found myself in the fundraising world and kind of grew from there. So I transferred with American Cancer Society a couple of times from Long island, down to Virginia, back up to Long Island. Then I stepped away from American Cancer Society for a very short period of time. I was an executive director of a small cancer fund, and I really got a little burned out in the field of cancer. I was going through family cancer issues, and it just. I don't know, at some point, it just became like it wasn't fun anymore. I still really love the mission. I still am a donor, but I needed a different path. And I ended up at Guide Dog foundation and America's Vet Dogs, where, again,
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I was there for more than a decade.
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It's here on Long Island. National organization serving people with disabilities, providing
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them with guide and service dogs.
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Loved that role so much. And an opportunity came up at the local food bank, and I kind of explored it just because I knew the CEO who was there, and he was
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well respected in the community.
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So first I just had a conversation,
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and the next thing I know, I
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was interviewing for the role. So I started here at Long Island Cares.
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Now it's six years as the vice president for development and communications, and rebuilt their development team, created a marketing and communications team.
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And that's where I met RKD and recently was promoted.
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So I started in, let's see, October 8th of 2025 as the President and
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CEO of Long Island Cares. So congratulations.
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Nipa Eason
I know that's. It's amazing. And I think one of the things that I. I love is that hearing about just your openness to trying things like going from marine biology to breast cancer research, like, that's a huge shift. And so being open to that opportunity, like, I feel like it's something that's hard for people to do.
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Katherine Fritz
Yes.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah. And so what would be like, your. What helped you in those moments, making those decisions?
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Katherine Fritz
That's a really great question.
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And I think it's just this thought
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process of taking opportunities as they come.
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You know, I've had a really widely divergent background, and that's.
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Those are only the little, tiny pieces of it.
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You know, at one point, I was banding hawks in the Ghost Chutes mountains, and people don't even know what that is, but it was just opportunity. Yeah, I know.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah.
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Katherine Fritz
It was opportunities that came my way.
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And I guess I grew up with a Native American father, and he Always said you can't close doors. You have to open the doors to opportunity and explore what's there. And that's what happened along the way is I had an opportunity and I just explored it again. I didn't expect to come to food banking, but there was an opportunity, I explored it and you can't shut doors. I have two daughters who are exploring their own life as adults now and trying to find their path. And I have always said you, you can't like, don't pre think your path. If I pre thought my path, I'd be, I don't know, cleaning aquariums someplace in, you know, I. Or working in a fish store. I don't know where I would be. But I wasn't destined to be a marine biologist, I guess. And that's what I thought I was going to do. And I didn't, I just didn't shut doors. And it led me here to an amazing organization that I'm so passionate about. I'm passionate about the people that we help. And that came because I explored opportunities that were unexpected.
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Nipa Eason
Right.
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Katherine Fritz
These are things I didn't go from marine biology to food banking in a direct line, that's for sure.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah. And I imagine that all of these different experiences bring different value to your current role. Right. I feel like it helps, it just helps you when you have your mind open to absorbing all of this, that you bring these skills to whatever it is you're doing currently. What would you say has helped you from what you've learned in the past that's helping you now?
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Katherine Fritz
I think the biggest thing is understanding how to build relationships, how to steward relationships and how to be open to collaborations and partnerships that are non traditional. Again, things that you don't necessarily. It's not a straight path between one thing to the other. So, you know, non traditional partnerships. In food banking, we have a pet pantry that is very non traditional in the food bank world. To have a freestanding pet pantry where people can come who are struggling with food insecurity themselves to get pet food. You know, it's thinking about those non traditional paths that work really well. We have relationships with, you know, other organizations on Long island, what I call allied partners. They're working in the same space. They're not directly in food banking, but they're serving the same community, people who are struggling with, not only with food insecurity. So we always say food insecurity doesn't come by itself. If you're food insecure, you're probably struggling with paying for gas for your car. Heat for your home, electricity, maybe even housing, education, you know, insurance, you know, those are things that are facing people with food insecurity. So to create these partnerships that are a little out of the box with other organizations that, you know, their mission isn't food insecurity, but they're serving the people who are struggling with things that people who are food insecure are struggling with. I think that's the biggest thing that I've learned in all of these different crazy paths that my life has taken me, that you have to kind of embrace people across different genres, across different organizations, and figure out how you work together to, you know, serve the same purpose.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah, it's like this. Creating almost this infrastructure to support in your community, which is incredible. And just, even the pet pantry, like you were saying, like, pets are part of your family, and if you can't afford food for yourselves, then that's also challenging. Yeah, it's a different. Speaking of my dog just jumped up.
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Katherine Fritz
So it's a different foundation. You know, it's. It's not just thinking about, okay, we're gonna, you know, we're gonna work with this path. And we have a relationship with hospitals now because, you know, one of the, the newer things that hospitals must do is if you go through an emergency room for any reason, if you go into an emergency room, they are going to screen you in the emergency room for food insecurity. So and if they determine that you are food insecure, you're struggling with food, then they're going. In a lot of cases here on Long island, you're going to get a bag of food that comes from Long Island Cares or, you know, one of our other partners on Long Island. So they. That's a non traditional way to think about how do we serve that community. Here's people that are, you know, they may coming in for back pain or a heart attack or they injured themselves in some way. Yeah, they walk into a, you know, an emergency room because they're injured. They're not coming because they're hungry. But in that process, they're screened for it. Now the hospital needs to do something. How do we help this person? So creating that relationship with a hospital that can then give them not only a bag of food, but can also give them the resources to their closest food pantry where they can access food long term or where they can get additional assistance. You know, those are different partnerships with allied organizations. And that's just part of, you know, kind of opening your mind to what we can do as a community, not just as One organization.
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Nipa Eason
Right, right. And there it addresses a little bit of that. There's, there can be a stigma right around asking for that kind of help. And so someone who's coming to the hospital, they may not even know that they are experiencing this and that there's help there for them.
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Katherine Fritz
Yeah. And it may be the first time someone has ever help them with that. You know, that may be something that they're, you know, they're, they're doing okay. You know, they're, they're, they feel like, you know, especially if they're a single, maybe they're getting enough food for themselves. But if they're coming in as a family, you know, that's a bigger question. So when they're asked that, you know, okay, today you're okay. Food insecurity, you know, that's a myth. Food insecurity is not that people have a completely empty refrigerator. There's not a morsel of food in their house. Food insecurity means that people don't have the confidence that they can provide long term food for their families or themselves. That's really the definition of food insecurity. It's not where's my meal coming from today? It's where is it coming from for the rest of this week or the rest of this month? So sometimes people are at risk for food insecurity because they don't, you know, they're struggling to pay housing or they're struggling to pay for groceries. Not today, but tomorrow they will be, or next week they will be because they're at the end of the month and they don't have another paycheck coming.
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Nipa Eason
Right. It's like a hard decision every time. Like, what am I going to pay for?
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Katherine Fritz
Yeah, correct. And you know, in, in today's climate, you know, those questions get harder and harder. You know, it's not just the fact that groceries are going up. I mean, we know that we've all seen that. We've all been affected by, you know, certain groceries going up or down. You know, we know what eggs were two weeks ago, we know what eggs are tomorrow. But, but it's other things that are going up and it's, you know, it's all the things that go with it. In the wintertime, heat goes up because you have to heat your houses more. So, you know, your budget gets skewed a little bit. You know, those are the things that people are dealing with. So walking into a hospital, all of these things are going on, but it's not their primary focus when they walk into the Hospital. And now hospitals are asking those questions and determining, hey, this person who just walked in with, I don't know, a head laceration.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah.
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Katherine Fritz
Food insecure. Hey, guess what?
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Here's.
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Here's where you can go for assistance, you know, establishing those kind of relationships and expanding on them and asking the questions, you know, to all of our hospital systems, hey, can we be your partner? Can we be the one that provides that food for you? You know, that's a, that's a very out of the box partnership that in the end, helps both of our organizations.
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Nipa Eason
No, that's incredible. That's such a, that's such a great way to approach it. And, and it feels like you're meeting people where they are and absolutely trying to be there in the places that they will be.
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Katherine Fritz
Correct. Yep. And that's, you know, that's the point of having so many partner agencies. In the food banking world, you know, we have more than 340, what we call member agencies. Those are the food pantries, the soup kitchens. They're in churches, senior centers, battered women's shelters that, excuse me, get a lot of their food from us. So they go onto a menu and they order food from the food bank, and we deliver the food to them. They're grassroots. They're in the community. You know, we're one food bank. We do have six food pantries that we run, three in Nassau county and three in Suffolk County. So we cover all of Long island in addition to those 340 member agencies. But they're boots on the ground. You know, I'm sitting here in Hapa, kind of middle of the island in an industrial park. People aren't coming to my office to get food. They're coming to our partner agencies, and they're coming to our food pantries, and they're going to our mobile distributions and our mobile delivery programs and our farm truck that's out there in the community. Exactly as you said, meeting people where they are. Transportation is a, is a big problem. You know, people, if they don't have a car, they're reliant on bus or train systems, not necessarily a food pantry on the, you know, on the, on the bus schedule or on the, you know, the route of the train. So we got to be where they are.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah, you mentioned that, you know, things have been in this time, especially things have been harder and. Yeah, when you took on this role, things were very hard, right?
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Katherine Fritz
Things were very hard. Yes. I took on this role as president and CEO at the very beginning of the most recent government shutdown.
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Nipa Eason
Right.
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Katherine Fritz
So we went, you know, more than 40 days with a portion of our community not getting paychecks and then SNAP benefits weren't filled. So in addition to all the people that lost their paychecks for a significant length of time for anyone, you know, there are people that depended on their EBT SNAP cards to have money on them and they didn't. So they were turning to the, to the food pantries, they were turning to the network and asking for help. They were turning to their churches, their neighbors, they were going anywhere. It was a scary, scary time. And we had to make some, you know, fast decisions. You know, this was, I was here during the pandemic in 2020. So, you know, it was the same kind of process you'd go through. Okay, what's the, what's the problem right now? How do we solve it for today? How do we solve this long term? You know, is this going to be long term? Is it a, you know, an emergency situation? You know, food banking? Again, I've only been in food banking for, this is going into my six year. My understanding of how food banking came out was really, it was an emergency resource. Something happened to a family and they needed a food pantry for a short period of time. We have to face the fact that food banking is long term, that people are accessing food pantries longer than just emergencies because this is an ongoing issue that people are struggling to put food on their tables and they, that's almost something. Food should not be, you know, a privilege. This, this is not, you know, people aren't, I say this to donors all the time who ask the questions. You, when you go into a food pantry, you're not walking into Whole Foods. You know, you're not walking into Trader Joe's or an Uncle Giuseppe's or a high end market. You're not going to see every product you've ever wanted on the shelves. You're going to see healthy food, you're going to see healthy meats, you know, hopefully fresh fruits and vegetables depending on the pantry that you go to. But this is, you know, this is staples of food. This is, you're not getting, you know, filet mignon with, I don't know, black truffles, garlic sauce. That's, that's not what food pantries are for. So, you know, we hear a lot. Well, you know, do you think people are, you know, whatever, trying to game the system? No, people are embarrassed sometimes and we want to remove that stigma to, to food pantries that again, this is not a privilege that you Write. People should have access to healthy food always. So we want to make sure that our food pantries are warm and welcoming, that people can come in and not be afraid to tell us their story, not be afraid of what's going to happen, not be afraid of diminished in any way by the fact that they need help.
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And that's what I'm proud of. The work that Long Island Cares does and the rest of the food banks
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across the network, that we embrace the people that come in and their stories.
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You know, that's something that I've focused on in my old role in marketing, was making sure that we're celebrating the
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voices of the people that we serve, that we're giving them an opportunity to
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tell their own story. We're not telling the story for them.
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We're letting them tell their story and how they came.
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And what I love is when we
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see the other side of the story,
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when we see these resilient people and resilient families that go through some really
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hard times and come out the other side. And then maybe they volunteer or maybe they bring other people to the food pantry and encourage them, hey, you know, Long Island Cares is okay. They're, they're, they're not gonna treat you badly. They're gonna welcome you and you can
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get good, healthy food and they'll take care of you. You know, that's what we hope that we see.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah. And that's such a huge weight lifted when, you know, I mean, I feel like, I don't know, that people understand how much brain power that actually takes when you're trying to think about your next meal.
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Katherine Fritz
Yeah.
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Nipa Eason
And it makes it really hard to think about other things.
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Katherine Fritz
Oh, my gosh.
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Nipa Eason
And prioritize other things.
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Katherine Fritz
I mean, we, you know, we recognize this in the United States. We've recognized this for a long time because we have free breakfast and lunch programs in schools.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah.
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Katherine Fritz
We know that a child who goes to school hungry can't think, they can't learn. So, you know, we have made this easier. Maybe not the easiest, but easier for parents to access free breakfast and lunches at school. What happens when they go home on the weekends? Yeah. What happens when school is out for the summer? You know, that's where the food banks come in and sort of are that. That safety net for people? Because it is, it's a long term issue. And that's, I think, where you see food banking changing, especially after the pandemic, is that we're talking about long term solutions. We're not just talking about the next Emergency, whatever. The loss of a job, the loss of a spouse, you know, the loss of a family member who was earning money or, you know, an emergency, a hurricane, a pandemic, God forbid, another pandemic, but a flood, anything could happen. It's not just that anymore. You know, it's. It's a. It's a much bigger issue that we in food banking have to consider. How do we long term solve this? And, you know, that's where we talk about root cause work. You know, what's the. What are the root causes of hunger? We know what those are. Sometimes we're afraid to talk about them, but we have to. You know, we have to talk about housing inequalities, education inequalities, pay inequalities, race. You know, these are things that affect food insecurity. And it has to be talked about. And it's not political. This is not, you know, this is not politics. This is people. This is. This is a problem with. Again, this. Food should not be a privilege.
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Nipa Eason
Yes, I agree 100%. I'm gonna backtrack a little bit.
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Katherine Fritz
Yeah.
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Nipa Eason
So you mentioned, you know, moving on from American Cancer Society because of some of the just personal challenges and balancing all of that, and it feels like nonprofit work in general can very easily fall into that, where you're putting so much of yourself into it. How do you stay balanced and grounded?
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Katherine Fritz
So, um, I referred to that in the pandemic in particular, cause I was here during the pandemic as compassion fatigue. That in. In the nonprofit world we're all working for the. The thing that unites all nonprofits is a mission. Our missions are all different, but it's a mission, and it's to help somebody. Maybe it's with education or housing or homelessness or food, but it's a mission to help people.
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And you hear so many stories, and in, you know, in. When I was in cancer, it was meeting so many people that were, you
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know, starting their fight against cancer, and
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I saw so many people lose their
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battle with cancer, you know, and that sticks with me. I can.
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I can close my eyes and see
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some of the faces of the people that I met during that time that affected me, you know, largely. My own parents, you know, both died of cancer. So, you know, it's something at some point, most people are affected by.
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Nipa Eason
Right.
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Katherine Fritz
So that compassion fatigue is real, though, when you work in that industry, because
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you can become cold to those stories
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because they're so just prominent in whatever you do.
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So how do I fight that? It's some days you win, and some
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days you lose at it. You kind of have to just know
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that we're doing good work, that we are helping people, that you do lose some. You know, you don't always win the battle, but we just keep focused on the mission, vision. And here I focus on the values of the organization. Things like respect, things like innovation and collaboration, accountability for us as the organization, to our donors, to the people we serve, to my own staff.
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You know, those are the things that keep me focused on the days that
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are hard, you know, on the, on the days when we hear stories of,
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you know, during the pandemic or, excuse me, during the government shutdown of people who were in the military, people that put their life on the line for us weren't getting paid.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah.
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Katherine Fritz
You know, I, things that I didn't
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think of when the government shut down, national park services workers, postal workers, you
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know, you just go, oh, gosh, you
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don't think about it. So you, that compassion fatigue is real. And I think you do just have to sometimes take a moment for yourselves.
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And that's important to me.
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I, I, you know, one of the things is coming in as the president
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and CEO, I'm focused on is making sure our staff are treated well, that
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we, that I listen to the staff. I've always said I have to listen before I lead.
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I made it a point to sit down with staff, with our board members,
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with our donors, with volunteers, and listen
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to what we did well and what we didn't do so well before I started thinking about changes or restructuring or just how we were going to move
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forward with me at the helm.
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So you do have to take a moment to just kind of sit with the mission and the vision and sometimes
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reflect back on what are my values,
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what are, what do I hold true, what are my core things that keep me moving forward?
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And I'm lucky, I guess, that I've
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always been passionate about the organizations that I worked from, even, you know, from environmental centers and I was all, you
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know, gung ho marine biologists, you know, the world was wonderful and I wanted to train dolphins and craziness to this, to food banking.
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I didn't lose my passion for those subjects. You know, it just, my life changed in different ways. So, you know, that's what keeps me grounded when the work becomes hard.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah, that's, yeah, that's so great to hear because it is hard, it's hard to balance. It's hard to know when you need to kind of step away sometimes. And that pause in that moment is great. Advice.
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Katherine Fritz
Well.
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And I will tell you, sometimes a good Rage music playlist helps.
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Nipa Eason
Yes.
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Katherine Fritz
Contains a lot of Linkin park and Fallout Boy for me.
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Nipa Eason
Oh, I was gonna ask you what's on there. Great. That's amazing.
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Katherine Fritz
Just loud. Lincoln Park.
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Nipa Eason
Yeah. I love that. You mentioned your dad, and I wanted to make sure that we called out that his photo is there behind you, and I love that. And I'm. I'm so glad we got to hear some of his advice to you, because that's. I think that that can, you know, help anyone in going through something like that.
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Katherine Fritz
You know, I think everyone has someone
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in their life that probably many people that stand out as, you know, people that you think about. So my dad was a big. See him again. That's dad. And yes, that is. He's in full Native American wear that he beaded himself. It's all. It's all.
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All himself.
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He was a big influence on my life, and so was being, you know, being part Native American. That was a big part of my upbringing. My mother is Irish and English, red hair, very pale skin. Thanks, dad, for not giving me any of that. But, you know, it's. Everyone has a different path, and you wouldn't. You wouldn't necessarily look at me and go, oh, yeah, she's Native American. So it reminds me also that you don't know people's paths. You don't, you know, you don't know their upbringing. I have in this quest to understand my board, you know, coming in as the president and CEO, I've been sitting down with board members, too, and hearing their stories. And I have asked them, what brought you to Long Island Cares and what keeps you here. And, you know, a lot of our board are wealthy professionals. They've been in the industry a long time. And from several I've heard, well, I grew up in food insecurity or my parents grew up in food insecurity. So I understand it at a different level. And these are not stories that you would look at a person, you know, living in a really great home in a really nice area and having a very successful career and think, oh, yeah,
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they were food insecure. That's.
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You know, you don't think that. So you don't know people's stories. But what I've learned is people's stories are important to keeping the passion in what you do, because that makes me more passionate. When I hear about a board member who volunteers their time, they're not paid to do what I do, and yet they're really involved. So that's I guess to go back to that. What keeps me grounded, too. That keeps me grounded to hear other people donating their time, donating, you know, their treasures, their. Their money, you know, donating food to help us. So, you know, those are all the things, those little stories, those. Those family comes with you when you start a job, when you continue in a. In a path. So, yeah, he is always there. I keep him over my shoulder all the time because every once in a while I'm like, okay, dad, what. What do I do now? But I don't know if he. My kids are over there, too, so they're a big part of my fam. You know, my story, too.
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Yeah.
- [28:09]
You know, you. You just. You keep all those things with you. They shape the person that you become. Just like your path, whether it's straight or crooked, all of those things shape how you lead. How I lead. It certainly shapes what I do. And the little voices that are in your head sometimes. The little voice of my daughter that says, it's five, when are you coming home for dinner? Sometimes you get those, too.
- [28:34]
Nipa Eason
Yeah, but those are important too, right?
- [28:37]
Katherine Fritz
They are. Yeah.
- [28:38]
And that's, you know, you have to live a life, too. And that's, you know, going back to that. Getting out of cancer, because it was all encompassing. It was just. It was in my personal life, it was in my professional life. And, you know, sometimes it's again, that compassion fatigue, you know, when you have to make a left turn, it's. It's time. Yeah. And I, you know, that's. Those open doors, those opportunities are there, so.
- [29:04]
Nipa Eason
Right. And recognizing that you're not the. Not that you need to be the best version of yourself all the time, but you're not in those moments. Right.
- [29:13]
Katherine Fritz
Like.
- [29:14]
Nipa Eason
And that. It's not going to change.
- [29:16]
Katherine Fritz
No. No.
- [29:17]
Nipa Eason
And you need to make a change. Yeah.
- [29:19]
Katherine Fritz
And sometimes the, you know, the rage playlist doesn't help. Or the Coke Zero or all the things that.
- [29:24]
Nipa Eason
All the things that usually help.
- [29:26]
Katherine Fritz
Yeah, yeah.
- [29:28]
Nipa Eason
Rage playlist and Coke Zero.
- [29:30]
Katherine Fritz
I'll have to get my. My stuff. No, my staff know if there's. I only. Do I buy the mini Coke Zeros. Thank God for mini Coke Zeros. If it's sitting on my desk, we're like, she might need a minute.
- [29:45]
Nipa Eason
Might be a good indicator.
- [29:46]
Katherine Fritz
Yeah. The. The caffeine push and some rage music might help me through this process.
- [29:53]
Nipa Eason
It's. It's solid advice, honestly. If you can. You can find a way to. To take a moment and listen to whatever is going to bring you Back and ground you.
- [30:03]
Katherine Fritz
Yeah, well, and I have, you know, I have silly things. You know, sometimes it's just. I don't know. My. My father always used to call it touchstones. Stupid little things on your desk that just bring you a second of joy. So here we go.
- [30:17]
Nipa Eason
I can't wait to see. Oh, is that a little whale?
- [30:21]
Katherine Fritz
It's a teeny, tiny little whale.
- [30:24]
Nipa Eason
It's like a little white whale with a pink.
- [30:27]
Katherine Fritz
Teeny tiny little dots. Is it glass? It is. It's a little, tiny glass whale. And then I. It's so silly. But these things bring you joy sometimes. And here's a little mouse in a kayak.
- [30:39]
Nipa Eason
Oh, my gosh.
- [30:41]
Katherine Fritz
So.
- [30:41]
Nipa Eason
So you collect little mini animals.
- [30:43]
Katherine Fritz
So it's one of the things that just has happened. You know, I think I saw one once, and I was like, oh, that's cute. And then it's just, you know, sometimes I find them on my desk. I also have a lot of plants. A little life in your office. You know what. What is that?
- [30:59]
Nipa Eason
They're little penguins.
- [31:00]
Katherine Fritz
Oh, my gosh, that's so cute. Oh, there you go. I see them now. Oh, I have a bunch of things I have. I also have a little glass octopus.
- [31:08]
Nipa Eason
Oh, so cute.
- [31:09]
Katherine Fritz
Do you notice a theme here? Water.
- [31:11]
Yeah.
- [31:12]
So marine biologist.
- [31:13]
Nipa Eason
Yeah, marine biologist.
- [31:14]
Katherine Fritz
Well, here's one that. This will throw you completely off.
- [31:18]
Nipa Eason
Okay. Oh, it's a cannon. It's a tiny toy cannon.
- [31:22]
Katherine Fritz
It's a tiny toy cannon. Okay. It's actually a pencil sharpener, just FYI. But both my daughters are Gettysburg College graduates. Oh, yeah, Perfect.
- [31:34]
Nipa Eason
Well, but it's. It's an. Again, a touchstone reminder of reminders that
- [31:39]
Katherine Fritz
there's life beyond work sometimes. And it's just, you know, the silly little things that bring you a second of joy. I wrote a little LinkedIn post recently. I can't take him off. I have this silly little guy who sits on my computer. He's a. I can't. He's stuck to it. It's a little wooden man. He's got a silly face that's magnetic, and you can change his little face. And it's just like that second when I'm having a moment where sometimes things get.
- [32:07]
There's it.
- [32:08]
It comes at you fast. You know, a government shutdown, a new position. Snap benefits are cut. Oh, we just heard this story about someone's house burning down and. And TFAP got cut. So a shipment of food, 2, 500 pounds of food is not coming. All of those things can kind of all just hurricane around you.
- [32:29]
And you just need a second just to take a breath and go, okay, yeah, where do I start?
- [32:37]
And sometimes it's the silly little. Actually, I think his little head comes off. The silly little. It doesn't. I was gonna rip his head off for you.
- [32:45]
Please don't.
- [32:46]
Nipa Eason
Please don't.
- [32:46]
Katherine Fritz
It's like just little. Everyone has something that you can just take a moment. It's different for everyone. Maybe it's not rage music.
- [32:54]
Maybe it's peaceful harp music.
- [32:56]
My daughter is a harp player. Maybe it's that.
- [32:58]
Nipa Eason
Or.
- [32:59]
Katherine Fritz
Or maybe it's a Mountain Dew. Who knows?
- [33:01]
Or a cup of tea. But it's just to take that moment and realize you can't. I can't be everything to everyone. This organization can't be everyone to everyone. So let's take a space, a breath, and I kind of reset myself.
- [33:15]
And what am I good at?
- [33:16]
Like, let's start with, what am I good at? Okay. How do I solve this problem?
- [33:20]
One step at a time.
- [33:22]
I always say, oh, here's my other. I have so many little things in my.
- [33:26]
I didn't just.
- [33:26]
Nipa Eason
I love it.
- [33:28]
Katherine Fritz
So my father always said, how do you eat an elephant? Have you ever heard this statement before?
- [33:32]
Nipa Eason
No.
- [33:33]
Katherine Fritz
How do you eat an elephant?
- [33:36]
How do you eat an elephant?
- [33:37]
One bite at a time.
- [33:39]
Nipa Eason
Okay.
- [33:40]
Katherine Fritz
So, you know, it's. It's. When you have big things, you can't.
- [33:44]
You can't eat an elephant.
- [33:45]
Nipa Eason
Yeah. Do it all at once.
- [33:46]
Katherine Fritz
No.
- [33:47]
So what's the first thing? What's the first step?
- [33:49]
Okay.
- [33:50]
What's the next step? What's. What's the next step? So, you know, those. I guess that's my advice to people, is realize you can't do it all. And.
- [33:58]
Nipa Eason
Yeah. Breaking it down.
- [33:59]
Katherine Fritz
Breaking it down and taking a moment for a cup of tea, for some rage music. Know the things that help you get through to the. To the next step, and then you're over the hump, and suddenly it's. Maybe it's easier.
- [34:11]
Nipa Eason
Right. Well, I love that, and I love you sharing the little animals and your touchstones. I think it's beautiful. Thank you so much, Katherine. This is such a great conversation. And thank you for all the work that you're doing in Long island and connecting these agencies together to provide support in a time when people really need it.
- [34:31]
Katherine Fritz
Yeah, I appreciate that. Well. And I would be remiss if I didn't say, you know, thank you to RKD for being our part. I'm thrilled to have come into an organization that started with you and we've continued to steward that relationship and you guys have truly been partners for us to help reach a broader audience. Not just fundraising messaging, but just messaging about what we're doing and how we're doing it. And we couldn't do that without our partners. And you guys and I say this to Mike counterpart at your office, you are truly our partners. We think of you as that and that's a great relationship to have.
- [35:11]
Nipa Eason
What an inspiring chat. Here are three takeaways I got from our conversation with Katherine that I would take back to my nonprofit 1. Open the doors to opportunity and explore don't pre think a path because that can limit us in so many ways. Katherine's career trajectory shows that being open and passionate can lead to so many different paths.
- [35:30]
Katherine Fritz
2.
- [35:31]
Nipa Eason
We should try to connect the dots between community partners and the food bank that don't always have a direct correlation. The pup pantry and the hospital support all show ways we can help create an infrastructure in our communities that can help our more vulnerable neighbors. 3. Taking things one day at a time when you're working in an environment that leads to compassion fatigue is so important. And for those moments where you need to step back, a good Rage playlist and a Coke Zero are incredibly helpful. Want to chat with us? Email us@connectkdgroup.com I hope I hear back from you and either way I'll chat with you next month.