Tracey Selingo - One Intuitive Leap, No Experience, 80,000 People Fed
In this inspiring episode, we sit down with Tracey Selingo, founder of Fork Over Love, a nonprofit born out of the COVID-19 pandemic. When restaurants were forced to close their doors and communities struggled with food insecurity, Tracey saw an opportunity to bring the two challenges together into a beautiful solution: paying shuttered restaurants to prepare meals and distributing them to people in need.What started as a creative response to crisis has grown into a movement—serving tens of thousands of meals and building community connections along the way.We talk with Tracey about:The origin story of Fork Over Love during the height of the pandemicHow she turned obstacles into opportunities to serve her communityThe challenges and triumphs of building a nonprofit from the ground upThe power of resilience, creativity, and community in times of crisisWhat she’s learned on her journey and where Fork Over Love is headed nextThis conversation will leave you inspired by Tracey’s vision, resourcefulness, and heart.Resources & Links:Visit Fork Over Love: https://forkoverlove.orgConnect with us at sparkmepodcast.comFollow us on Instagram: @sparkmepodcastJoin the Spark Me Community:If this episode sparked something in you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a little inspiration. Your support helps us grow this community and bring more powerful stories to light.Tracey Selingo has helped businesses build bridges between the heart oftheir brand and the soul of their customers for thirty-two years. She workedin New York and Philadelphia at advertising agencies before returninghome to Northeastern Pennsylvania to start one of her own. Her devotionto creative, engaging communication has helped many businesses—fromhigh-tech and higher education to aviation, health and beauty,pharmaceutical, financial, legal, and beyond. Over a decade ago, she also started helping women harness their divinityso that they may discover their power and thrive. She draws on an intuitiveperspective to see life from alternate angles that inspire growth,compassion, courage, acceptance, belonging, wholeness, and love.On January 8, 2021, she founded Fork Over Love, a socially innovative501(c)(3) that began as an emergency response to the pandemic of Covid-19 to bridge the gap between two groups of people severely affected by thepandemic: small, local restaurants and neighbors in need. Fork Over Lovewas built from the skills Tracey acquired throughout her professionalcareer.Today, Fork Over Love envisions a future where communities areholistically nourished from the inside out by investing in culturally diverse,independent restaurants to elevate all struggling to put food on the tablewith the comfort of nutritious, chef-made meals with absolute dignity and nostigma or shame.Tracey's life work empowers people, places, and things to come together,embrace change, and live fulfilled. She holds a Master of Arts inAdvertising from the SI Newhouse School of Public Communication atSyracuse University and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from theUniversity of Scranton. In 2024, Tracey received 2024 Athena® LeadershipAward from the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce andIndustry. In 2023, she received a Doctor of Humanities, honoris causa –from King's College; she was named a Top 25 Women In Business in TheNortheast Business Journal in 2022; Outstanding Volunteer Fundraiser bythe Association of Fundraising Professionals, PA, NortheasternPennsylvania Chapter in 2021.She is the proud mother of two young men, Jake and Henry, and lives inShavertown, PA, with her husband, Dave, and their dog, Tuck.