Today we’d like to introduce you to Sara Gorath.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Sara. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Growing up, my parents were very active in the community, helping organizations that supported positive health outcomes for individuals who needed assistance but could not afford it or didn’t know where to go to receive these services. They both worked in healthcare so it was inspiring for me to see them utilize their skills to help others. From a young age, I struggled with learning disabilities, which prevented me from feeling confident academically. I knew from being the oldest of three sisters that the area I excelled in was caring for others. I began volunteering in middle school and continued to do it through college, working with churches and organizations like the Boys and Girls Club. I focused mostly on helping children, especially those who struggled with learning. My goal was to empower and inspire them. In 2014, I passed a billboard on the highway for the North Texas Food Bank. Being from Dallas, I was familiar with the organization but never had volunteered there. I decided to sign up and began to volunteer; I loved my experience with the NTFB.
Volunteerism grew into a career. In August of 2014, I accepted a coordinator position at Our Community Pantry, a client choice pantry in South Dallas that is run by NTFB. The location is special in that it is the first pantry that is run by the food bank and was established to be a learning laboratory for the Food Bank to gain information about the agencies they work with and clients those agencies serve. The pantry is set up like a grocery store and allows individuals in need, from the surrounding South Dallas area to receive food twice a month at no charge. After my first week, I knew that this was the beginning of something very special. I loved interacting with the community and helping to create a positive environment for our clients, one that was centered on dignity and respect. The daily interaction I had with our clients, or as we like to say neighbors, transformed my view of the world around me. It provided me with a deep understanding of how quickly life can change and the responsibility each of us have to support and care for those around us. After 6 months, I was promoted to manager of the pantry and after my first year, I began a Masters in Social Work program in the evenings. As I said before, school was not my strong suit, but my work at the Food Bank lit a fire inside me that motivated me to want to learn everything I could to help those in my community. After 3 years in my role, I was promoted to Senior Manager of Partner Development in May of 2018, it is a role in which I am honored each day to be able to fulfill.
I recently gave birth to my son and know firsthand the importance of teaching our children to understand kindness and compassion for others. I feel that serving your community, as a young person or adult is the best way to display those qualities and spread them throughout our city. I believe kindness is contagious and you can never have too much of it.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One on the challenges we encountered at the pantry was that we only had the capacity to serve 55 households per shift and knew the community need was much greater. I had the unique opportunity to work with the innovators at Toyota’s Production System Support Center, TSSC department. Anyone who is familiar with Toyota understands that they are very well versed in how to put the right processes in place for the most efficiency. Much like a business or job, volunteering at the Food Bank requires efficiency. It also requires good service to the volunteers who are there so that they can have a fulfilling experience. TSSC spent countless hours shadowing our team at the pantry, meticulously noting everything we were doing and providing insights on how to make things even more efficient. Thanks to their efforts, we were able to increase the amount of households we served from 55 to 80 per shift. This allowed us to not only serve more of our neighbors in South Dallas is a timely fashion but also have availability to serve more people in the community, while still maintaining a positive and dignified experience for the shoppers. Because the Food Bank has great recognition within the community, we are able to get the support and buy-in from other corporate partners that have served as mentors and teachers for us. Thanks to their efforts, we are able to implement best practices and adopt them into our Food Bank processes.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the North Texas Food Bank story. Tell us more about the business.
In 2015, the Food Bank launched a goal to close the current meal gap and provide 92 million meals by 2025. The work we were doing at Our Community Pantry directly impacted that because the team at the Food Bank knew that in order to get more food on the tables of people in need, we had to better understand the unique challenges for our agencies as well as invest in their infrastructure. We did this by making sure that they had items like refrigeration and shelving to be able to properly serve nutritious meals to the community- especially fresh produce. My time at Our Community Pantry gave me unique insights into the agency and client experience. In my new role, I am able to advocate for them and manage our Network Expansion project. Part of my role is establishing mini food banks to serve smaller agencies, as well as establishing pantries in areas that are being underserved, like Our Community Pantry in South Dallas and the Jan Pruitt Community Pantry in Lancaster. I am able to do this by collaborating with our incredibly hard working partner agencies.
It is an exciting time to be a part of the Food Bank! We know that the issue of food insecurity is not going away, so we have to work hard to ensure that the people who need to be served are receiving the food that need to thrive. Our organization is known for being one of the largest hunger relief organizations in North Texas. We put a stake in the ground and want to fill the hunger gap and provide 92 million meals. Right now there are more than 800,000 people that are considered food insecure- this means that they don’t know where their next healthy meal will come from. It is clear this is a big problem, but together with our partners, we will find a solution that allows us to achieve our vision of creating a hunger free, healthy North Texas.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I don’t believe in bad luck. I think that we are all put in certain situations to learn and grow from them. I know personally that I have grown the most during the hardest times of my life, both personally and professionally. Making mistakes and being embarrassed is never fun, but they were memorable times and I am grateful for those learning experiences now. You could say in some ways that it was good luck that I was able to meet the right people and be in the right place at the right time. I feel that when you know your strengths and weaknesses and fully understand yourself it’s easy to see what path you should take when opportunities arise.
Contact Info:
- Address: Our Community Pantry
1502 Pennsylvania Ave.
Dallas, TX75215 - Website: www.ntfb.org
- Phone: 214-330-1396
- Email: info@ntfb.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/northtexasfoodbank
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/northtexasfoodbank
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ntfb
Image Credit:
Phillip Gorath and North Texas Food Bank
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