We recently connected with Vanessa Lipscomb and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Vanessa, thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents taught me to GIVE. Even if you feel like you don’t have a lot, you should always give. My parents divorced before I turned 3 years old. Even though they separated, the values pretty much remained the same. My dad always helped out other family members or family friends that were in need. He often offered a place to stay, helped people move, cleaned up his church etc. My mom also always offered family a place to stay and helped people find jobs.

As a child I remember volunteering with my uncle Moises (who immigrated from Mexico) at churches in Alief. My job was to pass out canned goods and bagged sandwiches, which is so full circle for me because now I do something similar in the same neighborhood. I believe that having my parents instill that in me at such a young age has helped me remain humble. Every time I find myself complaining I remember things could be a lot worse. It is also nice to hear from elders that “your parents raised you right.” I think for my parents that is probably the highest compliment. I am pretty sure they feel proud knowing that I may not have a lot, but I do what I can to serve my community.

Vanessa, 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?

I am a 34 year old woman of Black & Hispanic Race. My father is Mexican from Michoacan and my mom is Black American. The way I got into co-founding a non-profit organization is pretty simple. My husband, who was then my boyfriend decided we wanted to do something to raise money for breast cancer awareness. We decided to host a softball game and invited friends and family to play. We didn’t raise goal amount of funds, but still turned the money in. When I went to turn the check in, the secretary placed our little $500 check on an unorganized desk and my heart sank. It made me feel like our hard work didn’t matter because that group sees hundreds of thousands dollars every year. Then I told my boyfriend what happened and we eventually started our own thing.

We currently rescue food from the grocery store that would otherwise would wind up in a landfill/thrown away. We weed out what is unhealthy or molded and then provide it to the community. The way we differ from other food initiatives is that we let people choose what they want rather than giving them a whole box of stuff their family doesn’t eat. This idea is two fold in the way that we are eliminating food waste and helping end food insecurity.

What I am most proud of is that we are very small and dont receive the same amount of monetary donation as the big guys, but we have stayed the course. We have not let that stop us thus far. We do need more help to grow and have outgrown where we are, so we are hoping that in 2024 we can get a larger space. Our operation should be bigger so that we can meet the needs of the community.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my business partner in high school. We were best friends in the beginning. Then we had sort of a falling out the end of our Junior year where we didn’t speak at all. Fast forward til now we started a nonprofit together and got married ;-)

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being kind, helpful, relatable and for me also speaking fluent Spanish. Most of our customers are Hispanic so speaking the language in which the majority communicates has been essential.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thewowproject.org/
• Instagram: thewowprojectorg

Image Credits
Jabrelle Lipscomb