Episode 41: Sourcing as the Answer to Food Insecurity with Anna McGovern
By Kelly Barner | November 24, 2021
Food insecurity is a very real issue in every major metropolitan area – even New York City. The Food Bank for New York City team repackages 140 Million pounds of food – 120 million meals for the 20% of city residents that are food insecure.
Think about that: 1 in 5 people in New York City does not have enough to eat.
In this episode of The Sourcing Hero podcast, Host Kelly Barner is joined by Anna McGovern. Anna is the Chief Supply Chain Officer at the Food Bank for New York City and a supply chain and procurement evangelist.
Her career highlights include time in the private sector as well as nonprofits, but every role has given her an opportunity to apply her talents and further her own mastery of complex networks, stakeholder engagement, inventory management and more.
Highlights
In this conversation, Anna shares some eye-opening statistics about food insecurity in the five boroughs of New York City and the sourcing, supply chain, and logistics challenges her team works to overcome on a daily basis:
- What sourcing means in the context of a not-for-profit organization like a food bank compared to what it means in a corporate setting
- The human implications of failure and how that motivates the people that put their personal mission above salary and benefits
- How black swan events cause a short term spike in demand for resources as well as a lasting increase in recipients
