I have two extremely exciting announcements:
- Lemontree has now helped more than one hundred thousand households.
- Kasumi Quinlan is now Lemontree's Executive director.
One hundred thousand is impossible for me to wrap my head around. That’s bigger than five sold out shows at Madison Square Garden. But this is more existential than a rock concert—these are parents that open full fridges instead of empty ones and kids who go to bed nourished instead of with rumbling tummies.
The path to 100k started with flyers on phone poles. We had an instinct that there was a gap in food access and knew that the best thing to do was talk to people.
So we started hanging flyers with Kasumi's phone number all around New York City.
For the first few months of our food helpline, Kasumi was the whole operation. She would talk to clients, understand what they needed and do the research to find food for them.
Mostly, she would listen. She put in the work to understand our clients as holistic individuals, not just statistics on a screen.
And then, she scaled herself. She hired empathetic specialists and wrote playbooks to get them up to speed. Then, she redesigned flows to make those specialists more efficient so we could help more clients. And she used what she was learning from clients to be exacting about our data.
Today, the helpline doesn't ring Kasumi's cell phone. It's managed by a team of four customer service specialists supported by sophisticated software and backed by a database of more than 8,500 food resources.
Kasumi's work wasn't just limited to the direct customer experience. When we needed to build a client acquisition funnel, Kasumi scaled our Facebook ads to hundreds of thousands of impressions per week. When someone needed to do PR, Kasumi landed us placements on TV and in the Boston Globe. And when we saw an opportunity to work with volunteers from corporate partners, Kasumi signed up everyone from CVS to Bloomberg to Liberty Mutual.
Now, it's obvious that she should be our CEO.
Leading Lemontree over the last six years has been filled with uncertainty. We pivoted twice, completely throwing out our program model each time. And there were days where I had no idea how we would fund the work we held so dearly.
Today, our future is a lot less murky. The helpline has found its stride–on Tuesday we helped 2,738 people–up from just a handful per day a few years ago. And, our corporate funding model is poised to not just cover our expenses, but enable tremendous growth thanks to dozens of corporate partners.
This spring, I was beyond burnt out and scheduled a two month sabbatical to rest and recharge, leaving Kasumi and Sam to man the ship. When I returned, I was stunned to find that the organization hadn’t just survived, it had thrived. The team launched in new geographies, shipped impressive product features and raised more money while I was away than while I was around.
Sitting with them on my return, I saw the vitality and creativity that Lemontree needed as we step into the next phase. We have the opportunity to turn the foundation we’ve built together into a generational non-profit that helps millions. And, I feel confident the best way to do that is to hand the reins to Kasumi and step into an active board chair role.
I’m not going away, I’m making room to go faster. Kasumi has ambitious plans to grow the budget and redefine and expand Lemontree while holding true to the values we set out with. I can’t wait for her to share more with you all. – Alex Godin