In bittersweet news - at the beginning of July, Carla will be leaving the role of Executive Director at Food Stash Foundation to pursue her next challenge in her nonprofit career.

While sad to see her leave us, we are so proud of all we’ve accomplished over the last four years with Carla as our leader. There are many aspects of Food Stash that are intentionally unrecognizable since Carla started in 2021, and we take pride in what our team and organization have achieved.

Here are a few accomplishments that wouldn’t have been possible without Carla’s dedicated leadership: 

• The Conviction with which we deliver dignified food access programs, pay living wages and charge nominal service fees for our work.

• Our Presence in the community and in food waste and food security conversations that validates our approach and appreciates our leadership, collaboration and transparency.

• The Workplace Culture we’ve fostered that balances fun, wellness, and accountability in all the right ways.

• The Rigour of our Evaluation which demonstrates tangible social and environmental impacts, encourages feedback from program members and enables continuous improvement.

• Our Market Program which became one of our three core programs in 2021 and taught us a whole lot about working directly with community.

With change brings uncertainty, but during this transition there are key principles that remain integral to Food Stash’s work. 

• Food waste diversion and emergency food access are not the solutions to food waste and food insecurity, respectively. But, in the interim, the work that Food Stash does to support community members, local businesses and the food recovery sector has never been more important with ever-present food waste and ever-increasing costs of living. 

• Prioritizing dignity and choice while providing temporary food relief is not innovative, it’s just the right thing to do. And it’s ingrained in how Food Stash operates.

• The longstanding support of Food Stash’s founder, his family and our Board, coupled with fresh perspective from four new Board members, will continue to guide the organization towards further resilience and excellence. 

• Underpaid work does us all a disservice. Food Stash will remain a Living Wage Employer to fairly compensate its dedicated staff and will continue to charge nominal fees for its services to recognize its work in the community.

The Food Stash Board of Directors are deeply grateful for Carla’s stewarding of the organization over the last four years. Under her leadership, Food Stash has grown - rescuing more food from the landfill, serving more agencies and returning good food to where it belongs, on tables across our city. Hand in hand with those impacts, Carla has built and fostered an able team to carry on the mission of Food Stash. 

As we step into a phase of leadership transition, we are fully confident that we will continue our operations and services just as we always have done. Candy Tladi, our Community Programs Manager, will proficiently step into an interim Executive Director role. 

We wish Carla all the best in all of her future leadership roles, fully expecting her to thrive wherever she leads, just as she has done at Food Stash. 

- Joben, the Board Chair 

For any questions about this transition, please contact Food Stash Board Chair Joben David at jobendavid@gmail.com.