A New Strategy

COLLABORATION…A STRATEGY TO COMBAT HUNGER

Collaboration is a purposeful relationship in which all parties strategically choose to cooperate to accomplish a shared outcome. This definition accurately reflects a new and exciting partnership between Waste Not and St. Vincent de Paul.  Our agencies have recently partnered and will be working together to get more food to more people who need it, right here in the Valley.

Unlike most hunger relief organizations, Waste Not does not own or rent a facility. We don’t have coolers or freezers and we don’t even pay for office space for our employees.  Our business model is one that is streamlined and efficient…operating with very low overhead.  We simply use refrigerated trucks to pick up food that would otherwise end up in landfills and deliver it directly to agencies serving people in need, on the same day.  Not having to pay for or manage facilities allows us to direct 96 cents of every donated dollar to our program, but the model does have its challenges, which is where St. Vincent de Paul comes in!

St. Vincent de Paul has a wonderful campus in South Phoenix where programs are offered to help people with their physical, mental and spiritual needs and it’s this location, that is now home to our Waste Not fleet!  St. Vincent de Paul is providing us an area to park our refrigerated trucks as well as meeting space that will provide opportunities for our team to come together to work, strategize, and collaborate!  In return, Waste Not is picking up food donations for St. Vincent de Paul that they may otherwise have turned down, due to staffing and or transportation capacity restrictions.

With hunger being such a daunting issue in our state, it is obvious to me that strategic collaboration and mutually beneficial partnerships are absolutely necessary and something that will continue to be an area of focus for me as I continue to lead this gem of an agency.