The Surprising Way Food Banks Turn Waste Into Hope — And Why It Matters

[0:16]  Welcome back to another episode here on the Heart and Hustle Podcast, where we continue to talk to leaders that are doing some amazing things in their cities, in their communities. And today we have Miss Sarah from Connecticut. How you doing today, ma'am?

[0:29]  Great, great to be here.

[0:31]  Same, super excited. Let us know a little bit more of your role. what role do you play with Connecticut Foodshare? What is Connecticut Foodshare doing? Let's just kinda start w opening up with that.

[0:52]  Sure. Connecticut Food Share is the food bank for the state of Connecticut. So the best way to think about us is we're kind of like the Costco or the Sam's Club for all of the pantries and shelters and little community kitchens around Connecticut. We are a steady supply, a source of food where they can come and get food to bring back to the people that they help. So we provide the meals to just millions of millions of meals to people across the state of Connecticut.

[1:13]  Sarah, how long have you been doing this with this organization?

[1:17]  Next month is gonna be twenty two years, which is astonishing to me.

[1:22]  Wow, almost a whole century. Isn't that crazy? No, for sure. you know, I was actually having a combo with a a friend this past week and just some talking about the good people that we really have in our world. You know, a lot of the times you see so many negatives, but there's really some good people that have given their lives to r better others. And Sarah, that's exactly what you're doing. You talked about almost a century of just giving to others. Why?

[1:24]  It's a long time. In in the beginning of career, when come I came out of college, I wanted to do something like become a world-renowned advertising creator. I wanted my ads in the Super Bowl. So I was going to take my marketing degree and astonish people with my creative genius. And then as I got into advertising and realized that it was just Cutthroat, doggy dog, rough kind of job to get, difficult hours. I still really appreciate a great Super Bowl ad and it's fun to watch them. But I really ended up working for the newspaper, I ended up working for the cable company, and they were also good solid jobs, but it lacked something. It lacked that feeling of really making a difference. And I got the chance to see. A Habitat for Humanity home being built and see the family take possession of their home that they had worked on for hundreds of hours. And that kind of got me interested in nonprofits. This is cool. You mean I can spend 40 hours a week doing something that actually makes a huge stellar difference in people's lives? So I caught the bug then and went to habitat and made the transition from for profit to not for profit, which was quite a transition. Transition to make, but got the bug for doing work that really, really makes a difference in people's lives.

[3:22]  W what was the current role? I don't know that we caught that. What was the role that you you are now with Connecticut Food Share?

[3:28]  So my title is director of community programs. That means the programs that we particularly direct, not the agencies that we help, but we have a truck that goes out to 113 different locations and provides food at right at street level where people need it. And then we have boxes for seniors that we do. So my role is those direct service type of programs that help people get food on a day-to-day basis.

[3:58]  And with all those locations that you mentioned, is it that you guys show up in the same locations every single day or how do people find out about these locations?

[4:07]  So we partner with organizations in the community. So if we know we need a site in Bristol, Connecticut, we're gonna look for a good partner organization in Bristol. And they provide the volunteer and the coordinators that run the site, run the distribution. We provide the truck and the food that's on the truck. So we've got an every other week schedule. Every other Tuesday at 10, we're gonna be at St. Anne's Church. The stability means that people know we're when we're going to be there. The routines, so they're really comfortable, that we're always going to be there at that day and time. Works really well for the community.

[4:47]  Wow, and and how many lo how many people do you think like a location would see?

[4:51]  It varies, but there's very few locations that are under a hundred people now. A hundred people standing in line, it's it's a lot of people. And some of the locations are up to 200 people.

[5:22]  That's good.

[5:35]  And we have to do get through it in half an hour to 45 minutes. So we're really moving that distribution. The trucks come out, they're beverage trucks. So we roll up the sides, put out the tables around the truck, the people are in line, ready to go. They can walk away with 20 pounds, 25 pounds, good healthy food, and take home to their families. We are committed to a no questions asked model because the more paperwork people have to do, the less people are gonna do it and come out. So we really wanted to make it as easy as possible. So if you show up and you're in person, you're 16 or older, even 14 if you look responsible, and you're there in person, you can walk away with food with no questions asked.

[5:48]  Wow. And then th the food is it also is something that you guys are purchasing or is it also donated to the food share? Like how are you guys getting the food?

[6:02]  Vast majority of it is donated. We work directly with the food industry and the food industry has a lot of waste. They there's food that's getting ready to be at the date for expiration. They need to move it quickly into the community. We work with local farmers. We work as part of a large network called Feeding America, and those are food banks across the United States who also partner with Feeding America. So they create partnerships with retailers to get us large volume truck. loads of food that we can then turn around and and distribute to the community.

[6:38]  And I want people to know that just because the box said the shelf life was this or sold by this, 'cause you talk about expiration days, people probably thinking automatically like, we're getting old food, but it's not that. Could we talk about that?

[6:50]  absolutely. That's one of the major education points that we're doing to the community. It's really in many cases a best buy date or a used buy date is really only a guideline for the product is going to be at its maximum quality on the through those dates. But really it's a way to do turnover on shelves to get more product onto the shelves. So when it hits expiration, most food has a good amount of chef shelf life left after that expiration. date and it's very it's very good quality just not at that peak of performance but for things like canned goods they can last forever they're gonna outlast us I think in some cases

[6:50]  Yeah.

[7:37]  So we inspect it. We do inspect it ahead of time. So we're not putting anything out to the community that's gonna be dangerous or unsafe, but food has a lot more life to it than the expiration date in most cases.

[7:50]  Yeah, and I'm glad that you brought that up because it is true. It's just a shelf life. Someone that's kind of been it's like that first in, first out. Sometimes something just got pushed to the back, still great. It's just, you know, the date on it. They can't sell it. I mean, you cannot go to a Publix or a Walmart with something on the shelf that is outdated. And as you mentioned, a lot of the times also they change boxes. So these things got to come off shelves because now they change the the logos or they change all these different things. As you mentioned, not bad.

[7:50]  huh.

[8:16]  I think we all know that. We all have those canned goods in our our pantries that we use. sometimes always funny when my wife takes something out the freezer and she's like, my god, look at the data on this. And I'm like, babe, it's been frozen this whole time. Like you are good, you know, as long as it's not frostbit per se. But are you guys doing like also meats and things like that frozen?

[8:40]  Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned that because we do work with the stores to get the food, the meat products, right before the expiration date, and then they freeze them and we transport them. We pick them up at the store, get the meat back to us so that once it's frozen, it's good. You've got a year once it's frozen, regardless of what the packaging is because that preserves it. And so for the retailers it's great because they make these donations and they get a tax break for doing it. Weekend.

[17:34]  I love that you mentioned tax break. so many people don't realize that, right? There's there's what's in it for for them, it is that, you know, tax receipt, so they don't have to pay so much taxes. Are you guys always looking for other vendors or are you guys kind of like set on what that looks like?

[17:36]  Mm-hmm. There's only so many, you know, we've been in business now for over forty years, so we pretty much know all the players in the game. And if not at a local then at a national level. When somebody new comes on board, certainly we're gonna talk to them and and try to get the food that they're getting ready. In the before food banking, they actually took the food and dumped it in the ocean on barges or buried it in landfills before the idea of food banks happened. So it blows my mind to think of how much food that was being completely wasted before one guy got the idea that to like a bank. Bank takes in money, we should have a bank for food where we can redistribute it to people in need instead of just dumping it in a landfill.

[17:38]  I love it. No, I I did not know that actually. I c you just saying that it's like my god, that smelled really bad. I can only imagine. no that is so cool. So what is a day to day for Sarah look like?

[17:40]  Asking you that a lot of troubleshooting. A lot of troubleshooting. We will have our trucks on twelve different locations in one day. Four trucks going to probably twelve locations. So tons of logistics. You know, the the the less glamorous part of nonprofits are the logistics of getting to the right place, right time, having enough product on the trucks. Are people happy with the trucks? Are our partners welcoming people? That are in line. We call the people in line our guests because we want to feel like you are a guest of our site. We want to treat you with respect, dignity. We want this to be a positive experience for you. But at the same time, these are not our paid employees. These are community members who have said, we want your truck to come out to us and we're gonna have staffing, we're gonna have the volunteers that you need. So I don't I don't they don't report to me. I don't have the chance to tell them how to. do things, but we still want them to do things in the best possible way because that truck is a rolling billboard. There's our name, Connecticut Food Share, right on the truck. So how people are treated, it determines how people feel about our organization, right? If you come and you're meeted by somebody with a smile on their face that explains the process, that makes you feel like they're happy to see you there instead of you're just one more number in the line, that makes a difference. And It's really important to us because the the folks that we're serving, it takes an awful lot to stand in line for food. It takes a lot of nerve to stand in line and say, I know, I I don't have enough. I need some food. So we don't want that to be a negative experience in any way. So a lot of the calls that I get are people that have had something that didn't go quite the way they wanted it to. And then I take that back to my team and we troubleshoot what went wrong. What can we do better? Do the volunteers need more training? is it a product issue? Maybe we sent some blueberries, something like raspberries or blueberries or strawberries. It looked great on Friday and on Monday after it sat ready to go on the truck on Monday by noon it may not look great. So do the volunteers need more training to take the stuff out that doesn't look good and only distribute the stuff that looks good? So we're trying for a quality experience. for everybody that comes to the mobile pantry that they're gonna get decent quality food that they know that they're cared for. So a lot of troubleshooting on things along the that line in my day and planning for the future.

[17:42]  I love that. When you talked about the volunteers, I know you said that they're actually they're not your volunteers, they're the volunteers of whatever organization you're partnering up with, but you still have to provide the training, I'm guessing, is that correct? From your p standpoint. Wow. And and how do you even I can imagine there's so many volunteers, how do you even relate that message to so many volunteers that come out and help? Like how the word getting out are is they just showing up, you guys have classes.

[17:45]  Right. Yep, absolutely. We've tried everything, everything. So we started out with a full time Vista volunteer who was going to go to every single site and do a training that we had created in person with the volunteers. And it was great, it was effective, but when you're talking over a hundred sites, that person is very busy going from site to site doing that in person training. So after a year of that, we decided we've got to create something quick, fast, online that as a new volunteer comes on board with that organization, they can. just click, here's what we're looking for 15-minute training, all the basics of how to successfully, respectfully serve the public at the mobile pantry. And that way it's just the turnover with this there's probably a thousand people that are volunteering over the course of a month. So you need something that can get to them quickly, that they are willing to sit down and watch, and it clearly explains what the goal is. We also created another series de-escalating tense situations because that's happening right now. Some tense situations, people that are really struggling and then they're in line, they're hot, it's a hundred, they're freezing in the winter. How do you handle a a crisis situation where somebody's kind of coming at you? Hey, this this is a real thing in life. So we worked with some people that had great skills in that area to be Be active listeners and empathetic listeners, and how to really hear a person's complaints or objections, how to be there, standing kind of alongside them instead of opposed to them. All the tips and tricks that make for a good solid interaction. So we're training in several different ways every way we can. And then when there is an issue on a site, my staff will go out to the site the next time we distribute to assess the situation and work with the site to make sure that everything. Everything's good and the way it should be.

[17:47]  A lot of work on the back end, Sarah. And we talked about the the the food pantry, but I can imagine that while people are donating the food, right, these different vendors, that there's still so much more that you guys gotta take care of. That overhead. How else are you guys receiving donations for those that may want to partake in in being a part of, you know, giving back to Connecticut Food Share?

[17:49]  Donating is easy on our website, ctfoodshare.org. There's a donation link. I think that one of the things that we've been very successful as a food bank is having broad-based community support and small donations. You know, many times $25, $10 donations coming in from a large number of people who have seen or been affected by the work that we do, that's that's solid. So it's not reliant on one big grant. Going to come in and may then turn around and go away. But we've got community support, deep community support. We go out and talk to different organizations about what we do. We involve the public as volunteers, do educational things out so that kids that are doing their community service hours will come and have their first volunteering with us. So when the community really knows and has a feeling that we're a competent, strong organization. That makes a huge difference in getting donations. We also are very lucky that the state of Connecticut is Great. The state really gets it. They just provided a large amount of money in the state budget to help us through what's coming up in the near future because we see an increase in people in need, honestly. So the state is giving us some funding, which is amazing, and we're very blessed that this is a state that cares about people that are hungry.

[17:51]  No, that's so cool. I love that you guys are meeting people where they're at, really making a difference. Sarah, do you you recall a story that really just kind of gives you that why every time? I w I love the storytelling. I we do this because we've seen impacts in other people's lives. Do you have that story that you kind of go to all the time when you try to remember the why?

[17:54]  You know, there was one guy who came to one of our Thanksgiving drives where we were out in the stop and shop store parking lot taking donations and a guy came up on his bicycle. He was an older guy. looked a little his jacket, his clothing looked a little worn, looked a little beat up. And he had a whole big bag of returnable cans that he was dropping off to return. And as he returned the cans, he went in and he said, I'm I'm I see you there. I'm not gonna forget about you. I'm gonna I'll be back. And so he had just maybe a hundred cans or something that he had returned. He came back out with a couple of boxes of stuffing and cranberries, and he donated to the drive that we were having there with a little can and a and a box of stuffing. And he said, You know, my life is going much better now. I got my friends let me stay in their basement, and I've got this bike, and I collect cans all over the state, and I just I want to give back to other people who are struggling more than I am. And it was just So heartwarming, it was so heartfelt, you know, that people at all levels of income want and strive to do something for others. That's so meaningful.

[18:53]  It is. always say that a person, a moment and just story really changes somebody's life and and obviously that person's life was changed and he just wanted to continue to change someone else's life however he could. And that goes back to how we started, Sarah, there's so many good people on this earth that are really doing good things at all level, may not get the recognition, but I'm glad that we were able to tell that story because no matter where we're at, we are able to be a part of change. and that was just one of those examples how part of change. Sarah, you've been a part of change for a very long time. Like what What what are some of the things that you would love to see as you continue your journey? I can imagine you still have a lot more years to go. What are you s wanting to see with Connecticut Foodshare or even with Connecticut in general when you think about that? The work that you're in?

[19:52]  I would like to see programs like mine go extinct. Because everybody had a safe, reasonable, plentiful supply of food in the state that I would love for people to never have to stand in line for food at all. They just had the ability to get food when they needed it, in the in the right amounts, and healthy choices, not just anything, but decent, high-quality food. we're doing what we can. We're a safety net organization, you know, for people that are really having a hard time. That it matters to them because they tell me every day. But it's hard. It's hard for people out there right now. And what are the things that can make it easier? I I question all the time. A lot of food banks are looking at making it easy for people to acquire food so that if you can't make it to one of our distributions, is there a way to have maybe lockboxes at a store or at a post office that we can stock food to those? That's the the Kind of cutting edge you have to figure out the details of how to do it, but wouldn't it be exciting to make it more convenient for a family to just at the end of the workday go to a locker, put in a combination, and get food? So we're looking around at what others are doing that's in innovative, that's exciting, and trying to figure out how we can work that into what we're doing. It's you know, standing in a parking lot, not the best way to do it. We understand is necessary and we're

[22:37]  Yeah. Yeah.

[22:38]  We're pleased to be able to do it, but we're looking for the innovations, what's coming ahead, and obviously full employment where everybody has the ability to get the food they need.

[22:40]  I love you said that. automatically made me think about Amazon lockers when you go in right on your phone. I I mean it's definitely possible. You know, not I'm just thinking about okay, we gotta be cold, like there's a whole different logistics too when you really think about it at the back end. But it is you have to be innovative. How do you change what's going on and make it more easier? Meeting people are where they're at, you know, maybe they can't get there at that time because they do have to go work. So so they missed out on that opportunity. so I love that you guys are really thinking forward.

[22:42]  Yeah, yeah. Right.

[22:43]  Let's talk about it. I mean, first of all, how many people are actually staffed at Sarah? So people that know Connecticut, sorry, Sarah. So people know exactly how big this organization is?

[22:45]  So we just topped a hundred people. We actually had a merger where we combined two smaller food banks together during COVID of all times. What a time to have a merger during COVID. we brought it together so that we're one organization. So I think we're at a hundred and twenty people now all together. small compared to other large states, but good amount of people at Connecticut food share.

[22:47]  Yeah, that's a lot. And the thing that I was gonna ask, when you talk about innovation, AI, how do how does AI play a part or are you guys even utilizing AI? I always love to see how other organizations are utilizing it.

[22:49]  We're looking at it seriously. There's a committee that's working on it, and the woman that works next to me is one of the members of the committee. So every time she figures out something new with it, she she calls me over, says, Come on, you gotta see what we're gonna do. You know, we're gonna take this document, boil it down to one paragraph, look at how great this is. we're we're just in the infant stages writing policies about what you can and can't use it for. Obviously, we wanna be responsible with AI as well, but it is not a large part of our data. Yeah.

[23:21]  about to say not yet. I mean at some point we're gonna figure it out, especially w we talk about innovation. It's like how do you not innovate without some AI? AI is so everywhere now. But I love that you mentioned being able to just get things so much easier, like through reading data ideally. So I I found a box this past week of so I I I run an organization thirty years old and everything for them was very like documented very well on pieces of paper. Nothing on electronic records.

[23:21]  Mm.

[23:50]  So I sat here and I found all these contact names from ten, fifteen years ago. And I'm like, my God, how do how do we get these into the system? But now it's like having to use the AI to get all these red to then input them back to an Excel spreadsheet. It is so it saves us so much time. I truly, truly do enjoy it. as we start to wrap up, where could people find more information about what you guys are doing? you guys on social? What is the URL? Are you guys on LinkedIn?

[24:20]  Yeah, we're definitely if you go to our website, it also connect you with our socials as well there. So probably the web starts the easiest going to CT foodshare, all one word, ctfoodshare.org, O R G for organization. We'll get you to all of the different things. You can donate, you can sign up to volunteer. Because we also have volunteers in-house that are helping us move those huge amounts of food that need to go out into the public. So there's there's opportunities to do those things there as well as who we are. We have hydroponics now in the parking lot. We just got a couple of big storing storage containers and we're growing lettuce in the parking lot so that we have a steady supply of food. that's another one of those innovations that we didn't think about.

[24:43]  I was gonna say, yeah.

[25:07]  Pre-COVID and then we got huge they look like just trailers, but if you go inside it's amazing. There's lettuce growing on all these slats and they can get hundreds of pounds of food, of fresh, gorgeous food that we put out on the truck or give to our organizations. that's a little bit of food independence. So that if there is a supply chain issue, hey, we're growing the food ourselves in our parking lot. How cool is that?

[25:32]  Wow. Doesn't get any better than that for sure. My wife started in you know, do that. I built her, plant her, now we have lettuce, we have green onions, and we have potatoes and she starts to build all these things. So, yeah, Sarah, that is that is the next, right? Is how do we possibly buy land to grow our own? wow.

[25:49]  I'm so glad you said that too, because there's a group that's doing amazing work that is called the Black Church Food Security Network. And they have a Reverend, Reverend Heber Brown III. It's in Baltimore, Maryland, and he got the idea of growing food on church property for the church members using the experience of the elders in the church. He said, We had a lot of elders in the church who had knowledge of how to grow food. And Let's take that knowledge of the elders, bring the young people involved, use the church property that we are rich in and grow food so that when something goes wrong, we know we're taking care of our own community, you know, food sovereignty. And over the years, as I've watched this organization, they connected with other churches all up and down the East Coast and then all the way out to the West Coast. So these churches are creating their own church supply chains of having food for their community.

[25:49]  Yeah.

[26:46]  community, regardless of what happens economically or issues, COVID, whatever could happen.

[26:56]  So that that's on the radar, huh, Sarah? That's on your radar.

[26:59]  You have to think about it. We had both the snap shutdown when the government couldn't agree and we had the snap shutdown for a month. We had COVID happen where it just shut everything down and we had to move large amounts of food in no time. So contingency planning, yes. Disaster planning, being ready for whatever's gonna hit, knowing that we have a supply of food. That kind of work is really exciting to me.

[27:20]  Yeah. And Sarah, with you being a part of it, I can imagine that you guys are gonna do some amazing things. Going back to almost a century of just love, passion and purpose. couldn't be more just humbled to have this conversation with you here today and just talk about what you guys are doing today, what you guys already have been doing, but what you guys are also doing in the future with through innovation. And I think you guys are definitely on the right path. So I definitely thank you for the conversation today and for those that are are are watching to make sure that you guys continue to figure out how you can help those organizations around you. They're doing some amazing work. and just shout outs to Sarah and the team for continuing to provide at all times. We talk about the pandemic, what a hard time to be, you know, present. because I can imagine there was a lot happening at that time. we talk about now, right, what was happening at the government level, that you guys are still smile on your face, Sarah, still getting it. I love it. and and for those that are still watching, continue to like, subscribe, and comment. These are the conversations that we love to have to figure out what leaders are really doing.

[27:43]  Mm-hmm.

[28:07]  in in in our communities. But Sarah, it has been truly an honor to talk to you today and I can't wait to figure out what you guys are gonna be doing and all the things you guys will be growing at some point through innovation. My name is Ephraim. This is Sarah. We'll catch you in the next one. Latest.

[28:31]  Thank you so much.