Today is the Day Changemakers

Welcome to season 4, episode 9 of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast.

This week I am joined by special guest co-host, Fred Wasiak, President & CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey. Together they interview Megan LoBue, Grant Writing Specialist for the Food Bank of South Jersey. Megan was a guest in season 1, episode 15. 

We talk about Megan's new role at the Food Bank of South Jersey. It continues to be an amazing journey watching Changemaker podcast guests get to know each other and work together.

Megan and Fred share about food insecurity and how things have actually gotten worse since the pandemic.

We find out some things we all have in common. We also talk about the joy it is to surround yourself with like-minded people trying to make the world a better place.

I hope you find a nugget of information that you can take with you in your day.

Remember today is the day! You can't go back to yesterday and you do not yet own tomorrow. So, my question to you, the listener is - what steps small or large are you going to take today to get yourself closer to your goals.

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It. To learn more about Today is the Day go to www.todayisthedayliveit.com. Subscribe to the Today is the Day Changemakers YouTube channel. We hope you may consider leaving a review. 

Have a fabulous week!
 

Welcome to season 4, episode 7 of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast.

This week Jodi is joined by special guest co-host the inFredible (more than incredible) Fred Wasiak, President and CEO of the Food Bank of South Jersey. Together, they interview Richard Uniacke, President, Bridges Outreach.

Fred has now been on the podcast for four episodes. He is looking forward to being on one more time to receive the special Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast jacket.

Richard starts our conversation sharing about his love of the performing arts as a young child. We talk about his trajectory to becoming the President, of Bridges Outreach. It is an incredible story.

Bridges Outreach mission is to end homelessness through street outreach and intensive case management focusing on health, housing, and independence. Bridges forms relationships with those experiencing homelessness while meeting their most urgent needs. Their programming is so necessary and needed.

As we talk further, Richard shares a few very touching stories. One of them is about a woman who went from living in a domestic violence situation, to being shot by her husband, to finding herself homeless. It took a long time to get her to where she needed to be. Those in need don't always trust those who want to help. Trust needs to be formed. The numbers of those who are without shelter are staggering and Bridges Outreach needs your support as they support the masses.

Please subscribe to the Today is the Day Changemakers YouTube Channel or stream. Today is the Day continues to search across the world for Changemakers. if you are a Changemaker who wants to share what you are doing to make your corner of the world or beyond a better place, please email [email protected]. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It.

Welcome to another episode of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast.

This week Jodi's guest is Jeff Massone. Jeff is the Founder of Prepared Leader Consulting. Take a listen to how Jeff started off on his journey thinking about being a veterinarian, moving into the pharmaceutical space, to now coaching emerging leaders on their journey. It proves the importance of listening to what drives you. Your trajectory is only determined by your motivation and determination. 

Now, Jeff is working to help those who want to move up the ladder to leadership positions by providing them with coaching that will help them to be the most effective leader in their role. Jeff shares that you want to be the one people call even when they don't need you. 

Take a listen to this episode as well via the Today is the Day Changemakers YouTube Channel. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It. 

Have a great week everyone!

Welcome to season 4, episode 6 of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. 

My next guest is Nicholas Marco.  From ICU nurse to Hand and Stone, Sweat440, and Drybar franchisee. 

Nick started out as a Penn State graduate, enrolling in a nursing program a week after. He is now credited with generating 28 million dollars of revenue in the last year and franchisee of 11 Hand and Stone NJ locations and 20 Ohio locations. 

At the age of 14 years old, Nick came up with the name Hand and Stone and shared the idea with his father, John Marco. For this, he received a special gift when he turned driving age - a new car!

 Beginning his journey as a registered nurse in the ICU, Nick acquired his love for the health industry and set out on his wellness path. He then realized he loves franchising and now has over 500 employees in his company. Despite being such a hard worker, Nick says he “never feels like he’s going to work” as he has maintained that the work he is doing always make him feel like he is making a difference. He continues to work on having a healthy work- life balance. 

In addition to all his amazing skills and leadership positions, Nick also just recently launched a podcast titled, The Opportunity Coach, which will be full of his wisdom and knowledge from his dynamic work experiences.

Nicholas Marco shares about surrounding yourself with the right people, the people that want to see you grow. He has made it his mission to do the same for others. He has much to give in the areas of coaching, business, and overall life advice.

Click here to listen to Nick's new podcast. The Opportunity Coach.

Please take a moment and subscribe to the Today is the Day Changemakers YouTube Channel or stream on all streaming sites and if you can please leave a review. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It.

Have a great week everyone!

Welcome to the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. 

I am so excited to welcome Patricia McLoughlin, general manager of the Anthem Awards, and overall wonderful, passionate human. Her personal goal has always been to find solutions for creating equitable spaces and within this position she is accomplishing just that. 

The Anthem Awards is a global mission which was created to uplift and celebrate innovative work happening in the social impact space. This includes for- profits, non-profits, agencies, individual efforts, efforts of students, etc. Cause areas range from diversity, equity, inclusion, education, arts, culture, health, human and civil rights, humanitarian action, responsible technology, sustainability, climate and the environment. Each year over 2000 entries are received from all over the world from amazing individuals. 

The Anthem Awards will be opening up for their fourth season this year, with submissions being accepted starting April 9. Anyone can enter through the website, submitting either a link, document, or report. If anyone is considering applying, it is strongly recommended to reach out to Patricia McLoughlin as her professional standpoint will help categorize the submission to fit the Anthem Awards process. To learn more about the Anthem Awards, visit anthemawards.com or search @anthemawards on social media.
 
Please take a moment and subscribe to the Today is the Day Changemakers YouTube Channel or stream on all streaming sites and if you can please leave a review. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It.

Have a great week everyone!

Welcome to season 4, episode 4 of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. Please take a moment to write a review and share this podcast episode if it resonates with you. 

This week's guests are Sylvia Allen, President, Allen Consulting and Founder of Sylvia's Children in Uganda, Africa. Joining us is Terese Rolke, Executive Director, Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Listen in to hear how Sylvia became the grandmother to many in this incredible school in Uganda.  Sylvia's Children is a non-profit founded to help the children at the Mbiriizi Advanced Primary and Day Care School in Mbiriizi, Uganda, Africa. The school is based on the British model and goes through Primary 7. After that the children go on to Secondary School (S-1 through S-6) and then can go to college and/or technical school.

The original objective was to teach the school how to be entrepreneurs so they would not be dependent on the charity. With the increase in enrollment (439 to 1080), the building of a 6,000 sq. ft. medical clinic, having a farm with 8,000 chicken, 42 pigs and 7 acres planted in corn and beans plus 100,000 coffee tree seedlings the school is capable of supporting itself. Thus,the initial mission was accomplished.

The mission of the organization has been expanded to include providing secondary school and advanced education to any orphan that wishes to go beyond P-7. As of January 1, 2023, they have 150 orphans in secondary school and 50 in college and/or technical school. They have already had 77 orphan graduates and another group will graduate summer 2023. These are the people that will change and improve the culture as they move into adulthood.

Sylvia invited Terese and others to take a trip to visit the school in Uganda in November 2023. Sylvia lives in NJ. Terese shares what an incredible experience it was to meet the children and provide them with gifts and trinkets during their holiday season. Included in the group of volunteers that took time out of their own busy schedules to have this incredible experience was a healthcare professional.  She checked in on the children to make sure they were doing well.
 
Terese, started as a volunteer for the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce, became a board member and the moved to a paid role as the full time, Executive Director. It is through her work there that she met Sylvia. Sylvia is a member of MRCC and has been honored through the organization with an Athena Award.

Terese described the experience of going to visit Sylvia's Children as “amazing”, saying the children “stole her heart” immediately.

To contribute to this cause or to learn more, visit https://allenconsulting.com/sylvias-c....

To learn more about the Monmouth Regional Chamber of Commerce go to https://www.monmouthregionalchamber.com/.

Welcome to the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast! 

I am thrilled to welcome Floyd Jones onto this week’s episode, an activist, grassroots organizer, business coach, and outstanding human being. Floyd is the director of community and partnerships at Givebutter, the world’s first completely free end to end fundraising platform powering over 700 million in donations per year. In this position, he works in sponsoring, campaigning, and events. He has raised over 20 million for grassroots organizations and spoken at conferences across the country. Givebutter has gotten a huge amount of support and attention, being featured by ESPN, Afrotech, Linkedin, Variety magazine, and sponsored by Nike, Whole Foods, Visa, NBA2K and more. Floyd also has founded BackBlack, a collaborative campaign which has raised over 1.3 million for 770 black-led profits. He also works as a business coach for nonprofits and purpose-driven companies. Floyd is an extraordinarily dynamic human with amazing energy and a unique outlook on the world. 

Floyd discusses his formative years, involving his relationship with the arts as well as first experiences with entrepreneurship, starting with his family’s work in Sierra Leone. He explains that this viewpoint taught him that “you can do well and do good”. His father’s work inspired Floyd’s current passions for social justice and business, showing him that you can prosper while simultaneously making a positive impact on your community. Especially while working in the business world, Floyd recommends finding an artistic outlet, his being music, that will “always welcome you”. Floyd achieves an impressive balance of providing for the community and maintaining successful organizations, a feat accomplished through his ability to skillfully merge the entrepreneurial and nonprofit worlds in a way that benefits all. 
You can support BackBlack at backblackmovement.org, and get involved with Givebutter at givebutter.com. Floyd is an upbeat, upstanding, spirit and serves as a model for us all with his character, skill, and tireless work ethic. 

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It.  

Have a great week everyone!

I am so excited to once again welcome the wonderful John Belizaire onto this week's episode. John is the CEO of Soluna Computing, which involves crypto currency, AI, and machine learning powered by renewable energy. John has an impressive background as a successful CEO, architect, and author.

John’s mission at Soluna is “to make renewable energy a primary source of energy in the world”. Soluna goes to great lengths to make sure renewable energy is used to its fullest capacity,  building specialized data centers to ensure all of the energy is put to use. In John’s first episode, he detailed his hopes for this process at Soluna and we are proud to join him in admiring how far he has come! John Belezaire is doing commendable work to ensure a brighter future for us all through use of renewable energy and embracing the versatility of technology. 

• To purchase John's new book: Keep Pushin': CEO Insights to Guide Your Journey to Mastery 
• Read John's CEO Playbook Blog
• Visit Soluna's website 

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram at Today is the Day Live It. You can also stream this episode on all streaming sites. 

Welcome to Season 4, Episode 1 of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. I am so excited to be back interviewing the changemakers, inspirers, and those disrupting the status quo. 

This week I am excited to introduce the fantastic fab five food bank CEO's of New Jersey. These individuals, Fred Wasiak, Elizabeth McCarthy, Bernie Flynn, Triada Stampas, and Mark Valli are working together to feed New Jersey through each of their amazing organizations. Each of these incredible changemakers have found themselves working in public service, whether they knew from the start that they wished to pursue the nonprofit path or found it along the way, they have all come together with a common goal: to help the people of New Jersey. 

Fred Wasiak is the CEO and president of the Food Bank of South Jersey, serving 4 counties from urban, to suburban, to rural. Founded in 1985, the Food Bank of South Jersey focuses on health, nutrition, education, and awareness. Fred emphasizes that “the root cause is not hunger, it is poverty” when discussing ways to address the problem of food insecurity at its source. 

Elizabeth McCarthy, president and CEO of Community Food Bank of New Jersey shares a common goal as her recent focus has been job training programs to help people get on their feet. CFBNJ started with a woman named Kathleen DiChiara handing out meals out of her station wagon and now 49 years later they provide 90 million meals annually. Elizabeth describes her perspective as “food is medicine”, aiming to get heart healthy meals to those in need. 

Bernie Flynn is the full-time volunteer CEO of Mercer Street Friends, providing food bank services since 1958, focusing on family and education in Mercer County. He highlights the food banks’ partnership with the state as “providing tremendous support” throughout their public service endeavors. 

Triada Stampas is the CEO and president of Fulfill, a food bank serving Monmouth and Ocean Counties which sends 14 million meals to a network of 300 people. Fulfill began as a food bank 40 years ago and has now included toy and clothing drives as well to address larger issues within the population. Triada firmly believes, “it is a blessing to get help when you need it and it is a blessing to give help when others need it, that’s something that binds us as humans”. 

Mark Valli is the CEO of Norwescap, serving over 30,000 low-income families in the northwest corner of New Jersey. Founded in 1965, Norwescap started as a community action organization and has grown its role to include a food bank. He describes his work as, “a system to help government and private resources get channeled to people who need them”.  

By forming a coalition and meeting regularly to collaborate, these five food bankers of New Jersey have formed a strong group within the state to ensure impactful, judgment free, lasting aid to those in need. It is as Fred says, “when five food bankers of New Jersey get together, good things happen”.  

If you would like to help this cause, we encourage you to take advantage of the abundant volunteer opportunities provided by their organizations or make a monetary donation to help them to continue to serve nutritious food. You can also visit their websites, foodbanksj.org, cfbnj.org, mercerstreetfriends.org, fulfillnj.org, and norwescap.org to learn more about their work. 

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Have a great week everyone!

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to our last episode of 2023. 

This week I am introducing the outstanding Orville Morales onto the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast. Orville has had 20 years experience working in activism and education, serving as campaign manager for the public goods project as well as working at Montclair State University as an adjunct professor. These experiences led him to open Morales and Associates, an organization meant to drive people-focused decision making in different organizations, with its slogan being “power to people”. 

Orville Morales’s life began in a state of dual immigration, as he spent some of his childhood in New Jersey and some in the Dominican Republic. During this time, he struggled with identity, he felt stuck in between two worlds and eventually he came out creating his own definition of his identity rather than simply accepting what others told him he was. 

His mission over the last 20 years has been to inspire people to realize that they matter. Morales “decided to become an educator to moderate discussions of others and create a runway for people to prepare themselves to get involved” with impacting government, becoming activists, advocating for change. This includes people who align with any and all backgrounds, political statuses, and beliefs. Within his experience, he has come across those who refuse to accept certain ways of being or ideas. On addressing those who are deemed closed minded, Orville states, “we have to be willing to accept human paradox”. He recommends giving those who disagree with you “grace” when entering a difficult conversation. 

Through his work at Morales and Associates, Orville aims to “help people get involved in the decision making, not just the reactions to the decisions” Morales references the heated political climate during covid as an example of what he works to prevent, seeking to direct individuals away from heated debates amongst each other and towards organizing in an attempt to enact lasting change. He lives by the idea, “voices should be felt rather than just heard”. 

However, Orville admits to the fact that his line of work can easily lead to burnout, and explains how he avoids this by training nonprofit leaders. By pouring his wisdom into others, he avoids burnout and creates a collaborative mission to “work with institutions to change them, not necessarily wait for the institutions to change”. Morales has seen hope more than anything throughout his years working in his practice. He has witnessed people of all ages be able to “envision a brighter future” through collaborating with organizations addressing health, housing, and food insecurity. Orville Morales can be found and contacted through his website, moralesandassociates.com, or on linkedin under his name. He recommends people to definitely get involved and engaged in the work of being a changemaker and he has proven through his excellent achievements that it is in fact a fulfilling and necessary position. 

Please follow us on Facebook and Instagram @todayisthedayliveit. 
Have a great week everyone!

Jodi

Note: Views expressed by the guest are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Today is the Day Changemakers Podcast.