Anita began by congratulation Catherine on the successes of the Greater Boston Food Bank, particularly in addressing the needs of the 190 different cities and towns that the food bank serves.

Catherine described the complexities of working with all these different local governments, which tend to be slow and very much dependent on state funding.  Some are so small that they agglomerate.  A big advantage for the GBFB is that Boston, the largest city in the State, is also the capital.    This means that the GBFB can get into the Governor’s office relatively easily to advocate for the needs of specific cities and towns across Massachusetts.  The GBFB serves as the gateway in a sense for the 190 municipalities to State-level exposure.  Internally, the GBFB is structured flexibly by both geography and partner type (i.e., schools vs. veteran’s associations vs. eldercare vs. community centers, etc.).  So there are multiple routes through which a local organization can reach through to a GBFB advocate to bring their case forward through the Food Bank to State Government.

The GBFB is incorporated as a non-profit, but of course you work with several large corporations, and most especially the big Boston-based grocer, Stop N Shop.  How has that relationship evolved over your thirty years at the helm of the GBFB?   Was Stop N Shop pivotal to the transition that the GBFB made to distribution and delivery?

We talked about the evolution of the nature of retailer engagement over time – from the delivery of, say, five big trucks full of over-stocked canned goods that might have occurred twenty years ago – to a much more targeted and philanthropic posture.  Over the course of the four decades that Catherine has been working with Stop N Shop and other large MA grocers, waste has been largely eliminated from supply chains.  We don’t get the same kinds of inefficiencies and overstocks, and so the focus has moved from distributing what’s left over to a much better planned set of interventions.  For example, Stop N Shop can enroll eligible patrons in Food Stamp programs within its stores.  It can provide education on healthy foods.  And importantly, it can donate money to school, eldercare and veterans programs for food security, for example.    It can induce us to “round up” when we check out so as to donate to the Food Bank.  This money really adds up to a very significant million-dollar-level contribution.    The technology has been critical to this.  It’s what made the food delivery system less wasteful and it can be leveraged to offer programs in stores more effectively.

Do you believe that CEO sponsorship is required for partnerships to work?   We’re now hearing more frequently that long-term, trusting, deep partnerships are critical to corporate social impact.   Does that mean that the CEO has to be involved, or can a sustained partnership like this happen deeper in the organization?

Catherine talked about the complexity of food insecurity – and the ways in which it is wrapped up in poverty, housing issues, lack of childcare, health problems, and lack of education.  She talked about the persistence of three elements of food insecurity:  personal, economic, and political.   These are constant themes, she said. The political piece has to do with the availability – or absence – of federal programs such as SNAP, and the pressure that puts on States to step in and fill gaps.    Government can’t meet the needs alone, however.  And the private sector can’t either.   Both are needed to address food needs.

Do you get frustrated by the persistence of food insecurity in Boston and elsewhere?   Is this fundamentally a failure of government, or perhaps a failure of urban development, with the cost-of-living locally escalating with the success of corporations that depend on low-wage workers to conduct business?  Is food security intractable?

Catherine really opened up about her frustrations.  This is a solvable problem, she said, and we ought to be able to address this.  The numbers are staggering, with 1 in 3 people in Massachusetts as food insecure.  Anita was blown away to hear that 1 in 2 students in the Commonwealth are food insecure.  Why does this problem persist?   We need to figure this out.

What makes you optimistic?  

Catherine is full of hope.   She focuses on doing the work right in front of her every done.  She also thinks about where she wants to go and takes steps toward those long term goals.  On the way, she finds that people are resilient, capable, and kind.   We are getting smarter about this problem.   We have learned some lessons.   But in the end, it is the resilience of the neighbors that the Food Bank serves that keeps her going.