Director’s Statement

Dear Friends,

2021 has certainly been a time of challenge and change here at Potluck Food Rescue. We brought on new team members and said goodbye to Bill Wehner, a longtime member of the Potluck family. We wish him well in his retirement.

The pandemic has changed so much — how we interact with food donors and hunger relief agencies, how our agencies interact with the people they serve, and how the staff interacts with each other on a daily basis. What has not changed is our commitment to seeking out and recovering good food from area restaurants, grocers, caterers, and commercial kitchens and redirecting it to our ever-growing list of agencies that feed those in need. And it’s our promise to continue to do so.

While our dedication to feeding the hungry using food that would otherwise be thrown away hasn’t changed, our mission has. Potluck has been diverting food waste to feed the hungry for more than 30 years. Since 2018, we have been measuring the impact of that work not only on hunger in our community, but on the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that are a result of that work. This year we have updated our mission to include our environmental goals as well. Our new mission statement is a better reflection of the scope of our work at Potluck Food Rescue.

Potluck Food Rescue is devoted to providing hunger-relief while reducing food waste with a commitment to addressing the health, environmental, and economic impacts that wasted food has on our community.

While we are optimistic about the future, we recognize that this pandemic brought with it some challenges. The increase of food insecurity brought on first by unemployment, and now by shortages, inflation, and transportation issues has put a strain on our partner agencies and by extension, on us. The increase in the day-to-day workload has exposed a crack in our division of labor at Potluck. You likely noticed a reduction in our direct mail, newsletters, and focused fundraising. That has everything to do with the increase in our hands on day-to-day workload that requires immediate and continuous attention.

For the same reasons, 2021 was a difficult year for fundraising. I am grateful for our ongoing financial stability due to the hard work of our board of directors and previous administration, making our effectiveness throughout this pandemic feasible.

What we learned from our experience this year is that we needed to prioritize resilience as a pillar of our sustainability and we need to refocus on networking and community outreach. In addition to our newly adopted mission statement, we have created a Director of Operations position at Potluck and promoted a valued team member to head up operations for us. Additionally, Potluck has enlisted the help of the AmeriCorp VISTA program facilitated by Our House to help with community outreach and development.

Potluck is making changes and we could not be more excited. We have big plans to roll out in the coming months, so keep an eye on your mailboxes and social media as we gear up for an exciting and impactful future with a more holistic approach.

All my best,

Sylvia Blain
Executive Director