184. How a Food Pantry Pivoted Mission Delivery to Deepen Impact - LaVal Brewer

Listen to this episode

Overview

Meet LaVal. As CEO of South County Outreach based near L.A., it's his goal to transform the organization’s Food Pantry into a place where people who are in short-term crisis situations can feel like they are shopping for nutritious, healthy food in a normal grocery store environment without having to pay. He's sharing the unique way his org pivoted during COVID as well as insights for nonprofit leaders. It's an uplifting conversation about the power of local community and infusing dignity into our mission delivery.

Today’s Guest

LaVal Brewer, President & CEO, South County Outreach

“Don’t look at the bright, shiny object of the organization next to you. That’s not important. What’s important is what you can do and what you can solve.”

— LaVal Brewer, President & CEO, South County Outreach

Episode Transcript

Download Full Episode Transcript Here

Episode highlights

LaVal’s story and an overview of South County Outreach (2:00)
How the pandemic led them to innovate (5:00)
The current state of homelessness around the country (12:00)
Leading community based and community centered programs (14:00)
Fundraising for the future (17:00)
Leadership advice from LaVal after 20+ years in the nonprofit sector (21:00)
A powerful moment of philanthropy in LaVal’s life (29:00)
LaVal’s One Good Thing: Make it easy for your team members to do their job. (32:00)

Powerful quotes

“We want to prevent people from being hungry. We want to prevent people from having to fall into homelessness. So for us, it's really about prevention. And it's about helping people be successful.” -LaVal

“Every neighborhood has patches of hunger and homelessness, or home insecurity. So we help people by making sure that they have food on their table.” -LaVal

“There's such dignity for the people that you serve. Also that there's their choice is infused in this and the things that their family may like and needs and kind of just their dietary restrictions. So I just think there's a lot of dignity infused which is a beautiful thing.” -Jon

“Two of our core values are dignity and respect. So when we make decisions around here, we always turn back and ask the question is what we're doing providing dignity for people and is how we're doing it being respectful to their personal, their personal beliefs and who they are. So when we when we make decisions, we're thinking beyond what we would traditionally think Someone would want or need. And we're asking, what do they want in need?” -LaVal

“We didn't go away from client choice. And we didn't go away from preventing homelessness.” -LaVal

“We utilized tools very quickly, which were inexpensive, readily accessible to us and widely spread them to our team.” -LaVal

“We had seamless connection with our, with our clients without having to break that connection of people coming together. So that was that was one of the first things we did was, how do we stay connected? And how do we then stay true to our due diligence around helping families individuals.” -LaVal

“I just really think this commitment to innovation and seeing the mission so clearly, really makes you kind of a growth mindset leader.” -Becky

“In the bigger picture around fundraising, I've always taken the approach that people give to things that are local, they give the things that are national to the things that they care about.” -LaVal

“When we do fundraising, and we think about fundraising, we are talking about local, we're talking about right here right now.” -LaVal

“As far as talking about fundraising, I'm not talking about today. I'm talking about tomorrow, next week, next year. Because the reality is that I want to make sure that we are funding into the future.” -LaVal

“Don't look at the bright, shiny object of the organization next to you. That's not important. What's important is what you can do and what you can solve.” -LaVal

“I think that I think a lot of times when I was a first time executive, I was trying to be all things to all things.” -LaVal

“Leadership is leadership. When you’re Executive Director, CEO, your job is to lead. It's to say, Where are we going? How are we going to get there? Then turn back and communicate that to all involved.” -LaVal

“I am just encouraged by that part of our mission that we can make people not say I'm less than, and that a man like myself, could then help themselves, which that core mission that we have to help themselves, a man would be willing to come in and help themselves and do what may not be a traditional effort.” -LaVal

“Make it easy for your team members to do their job.” -LaVal

connect with laVal

connect with south county outreach

Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter / YouTube

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts

Are you a fan of the We Are For Good Podcast? Please consider rating and reviewing our show! This helps us serve more do-gooders — just like you — grow their own impact uprising.

First time doing reviewing a podcast? Don’t sweat - it’s super easy! Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate the show with stars, and then click “Write a Review.” We’d love to hear what you loved most about this episode!

While you’re there, if you haven’t done so already, would you consider subscribing to the podcast? We curate inspiring conversations weekly to help you do more for your mission (and the occasional surprise minisode too!) and if you’re not subscribed, you could totally out. Subscribe now!

Join the Good Community!

The We are for good community

This is a safe place for deeper conversations. While we love this podcast, it is a very one-sided dialogue. It is great for starting conversations, but not continuing them. You can find friends, colleagues, and others to champion alongside. We believe community is everything and we wanted to create a place where people could learn and thrive and grow together (and also have a whole lot of fun).