Mrs./Professor Jennifer Parker & Adam Parker Sr. shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Jennifer & Adam, we’re thrilled to have you with us today. Before we jump into your intro and the heart of the interview, let’s start with a bit of an ice breaker: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
That we are serving a bunch of individuals that are lazy and don’t want to work and are just looking for a free handout. While there may indeed be some bad actors sprinkled into the population that we serve, the majority of our clientele are the working poor. Many are holding down one, two and sometimes three jobs just trying to make ends meet. It only takes one doctors visit, one vehicle issue, or an unexpected rent increase to throw these hard-working people into a crisis. Another thing that I don’t believe is understood is that approximately 55% of our recipients are seniors. Health issues are often the reason these people can no longer afford food. Medication is expensive and the choice between taking it and eating is a situation that should not exist.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Tiny Pantry Times (TPT) was formed as a response to the fear of food insecurity that grew in the wake of the pandemic of 2020. Covid was and still is frightening and as store shelves emptied, the feelings of isolation and despair increased. It was at this time that we saw an opportunity to regain a sense of community out of the shared loss. My husband, Adam, and I built a tiny pantry in our front yard in September of that year and filled it with the excess we had in our personal pantry. After two weeks, it became apparent that this was not a sustainable project on our own, so we reached out via social media. Within two months the community made the Tiny Pantry Times project self-sustaining, and it continues to be so to this day. Those individuals that wanted to help and those individuals needing the help were able to connect through the tiny box by our sidewalk.
What makes Tiny Pantry Times unique is that we refuse to gather demographic information from our recipients. We don’t need to know your income, place of residence, or when you last held down a job to provide you a loaf of bread. This refusal to ask these probing kinds of questions have regularly created a major stumbling block to TPT receiving any kind of grants or other federal assistance. Therefore, we have learned to generate an extensive network of community partnerships pulled from companies, other pantries, and community individuals. Adam is the force behind this action. His passion comes out anytime he speaks with a potential new contact. Adam has walked the walk and can talk the talk. As co-executive director, he is our logistics guru doing everything from engineering security, finding the food, to developing the routes to pick it up.
The name Tiny Pantry Times was a play off the Kansas City Times newspaper. Weekly, we promote events going on at the pantry with short videos, posts, and requests for needed items on the Nextdoor app, Facebook, and other social media platforms.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What breaks the bonds between people—and what restores them?
I think struggle breaks bonds. How individuals deal with the hardships of life tells a great deal about the character of the person. If you are struggling with someone, the burden of the struggle can be shared or internalized. An individual that internalizes the struggle refuses to see the potential of a solution. Sharing a burden can be defeating and sometimes overwhelming but sharing a solution can be empowering. If you have a partner who will not only see and share your struggle but also give you the strength and insight on how to overcome that struggle, then you are lightyears ahead of those struggling alone and that is what restores those bonds.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
That I am a woman and therefore not worthy of listening to or being taken seriously. In many professions, only the ones that are the loudest are considered worth hearing. The art of listening, however, is an even greater power in my opinion. The wheels in my brain turn constantly to addressing the needs of our recipients and the need to get those with the louder voices to listen to those needs. Someone asked me recently how I defined success. I replied that true success with Tiny Pantry Times would be that no one would need us any longer. TPT is constantly treating the symptom and not the cause of food insecurity. If the loud voices could just listen to a solution, then I think success could be achieved.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Whose ideas do you rely on most that aren’t your own?
The ideas of my husband, Adam. His vision and ideas have taken Tiny Pantry Times from a distribution rate of 2,500 pounds a month to a rate, as of August of this year, of 64,646 pounds of food and hygiene products into the hands of those that need it the most. He has a vision of creating a central hub of networking pantries, restaurants, and individual donors where food is gathered, stored and shared as needed by the pantry’s community. Not all pantries are the same size and therefore their needs are not all one size fits all. While food banks do the best they can, our experience spotlights that they are often understaffed, and their reach extends far beyond what they are capable of serving successfully.
My daughter, Jewell, is another idea resource. An Entrepeneur and mother of three, this dynamic woman has been my resource for harnessing AI, managing marketing, online newsletter generation, and other social media platforms. When your business, either for profit or non-profit, slips away from public view, you will have a major difficulty hurdle to overcome to make your mission heard and understood.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
Nothing! Both my husband and I still work full time. I’m a college professor and he is a CDL driver. Tiny Pantry Times is our passion project and second job. This is why we have enlisted the help of over 40 volunteers to keep the pantry stocked, food recovered, and community engaged. If we both retired tomorrow, we would just keep doing what we do for the pantry, just do it full time. Someone once said if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life. We both love the work we do with the pantry, so I guess we will never retire from it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tinypantrytimes.org
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-parker-5b09b125?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content+profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561685684171
