Podcast

Lisa Munter
Welcome friends to Looped In With Knitt. I'm Lisa Munter and I am really excited to be talking with Natasha Pernicka from the Food Pantries for the Capital District. Actually, the reason why I'm excited is because I have been such a big fan of yours and the impact that you've made in the communities. I know that you have been an executive director with the Food Pantry since 2011, is that correct?

Natasha Pernicka
Yeah. I'm coming up on 12 years.

Lisa Munter
Yes. And I am just honestly, from behind the scenes, I have been following you and it is just a daunting task because it's not, you have one goal and then you reach it. But with food insecurities, you just always have to keep moving forward and it's just you need the same kind of energy and support and you just are able to nail it over and over again and so I was really excited to talk with you today. So thank you so much for being here.

Natasha Pernicka
Lisa, I'm so excited to be here too. Thanks for having me.

Lisa Munter
Yes. So why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what exactly you do.

Natasha Pernicka
Sure. So I'm Executive Director of the Food Pantries for the Capital District. I've been doing non-profit work for almost 25 years in a lot of different human sector. I started in mental health, then I worked with homelessness and housing, then I did youth development, and I've been doing food work for now the past 12 years. And when I started here at the Food Pantries for the Capital District, one of the things that really struck me is how many people utilize Food Pantries for assistance every year. Because in all of those other human services fields that I was in, maybe we had 20 clients or a hundred clients or a thousand clients. And when I learned that there were nearly, well, at the time, there was 45, 000 people visiting Food Pantries in the Capital region. Now last year we were at nearly 70,000 people just right here in New York's Capital region, I think that was one of the things that really struck me as well as just it's food. It's something that we can all relate to. Everybody eats, it's a center to family and community and life and health. And I was very struck by the dedication and compassion of the Food Pantry coordinators and the volunteers and all of the people involved in this effort across the region. I was really inspired to be involved to support and amplify their work and really our mission here is working together. We can do more than any one of us alone and we live our mission every day. So it's incredibly rewarding but also frustrating because like you said earlier, the need is continuous and so trying to work on big picture solutions at the same time of making sure that people have access to healthy food at pantries every day are kind of the two big areas of the work that we do.

Lisa Munter
Yes. I mean, obviously you have multiple layers of need and support and how people can get involved, so how does the Food Pantries make connections within their communities?

Natasha Pernicka
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of ways. Some of it is just word of mouth. People get involved or seek assistance word of mouth. I think that it's through volunteers, people getting involved, community outreach. We've found that people really respond when we're in the media. People are like, "Oh yeah, that's right. Hunger does exist right here in my own community." It's not something we see on a daily basis. And so media exposure has been incredibly helpful and we've got our Facebook page and all of our social media and ambassadors, our board members are ambassadors, our Food Pantry members are ambassadors and we're ambassadors to them as well and I'm really excited with Knitt to have another opportunity to really get to know people who are interested in getting involved and getting to know how we're working to end hunger here in the region.

Lisa Munter
Yeah. I really love that because you really hit the nail on the head when you said sometimes it's just that awareness piece and there are multiple ways. Sometimes people just think, "Oh, let me just donate some food and..." But really it's just being able to really understand what the overall need is and it's like, "Oh, I didn't think that I could volunteer my time," or "I didn't realize that maybe a service that I'm able to offer could benefit you." And it's just being able to just communicate with you and go and see for themselves and be like, "Okay, there's actually so many different ways that I can participate other than just writing a check or just dropping off food." The sustainability support is just so much more vast. And-

Natasha Pernicka
But I have to say Lisa, dollars are number one. Send us your dollars.

Lisa Munter
Yes.

Natasha Pernicka
But-

Lisa Munter
Absolutely.

Natasha Pernicka
...But you're right. But you're right. We have incredible volunteers who donate their expertise and skills to us through technology and legal and building things. I think a lot of people when they think about Food Pantries, the number one thing is, "I'm going to do a food drive." And food drives are important, but also thinking outside the box of the food drive to personal hygiene products, toiletries, household cleaning products, and also advocacy, telling your public representatives that this is important to you. We did a survey back with Siena College and 96% of New Yorkers that were surveyed agreed that no one in New York State should go hungry and then when people find out the statistics about how many people just don't have enough money to get their basic needs met, they're shocked and they're like, "Okay, so now what do we do about it?" And if you connect with the Food Pantries for the Capital District, we can connect you to so many amazing organizations across the Capital region as well as our own organization and the work that we're doing to support them.

Lisa Munter
I mean, absolutely. And yes, obviously donations, money donations to are key, but sometimes people are thinking that it has to be these large dollar amounts, and that's not true. I mean, any amount helps and it's like, or if you're feeling like that you want to see more impact in volunteering or doing a food drive, things like that. So absolutely to the dollar donations are always the cornerstone of every nonprofit. But I think that sometimes there's a disconnect when people just feel like, "Oh, I don't fit into that one bucket, and so I can't help them." But really, like you said, I mean, even just being an advocate to their assembly people and just getting the word out and just saying, "Hey, we're here." And I love that and I think that's what I love about you because you're really just educating people that it's not just this check the box thing. It really can be so much more. With all of that, I mean, because you just listed all these things, what is your biggest challenge when it comes to finding donors or people who want to support you?

Natasha Pernicka
I think it depends on what's happening as far as trends or what's happening in the bigger community or globally and so our challenges today are much different than they were two years ago. So during the COVID pandemic shutdown, there was a lot of media exposure about food and so the community was, and individuals were very generous. But now that inflation has hit and economic stability is a little bit insecure right now, unfortunately, donations are down right now while we're literally having the highest service levels our coalition has ever seen. So right now it's really, I think a lot of donors might be a little bit burnt out from COVID and people are just trying to get back to life as usual. But right now, so many of our community members are actually experiencing even worse times than they've ever had. At the same time, when inflation is hitting Food Pantries as well as families, food inflation is up around 10% right now and it's staying high. So not only are we seeing right now, even families who have two parents working are turning to Food Pantries because they don't have the resources to pay for food and food, a lot of people also don't realize Food Pantries pay for most of the food that they distribute and so food costs for pantries are also more expensive. However, one of the things I like to share that most people don't know about the Food Pantry system is that the Food Pantries, when they spend their dollars, it goes farther than you going to a grocery store for a food drive. So for example, a Food Pantry, if you donate $10 to a Food Pantry and they use it to pay for food, they can get up to 62 pounds of food for $10. So a lot of times through wholesaling and other getting food from the food bank and things like that, donating dollars can make the dollars go a lot farther for the amount of food that is needed. In the Capital region alone, so just last year, our coalition provided enough food for more than 3.2 million meals. So that's a lot of food that pantries are needing to move. So I think really the biggest challenge I guess right now would be so that people understand pantries are struggling right now to keep up with the increased community need right now. So just getting that message out there and a lot of people right now are also struggling. People who might have been able to donate to us a couple years ago because of inflation might be struggling a little bit more, and so they're not able to be quite as generous as they were in the past and so reaching new donors is also really, really important. People who maybe didn't realize, "Oh, I didn't realize this was a need in my own community and here's an opportunity where I can make a local impact. I know my dollars are going to go right here to probably my own neighbors that I'm not even aware of that are having to turn to a Food Pantry right now."

Lisa Munter
Absolutely. Again, we haven't even been talking for 15 minutes and the information that I have learned that I didn't even know is just, it's so impactful, and I'm just like, "Wow." And this is why I like to do this because it's just to be able to bring this awareness of it doesn't have to take much, but just picking up the phone or... let's talk about that Natasha. What is the best way? How would you like donors to reach out to you? I know it's always nonprofits have their due diligence of reaching out and bringing awareness to the communities, but it goes both ways. So for you to help you, how do donors, what's the best way for them to connect?

Natasha Pernicka
Sure. I mean, if someone just wants to do a simple donation and a transaction, thefoodpantries.org, our website has a really easy way to do credit card donations. If someone wants to get involved in more of a way than just a donation, they can call our office at (518) 458-1167. They could also send me an email, honestly, it's natashathefoodpantries.org. And whether you're looking for an opportunity to volunteer or maybe you'd like to do a food and fun drive. Maybe it's your birthday, and instead of people providing birthday presents, you'd like to do a food and fun drive where people could either bring donations of food or they could just write a check. We're happy to coordinate with you so that you feel comfortable and also, I'm always happy to come out or myself or my team members and do a presentation. If you work for a business or you have a community club that you like to raise awareness and learn more, we're happy to come out and talk and give a presentation. I can do a presentation in 10 minutes. I can talk for an hour. Honestly, I could talk all day. If it's fun, I'm happy to hang out. So we're happy to come out and just get people interested and involved. So calling us, sending us an email, going to thefoodpantries.org. And I also always have to say this because you never know who's listening. If you are a person who find yourself in a time where you're like, "Wow, I am having to make a difficult decision between paying my medical bills, getting my car fixed," and you are looking at your cabinet and your refrigerator and saying, "I'm living off of hot dogs right now," you don't have to do that. Food Pantries are not income based. It's based on need and we actually have a map on our website, thefoodpantries.org, where you can find Food Pantries across New York State and it has the hours of operation, their phone number, and you can get more information. Because you don't have to feel ashamed. In fact, my own grandparents used to receive assistance from a Food Pantry when my grandpa had retired. And when they were up in their eighties, they were living off of an extremely limited income, and the Food Pantry helped them so that their resources that they did have could go farther. So there's no shame in using the resources that are there to help.

Lisa Munter
I'm so thankful that we had a chance to talk today, honestly and this is why you are such a bright light in moving the needle, right? Because every day this is just so many multiple layers and it's just not a one size fits all and there are just so many different ways that people can support. There are so many different levels of people who need the assistance, and it's just working together and you're really the nucleus of it all and I'm so thankful and appreciative that you are here just in our backyard, making a difference along with your team of people. I mean, it definitely takes a village for sure and I just wanted to say and ask, because we talked about in one of our last conversations that you and I had offline, we talked about the importance of sustainability in the work that nonprofits do. And again, it's a daily grind to always be thinking of that first and foremost. Is there any immediate long-term goals or needs that you are looking for for donors to be aware that can help with that sustainability goal that you currently have at the Food Pantries?

Natasha Pernicka
Yeah. So Food Pantries themselves are largely charitably funded by individuals writing checks. We're not a conglomerate of government contracts like some other human service sector organizations. So one of the things I think that is very helpful for donors to know is that please pay for salaries. Sometimes grants and funders don't want to pay for your staff, but literally the staff are critical to carrying out the mission. We love our volunteers, but we couldn't do it without the consistency of paid staff. The other thing that's really important for donors to know is that in order to have strong programs, you need to treat your staff well and I talk a lot about living wages and the nonprofit sector is notorious for paying not very good wages and people are like, "Well, you feel good about your job." Well, that's not acceptable because you should have the dignity of being able to cover your basic needs with your salary if you work at a nonprofit. So here at the Food Pantries, we made a commitment with my board's support to not pay anyone less than $20 an hour, which is a lot for a nonprofit, and we go up from there. But I think having good benefits, paying salaries so that people can have the dignity of a professional life is so important. So please contribute towards the staff and the operating expenses that nonprofits have. I think we struggle a lot with people thinking, "Well, all you need is just food." And it's like, "Yes, we need food, but there's the entire infrastructure." There's trucks. Our organization moves over three million pounds of food a year with our drivers and our box trucks and we do that so that the pantries can order the quantity and the quality and the variety of food that they need to order from the food bank and so our trucks and our drivers drive over to the food bank and they're loading up 12,000 pounds of food per truck and delivering it so that the pantries, volunteers unload it. But you can't move 3000 pounds of food in the back of your minivan. We did try to move a thousand pounds in the back of a minivan once, and the axle was not happy. So this is kind of where these shared services are so important when you're supporting the shared services of the coalition work, is that we're able to do more and be more effective and efficient by working together and collaborating and that's really the spirit of the work that we do.

Lisa Munter
Love it. Thank you so much for sharing that and unfortunately, our time is coming to a close, but I always like to end it with asking a question because obviously the mission of the Food Pantries is so important and impactful within our communities, but behind that is always a team of people to keep it going and so I think it's important for people to feel connected to those people and so Natasha, what's a really, you're a super fun person, so what's a fun fact that people would be surprised to know about you that you would feel comfortable sharing with us today?

Natasha Pernicka
Okay. I like that you added, "that you would be comfortable sharing with us today."

Lisa Munter
Yeah.

Natasha Pernicka
So I was asking my team today because I was like, "What do you guys think is a fun fact about me?" And I was throwing out a bunch of things. They're like, "I don't know, Natasha." So the one that we feel is appropriate to share today is that I'm an artist and when I was in my twenties, I actually, I worked part-time in a nonprofit and then I was also trying to make a living as an artist and I used to sit in the little downtown in Fort Collins, Colorado with my art and sell it off the street and I couldn't make enough money selling art for a living and to the people who do that. But I think the thing that's interesting is art is a creative endeavor and even my role in a nonprofit, I use a lot of my creative spirit in our program development and being creative in solving. We have such a tight budget, right? So it's being creative with resources and thinking outside of the box. So I have put my creativity to good use. And now art, I don't have any stress. It's just my hobby and I can go home and doodle and draw and paint in my free time.

Lisa Munter
I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that. Really appreciate our time today. It's always a pleasure, and we will definitely be talking with each other soon. Thank you.

Natasha Pernicka
Thank you so much, Lisa.