Chris Cassidy is our Senior Planner & Compliance Manager for our parent company, Community Action Lehigh Valley. We are incredibly lucky to have Chris assigned as the planner for Second Harvest!
Learn more about what Chris does for the food bank and how she spends her time outside the agency.
What does your job entail?
I am a part of the planning department at our parent agency, Community Action Lehigh Valley. I’m the planner assigned to Second Harvest and Sixth Street Shelter. That means that I write the grants and help administer and report on them. I am also responsible for finding new grant opportunities to support our programming. In addition, I am involved in program development and contract compliance. Lastly, I serve on the governing board of the Regional Homeless Advisory Board, the board of Bethlehem Emergency Sheltering, and the Allentown Commission to End Homelessness.
What is your favorite part of your job?
I love being a part of work that improves our community by advocating for justice and bringing services that help people thrive. Towards that end, being on the team at Second Harvest is amazing! Everyone is dedicated to ending food insecurity not only by making healthy food available to people who need it (which is an important part of what we do) but, crucially, by working towards justice within the food system and our larger society.
What is something you wish people understood about poverty and hunger?
That poverty and hunger are policy choices. It is not personal failure. We, as a society, could choose to enact policies that end both poverty and hunger by shifting our priorities. I will keep working towards that until each member of our community has equitable access to the resources they need to live happy and fulfilling lives.
What do you like to do when you are not at work?
Sleep. Haha. I like to hang out with the people I love, walk my dog, work out, read, knit, watch unhealthy amounts of British Bake Off, cheer/cry for the Maple Leafs, listen to CBC radio, and drink too much tea and coffee. In the before times, I loved to travel.
What is your life motto?
I’m a huge Star Wars geek, so I’d have to say, “Never tell me the odds” although sometimes it’s “I have a bad feeling about this.”