Leading the effort to engage the community in Foodshare's work

Name: Sarah Santora

Role at Foodshare:  Community Involvement Manager. In this role, Sarah coordinates education, outreach and advocacy programs.

How long with Foodshare? 7+ years

Hobbies: Politics, Grandchildren, Friends, Reading  "Did I mention my adorable grandchildren? "

Why I do what I do:   “I enjoy policy work the most because it has the potential to help scores of people at once and if we don’t do it, there may be more suffering than there needs to be. The HAT work fed a lot of kids lunch in Vernon this summer and that was a good feeling.”

Most recent accomplishment:  The Hunger Action Month activities including SNAP Challenge, Student Voices Contest and the Closing SNAP Panel.

A personal/professional goal:  Don’t let the poor fall through the cracks of a broken system.

Last read: Lots of self improvement literature, hope it works!

Hardest thing learned at Foodshare? How to do a little bit at a time on a lot of different projects yet still feel like I am moving forward

What others say about Sarah:  Sarah is passionate and articulate about a number of issues, if you’re not sure just how passionate, drop a political opinion into a conversation!

What has changed the most at Foodshare?  There is so much more emphasis now on providing things other than food, it’s great.

If you could be, or do, anything else – what would it be?  Independently wealthy, no doubt.

Something about Sarah that few people know: “I was born in Baumholder, West Germany.  An army base town in a country that officially no longer exists.”

Anne Frank once said that in spite of everything, she believed people were basically good. Do you agree or disagree? Why?  “I believe we struggle to balance our good instincts against our selfish desires. As long as we are alive the battle continues. At best we are just below the angels, at worst we are demons in disguise.”