Valerie Brown Traoré likes to dream a lot – “big, hairy, audacious dreams,” as she calls it. Since she began leading the Food Bank of South Jersey 11 years ago, the Baltimore native has dreamed about doing more than giving away bags of food and teaching people how to cook healthy meals.
“What if we use food as a driver for social, economic and environmental change – and not just for poor people, but for anybody who identifies themselves as being in need of it?” said Traoré, President and CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey.
What if the food bank invested in micro businesses? What if it could train people to process fresh produce, drive a forklift or run a family operation? What if her donation-dependent organization could use food to find more ways to make money?
Over the next few years, the nonprofit will put those questions to the test with its new strategic plan. Traoré calls it a “paradigm shift,” a radical new way of operating that will give recipients a chance to earn a livable income, and enable the nonprofit to sustain itself.