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What does it actually take to feed 97,000 people a day, every single day? This week, we sit down with Jackie Culver, CFRE, Vice President of Philanthropy at Feeding Northeast Florida — the largest, fastest-growing food bank in the entire Feeding America network — to find out what's really happening behind the warehouse doors.

What You'll Discover:

• Why Feeding Northeast Florida isn't a place you'd ever go to get food — and what "food rescue" actually means when chicken, damaged packaging, and surplus zucchini are on the line
• The ALICE population: who's really walking through the doors of a food pantry, and why it's rarely who you'd expect
• How a single Dollar General shooting turned into a masterclass in advocacy, dignity, and listening to a grieving community
• Why being poor is expensive — and how a 24-hour rent grace period can cascade into a $500 problem
• The Blue Apron-style meal kits, community teaching garden, and disaster-relief kitchen already reshaping what "food bank" means in Northeast Florida

The Moment That Hits Different: Just one day before this recording, Feeding Northeast Florida's CEO Susan King announced her retirement after 12 years building the organization from the ground up — including a pandemic-era effort that turned cruise ship donations and a shuttered golf tournament's catering into 650,000 prepared meals for senior housing. Jackie's tribute to her in the Future segment is the kind of moment you don't plan for in a run sheet.

Global Perspective: Co-host Naila Mir brings her own fundraising experience across the UK and Pakistan into the conversation, comparing Feeding Northeast Florida's model to the UK's First Love Foundation and unpacking why solving hunger always seems to circle back to housing, healthcare, and the price of being poor.

Jackie also gets real about the philanthropy side of the work — how to keep donors engaged when their giving capacity changes year to year, and why "time, talent, and treasure" all carry equal weight when an entire family ends up volunteering for the cause.

Connect with Jackie Culver & Feeding Northeast Florida:

• Website: feedingnefl.org (donate, volunteer, or find food near you)
• LinkedIn: Jackie Culver
• Social: @feedingnortheastflorida

Find Now, Near, and the Future:

• Website: nownearfuture.com
• Instagram/LinkedIn: @nownearfuture
• Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube