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Upon finding out that 40% of all food produced in the U.S. is wasted, Feeding Charlotte immediately began researching how to connect the dots between those with excess food to those without enough. Their mission is to rescue surplus, freshly prepared meals to reduce food waste and feed the hungry. Our guest for this episode is Executive Director, Kim Aprill, who will discuss more about the local food insecurities faced by many individuals and families. For more information visit https://feedingcharlotte.org/. 

Greenlight Fund Charlotte, an organization that has as its mission to partner with the local community to identify systemic barriers to economic mobility and invest in bringing proven models that are additive to the local ecosystem to help break down those barriers and address deep-rooted racial disparities, opening inclusive prosperity opportunities for children and families. Today’s guest is the Executive Director, Sam Smith Jr., who is here to talk about factors, and emerging challenges, that shape the lives of economically-vulnerable populations. For more information visit greenlightfund.org/sites/charlotte/. 

Yuly Rodriguez is the Program Director of Buenas Finanzas Carolinas, the Latinx extension of Common Wealth Charlotte, which provides a full suite of services through a culturally competent lens in order to better accommodate the needs of the Latino population in Charlotte, NC. Yuly finds it a pleasure to work with the Latino community and help make the idea of the American Dream into a tangible reality that empowers them to achieve their own financial goals and highlights their strengths. Learn more about how to get involved with BFC at vitalatino.org.

In 2015, Common Wealth Charlotte’s (CWC) founder, Darren Ash, formed a start-up team to study clinical data on financial trauma. He and this team traveled extensively around the U.S. speaking with other organizations engaged in similar activities. They engaged with experienced and proven creators of financial literacy education in order to develop the model CWC currently uses, an approach not available in Charlotte or the Carolinas, and that has not been replicated in the market to this day. Years later, CWC proves every day that a dedicated client can successfully move away from continual reliance on government or charitable assistance into graduated tiers of financial capability.