We recently connected with Kristen Wiltshire and have shared our conversation below.
Kristen , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
The day the fire displaced students and families in Richmond Hill, my Co-Founder was immediately energized to find a way to respond. We hadn’t officially become a non-profit yet, and the idea was far from mind. As seven recipient families grew to 70, it occurred to me that this project, the Give & Go Grocery Project, had the potential to catalyze initiatives beyond itself and that we could be the stewards of impact. Ideas mean little without execution; the following days, weeks, and months showed us what a community of Givers could do in response to tragedy; and that an organization can be built around an already active project. Launching The Gaton Foundation was a real moment of pride; Gaton is my mother’s maiden name, so this nonprofit organization carries her legacy and bounds of ancestral fortitude that will this work forward every day. The Gaton Foundation is the idea executed, realized.
Kristen , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Well, I studied culinary science & arts at Drexel University; it was basically culinary school. I was a fashion stylist in New York City for several years and loved it; I styled a shoot for Campbells Soup and Twitch, which was really the beginning of the end of that, I felt like I did enough in that space, and other curiosities could use the attention. I will always appreciate those years; They allowed me to travel between projects and live with a lot of freedom. Many places I visited had an impact, including public health and water resource brigades in Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama, fruit species research in Colombia, a certification in permaculture design in Costa Rica, and working as a Food Designer in Rajasthan, India. I continued studying Human Biology(Nutrition) at Purdue to earn a BSNS and currently preparing for a board exam. As much as my story seems totally disjointed, it’s actually the most complete, closed-loop thing; I promise. It’s a study of processes, seeds, plants, to food, to beautiful food, to nutrients, to wellness, and then the well-Being travels in search of new seeds to plant and the loop closes.
Lastly, the businesses I build in the nutrition/functional medicine space and The Gaton Foundation compassionately create access, make connections, close loops, and are functional wellness spaces that contribute to the planet’s ecological healing through applied holistic thinking. I want to serve purpose through collaboration, and I’m really excited about extending the boundaries of my capacity through global learning and transformative service. TGF is, at the core, a business that can achieve all of those things, which I am deeply proud of.
Any advice for managing a team?
People first. It’s a core value for us at The Gaton Foundation, and without attention to people at every entry and exit point of this organization, we can’t reach the nearly 350 people we serve every month. That’s what’s real about this, the human element is integral to everything, and that’s why we have critical control points; we request feedback from our recipients through surveys and always ask our volunteers if they’re enjoying rocking with us, if there’s something they need, and if they want the aux cord. It’s central, and we don’t forget that.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
This is a good one. We met for the first time on March 30th, 1995, at 1:08 am. It was a long night, but according to her, she was calm and very relaxed (under the circumstances), and it was “the greatest moment” of her life. And now you, dear reader, know my birth story. My tenacious visionary mother is my co-Founder in this endeavor, the creator of the Give&Go Grocery Project, and the heart of our organization.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thegatonfoundation.org/
- Instagram: @thegatonfoundation
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/kristen-wiltshire-a2586a116
Image Credits
Photography- Kristen Wiltshire