“The Ford Thirty Under 30 program is an innovative corporate leadership course that empowers young employees to work with and learn about philanthropic organizations.” – Ford Thirty Under Thirty
The program is a year-long course run by the Ford Motor Company Fund and represents Ford’s ongoing efforts to develop young employee leaders and innovators who serve their local communities.
Thirty Under 30 fellows are made up of 30 U.S. employees under 30, selected from applications across the country. All Ford professionals, they take time away from their jobs to learn more about the non-profit world and how to develop strategies to help nonprofits target younger generations who represent future supporters.
A team of five fellows assigned to Gleaners asked the question, “What if we knew the real-time food needs of our community?”
Here is their response, “Today, people are under-served, but there is no way to know when and where. We want to be able to bridge this gap in our community, and have a real-time model identifying food security in southeast Michigan. Through this endeavor, we will be able to distribute healthy and nutritious food in an efficient and personalized manner, while educating people about its importance, encouraging volunteers, and closing gaps in food security.” Gleaners deeply appreciates the passion and insights of the team as we’ve worked together this past year. Many thanks to Khalid Ahmed, Nicole Kruse, Matthew Mckenzie, Kyle Ness and Cory van Achen.
Fellow Kyle Ness on working with Gleaners:
I’m currently working with an amazing team of Ford employees and nonprofit partners from Gleaners Community Food Bank. We are focused on developing an intimate understanding of community needs, with respect to food insecurity, and gaps in the existing food security network. By leveraging human-centric problem-solving strategies, we have begun to develop concepts which may better leverage this existing network and infrastructure, but in a manner which is more seamlessly integrated into the lives of those who use it.