Today we’d like to introduce you to Jordan Palladino.
Jordan, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am born and raised in West Michigan. I attended college at GVSU and wasn’t sure where my path would lead me. I finally decided on a double major in International Relations and Public/Nonprofit Administration. After I graduated, I felt a pull to both ministry, and nonprofit. After some discernment, I landed on started my career in ministry.
For the next 8 years, I spent time in ministry in Midland and Kalamazoo. When I started, I was young and single, and after 8 years, I was now working with international students at Western Michigan University and was married with a baby on the way. I decided to think and pray about my next step and where I would go next. Would I continue on my current path or make a move back into the nonprofit world. I started thinking about this in early 2020. As I was processing these decisions, Covid hit.
During the first several weeks of covid, my international students were hit especially hard. WMU has over 1500 international students, and we started getting calls from students who were running out of food. They aren’t citizens, so they don’t qualify for any governmental aid or stimulus checks. Most of them lost their stipends or jobs and couldn’t find food on campus. Since they were only in the USA for a few years, most don’t own cars, and even the buses were shut down at the beginning of Covid. My co-pastor and I kept waiting to see if someone was going to step in and help these students, but it didn’t seem to happen. So, we decided to help out.
We were connected with a university professor who was literally filling his van with food and driving it around to off-campus apartments to help students who were hungry. My co-pastor and I stepped in, joined him, and worked to expand this work. The three of us started driving food around to off-campus apartments. We put effort into collecting food and raising funds. We ever expanded the work to help with rent assistance, as the eviction stay hadn’t been put in place yet. What started as a few people in cars ended with over 100 mobile food pantries, over 5000 students served food, and over 400 months of rent paid for. In August 2020, we spun this off into its own nonprofit.
As we finished the food programs, I said to myself, “that is my favorite program that I have ever put together.” I thought that if I could do more of that work, it would be amazing. A few months later, I saw an opening for the Executive Director position at Harvest Stand Ministries in Zeeland, MI. I learned more about the organization and saw they were doing amazing work to meet the immediate needs of clients who are struggling in crisis. I said that sounds like an amazing fit and something I am looking for. Luckily, the board of directors agreed, and in May 2021, I became the Executive Director of Harvest Stand Ministries. I have loved my time here and look forward to continuing to help those who are hungry.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
I have always struggled to have a clear direction. I have always loved to do a variety of things, and have a number of interests, so narrowing that down into one career has been challenging. This has caused me a times to be stuck and not know how to move forward. Fortunately, the path eventually has become clear. Well, at least the next step. One lesson I have learned is I don’t need to always see the whole road; just my next step can be enough.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Harvest Stand Ministries?
Harvest Stand Ministries exists to have a positive influence on the lives of people living in poverty by responding to human need with the love of Christ. We offer support to individuals and families by meeting immediate needs and providing opportunities for self-sustaining life change. We do this by providing a food pantry, a clothing store, and resource connection assistance. One way that we are unique is that we offer all of our food, clothing, and connection assistance services at no charge to our clients. They are absolutely no fees for service at Harvest Stand Ministries.
One thing I prioritize is making sure the Harvest Stand is the most welcoming and hospitable place as possible. I want HSM to be a place where our clients want to go, not where they dread going. We make it welcoming by making sure the pantry is clean, well lit, and well stocked. We also have a unique pantry because we are a client choice pantry. That means, rather than getting a pre-made box of food; our clients get to select the items that they want. They are able to choose items for several food categories, to make sure they are getting food that they want to eat. It also allows us to make sure that as little food goes to waste as possible.
What were you like growing up?
Growing up, I was a mix between nerdy and sporty. I was an all-state tennis player, but also am a huge fan of Lord of the Rings. During lunch hours, it was equally likely that you could find me in the library, playing a computer game, or outside playing pickup basketball.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://harveststandministries.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/harveststandministries/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HarvestStandMinistries
