Photograph by Andrew Doench
The way Jennifer Steele sees it, nonprofit organizations should think and act more like Silicon Valley start-ups rather than dusty risk-adverse organizations that haven’t changed in decades. Tomorrow’s challenges, she says, can’t be solved using yesterday’s solutions. It’s a paradigm shift, but it’s the approach she brought to Meals on Wheels Southwest Ohio and Northern Kentucky when she took over as CEO in 2019, and one that is pushing her to the forefront of the region’s nonprofit leadership realm. Rather than hauling meals to senior centers, she bought a food truck so meals could be cooked on site and served at different locations. Rather than having seniors struggle with groceries, she partnered with Findlay Market to develop a senior-friendly app to order local favorites. Rather than delivering frozen meals, she introduced a fresh meal menu so seniors could order salad and fruit. “We’re transforming what the future looks like for seniors,” she says. “We’re solving big problems and changing big systems, and the only way to do that is to be creative and innovative.”
2091 Radcliff Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45204, (513) 661-2777, www.muchmorethanameal.org
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