Our 5-year Strategic Plan
Second Harvest Heartland adopted a five-year strategic plan in 2019 designed to help us respond to the changing needs of the community, target our innovations and raise the visibility of hunger as a pervasive, but solvable problem.
After months of rigorous planning, conversations and listening with staff members and other key partners, we uncovered a shared sense of direction among staff, stakeholders, leaders, and the organization’s board. People involved in our work consistently said our staff, partner relationships and visibility efforts should be prioritized, and our innovation work should be focused and contained to efforts that strengthen current programs. Using this feedback, we developed three core areas of focus.
- We will prioritize meeting the needs of teams, the hunger-relief network and the diverse communities we serve. From more healthy foods to seamless and productive partnerships to a dynamic work environment, we’ll transform our work to become more responsive, efficient and equitable.
- We’ll double down on efforts to help the community understand how pervasive and devastating hunger in the heartland is, so people are inspired to get involved in the solution.
- Finally, we’ll target our innovation efforts on work that helps us meet the growing demand for meals. In other words, we’ll create a laser-like focus on work that is close to our core business.
All this work led us to a new mission. Drumroll, please ...
Our New Mission Is to End Hunger Together.
Why a new mission statement?
- Hunger is widespread and entrenched and it will take a large community of hunger fighters to end it.
- Second Harvest Heartland can’t deliver a single meal without our large and dedicated team of staff, volunteers, donors and community and agency partners working right alongside us.
- To honor the shared nature of our work, this new mission statement focuses on the collaborative work in front of us.