I began Project Isaiah in March of 2020. The Covid pandemic quickly left far too many families without means to put food on the table, while simultaneously dealing a devastating blow to the programs which supported those who were already struggling. More people than ever were hungry, yet exposure and contagion shut down kitchens in homeless shelters, food pantries, and schools that had provided breakfast and lunch programs. We realized that, with thousands of airplanes grounded, there was a large source of healthy, transportable food with nowhere to go. So, we partnered with a leading global provider of airline meals to allow them to keep their staff employed and continue to make meals in their airport kitchens while we created a distribution network that would redirect this food to those who needed it most. Eventually operating in 12 cities, delivering over 350,000 meals every week, Project Isaiah provided more than four million meals across the country while saving more than five hundred jobs.

Now, two years later, this particular mission is thankfully less necessary. But, I’ve been working to use the experience and connections Project Isaiah created with that first mission to continue working to ensure food and supplies get to those who need it. For example, we quickly mobilized in February of last year when a winter storm caused unprecedented flash freezing and power outages in Texas. Just a few weeks after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I spent Spring Break between Krakow, Przemyśl, and the Polish-Ukrainian border, delivering supplies on a mission with the World Food Programme. This is what I hope my project continues to be: an ever evolving mission to address whatever comes our way, being as helpful as we can possibly be.