Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Joan Leafman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Joan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

In 2012 my beautiful 27 year redheaded daughter was diagnosed with advance breast cancer. She valiantly fought this disease for three years but lost the battle. On January 2, 2015 my life changed forever. During her illness, when hope was low and reality was high, Corbin asked to be remembered by how she lived, not why she died. She was a true humanitarian. A Title 1 Kindergarten teacher, known by all for going through the lunch line everyday holding up a $20 bill so that the lunch ladies knew that all children were to receive a hot lunch. She also volunteered to build schools in New Orleans after Katrina, donated to homeless shelters and did everything that she could to make children’s lives better so that they would have a productive, happy and safe future. I, on the other hand, was a well respected, well published medical researcher and professor. While Corbin was a “doer”, I was a “talker”. After Corbin’s death I was unnecessarily terrified that she would not be remembered when the world went back to its everyday routine. So, established Corbin’s Legacy, a 501c3 public charity dedicated to continuing Corbin’s public health and community work with the mission of helping underserved elementary school children overcome food insecurity and medical inequity. I became a “doer”.

Joan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Corbin’s Legacy works every day to provide goods and services to children in need in some way. We focus on providing food for elementary school children and their families, in their homes. We send backpacks of food home to hundreds of children every week through our Weekend Food Warriors program. As well as gift food cards (as a result of COVID) for school breaks. Each allows us to address not just hunger but food insecurity by allowing families to eat together, in their homes and in the case of the food cards, select the items that are desired. We do all of this through our partnerships with Title 1 elementary schools. In addition to the distribution of food, we run two free clinics. Each is in a Title 1 elementary school in an effort to create a ?medical home” for these children, many of whom have never seen a doctor or only had care at hospital emergency rooms. Our goal is to bring each child up to baseline health and then focus on prevention. In addition to the above, we regularly have health fairs for communities in need and during the darkest hours of the COVID pandemic when it was clear that underserved communities were suffering the most, we opened a COVID-19 Vaccination POD where we vaccinated 4500 individuals who would otherwise never been served.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

This is an easy one – running a nonprofit, even when the mission is universally supported, is not for the faint of heart. The only way to keep going is with resilience. Not everyone that you help is grateful. While delivering backpacks of food at a school, the principal had our truck towed. For that we went back twice as often! I have been threatened, spit at, and challenged about who we feed and why. And, even when all is going well, there is always the issue of raising enough funds to keep the effort going. In other words, everyday is a challenge with its own unique stories that requires resilience from deep in ones soul.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Honesty, hard work, delivering what I promise.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://corbinslegacy.org
• Instagram: @corbinslegacy
• Facebook: @corbinslegacy
• Linkedin: @corbinslegacy
• Twitter: @corbinslegacy

Image Credits
VGROUP PHOTOGRAPHY