Interview with Rebecca Sherbino, Executive Director, The Raw Carrot, Canada

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CONVERSATION HIGHLIGHTS:

Welcome to the YouMeWe Amplified Podcast! I’m Suzanne F. Stevens, your host and the Wave•Maker at YouMeWe Social Impact Group. Join me in an inspiring conversation with Rebecca Sherbino, Executive Director of The Raw Carrot, a not-for-profit social enterprise that provides employment and dignity to individuals with disabilities and mental illnesses through the creation of gourmet soups. Rebecca shares how a personal relationship and experiences in the charity sector and Africa shaped her mission. We dive into the challenges and opportunities of creating a supportive work environment, the evolution of The Raw Carrot, and how balancing social outcomes with income generation can lead to sustainability. Tune in for compelling advice on operating like a business, the social franchise model, impact measurement, and leadership in social enterprise. Whether you’re a seasoned leader or an aspiring entrepreneur, get ready to be inspired and empowered to make a significant social impact!

00:00 Introduction to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast

00:35 Meet Rebecca Sherbino and The Raw Carrot

01:52 The Catalyst Behind The Raw Carrot

02:11 Amanda’s Story and Early Challenges

04:33 From Side Hustle to Full-Time Passion

05:40 The Social Enterprise Model

09:52 Balancing Social Impact and Sustainability

12:48 Funding and Financial Strategies

16:46 Advice for Aspiring Social Entrepreneurs

19:57 The Social Franchise Advantage

21:07 Sharing Hard-Earned Knowledge

22:16 Economies of Scale

22:37 Challenges and Assumptions

25:18 Measuring Impact

27:00 Leadership and Support

28:44 Advantages of Hiring Unemployable

30:36 Sustaining Social Impact

33:21 Rapid Fire Questions

41:00 Final Words of Wisdom

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Interview with Rebecca Sherbino, Executive Director, The Raw Carrot; Canada

Rebecca Sherbino developed an acute awareness of the issues facing vulnerable and marginalized communities, which led to a passion for closing the gap between inequality and poverty. After her return to Canada, she became increasingly frustrated by the lack of sustainable solutions to poverty for people living with mental health challenges and disabilities in her church congregation in rural Ontario. A late-night coffee with friend and co-founder Colleen in 2014 led to the idea of creating meaningful, supported work for people with barriers to traditional employment, and a few months later, The Raw Carrot launched. After 10 years of lessons learned, The Raw Carrot has now expanded into a "social franchise" with 4 locations (and 2 more on the way in 2024) and a headquarters in Southwestern Ontario. More than ever, Rebecca remains convinced that ‘social purpose employment’ can lead to systemic change for people who deserve more than just a handout, but a hand UP in life. Rebecca has an undergraduate degree in Global Development, Peace, and Justice and an MA in International Development. She lives with her husband and 3 teenagers in Paris, ON.

United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal(s) addressed:
#1. No Poverty, #2. Zero Hunger, #3. Good Health and Well-being, #8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, #10. Reduced Inequalities, #16. Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

Social impact:
The Raw Carrot is a social enterprise that empowers people facing barriers to traditional employment to secure their OWN livelihoods through the dignity of work. Our staff living with disabilities and mental illness make gourmet soup and other delicious products, providing poverty relief, community, and dignity while giving them a hand UP, instead of a handout.

Website: http://www.therawcarrot.com

Rebecca Sherino, Executive Director, The Raw Carrot

Note: This conversation is transcribed using AI software, which means the transcription is not perfect. Watch the video or listen to the podcast to hear our guest’s wisdom in her own words. If you want to see more interviews like this, please comment below!

To learn about Difference-Makers International, read Suzanne’s book Make Your Contribution Count for You, Me, and We. 

Visit bio for resources. 

Introduction to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast

[00:00:01] Suzanne F. Stevens: Welcome to YouMeWe Amplified Podcast, where we have conversations with She Impact leaders addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. These leaders are transforming the work. Forming where we live and work with sustainable social solutions. Hello, I’m Suzanne F. Stevens, the Wave•Maker at YouMeWe Social Impact Group.

I’m an international speaker, author, community builder, and multi award winning social entrepreneur. And, of course, your host for YouMeWe Amplified Podcast. Today we are in for a treat.

Meet Rebecca Scherbino and The Raw Carrot

[00:00:35] Suzanne F. Stevens: We’re having a conversation with Rebecca Scherbino, Executive Director of the not-for-profit social enterprise, The Raw Carrot.

And I will tell you, when I heard her speak before, I was so excited to dive into her business model and what she created. Because the Raw Carrots staff, they’re living with disabilities and mental illness and make gourmet soup and other delicious products, providing poverty, relief, community.

And one thing I value so much is dignity while giving these people a hand up instead of a hand out.

[00:01:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: From Paris, Canada, please welcome Rebecca. Nice to have you, Rebecca.

[00:01:42] Rebecca Sherbino: So nice to be here.

[00:01:43] Suzanne F. Stevens: I was so impressed when I heard you speak. And we’re going to dive into a lot of the things I learned about how you create a franchise.

The Catalyst Behind The Raw Carrot

[00:01:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: But before we get to all of that, what was the catalyst for you to start Raw Carrot in the first place?

[00:02:00] Rebecca Sherbino: You know what, Suzanne? The Raw Carrot started from a real germ of an idea. And it really began with a personal relationship with somebody that I knew in my local community.

Amanda’s Story and Early Challenges

[00:02:11] Rebecca Sherbino: Amanda was a teenager at the time that I met her. A girl that was struggling in high school. She was just coming to the end of her high school career, and her parents planned for her life was to go on social assistance. she had grown up in a family that had various disabilities and barriers to employment. So neither of her parents had worked. But I could see from my interactions with her and as I got to know her that she was a girl that had a lot of potential.

Notwithstanding the fact that she had some barriers. And so it appeared to me to be a family that we hear about generational poverty and how people get trapped in generational poverty. And some of that is just that’s all they’ve known.

 And as I got to know Amanda, I could see that she had so much more potential. And so it really became a personal relationship that I had with her, that I could see that there was potential. And yet I kept hearing this narrative that she wanted more for herself. She wanted more out of life. And so that’s the place that I stepped in, with her. and, introduced her to an employment training agency. We went, and did that for a number of months. She had some employment training and soft skills building, and they had promised that at the end of that period of time that she would have some interviews and that it was very likely that she would have a job. So I drove her twice a week to this employment training agency. She came out at the end of that, had the interviews, and was unsuccessful in all of them. And that frustration and sense of I built somebody’s expectations and told them that they could be more and I could see that there was more and then on the other side she wasn’t successful. Really left me with a personal conundrum that I was then in that I’d raised her expectations and I just thought this there has to be more for people like this that want to work and I was hearing that narrative from other people in my community of faith that were struggling with various disabilities and mental illness.

And so co-founder and friend decided we were going to step into that and start a very small social enterprise. We didn’t even know what a social enterprise was at the time. We just thought we’d start cooking some soup.

We felt like that was a neat place to start and see if we could pay people for making soup.

So that’s where it started.

[00:04:13] Suzanne F. Stevens: I’m sorry, what was her name?

[00:04:14] Rebecca Sherbino: Amanda.

[00:04:15] Suzanne F. Stevens: What were you doing when you met Amanda?

[00:04:17] Rebecca Sherbino: Yeah, so my background is in the charity sector. I’d spent five years living and working in Africa, and so I really had a heart for people who were marginalized for all kinds of reasons. I was copywriting at the time. My family had moved back to Canada after five years in Africa, and I was taking a break.

From Side Hustle to Full-Time Passion

[00:04:33] Rebecca Sherbino: I had small kids, so I was just doing some part time work, and as I got to know Amanda, I thought, well, this is something I can jump into as just a bit of a side hustle for a while until I go back to my full time job in the charity sector. And I jumped in and that started as a tiny side hustle for a little bit.

And after one year of doing that, we sort of thought, maybe this year, if we make 5, 000 and are able to pay people a little bit, then that’s great. And at the end of one year, we’d paid people 25, 000 and realized that we just had a little bit more of a business plan than we realized. And it became something that I was so passionate about when I could see the results of people at work. I then jumped into it full time.

[00:05:10] Suzanne F. Stevens: I would be remiss if I didn’t ask where were you in Africa before we go further.

[00:05:15] Rebecca Sherbino: I spent a year in Sudan and four years in Malawi.

[00:05:18] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay, I haven’t been to the Sudan. I have been to Malawi. I spent a couple years in Africa myself. So you came from the charity sector and is that why you decided to, you had some of the tools already to start a non for profit?

[00:05:34] Rebecca Sherbino: I never thought that this was going to turn into a not-for-profits. And as I said, I didn’t even know the term social enterprise when we started.

The Social Enterprise Model

[00:05:40] Rebecca Sherbino: One of my frustrations with the charity sector, from my experience of being in it, was that there’s so many, there’s a lot of crisis intervention, there’s a lot of relief services being provided.

And those things are absolutely necessary. We need them. But, I was again frustrated by the sense that there was not anything more sustainable or that felt more sustainable and there’s some of those programs, micro loans and sort of business concepts out there, but not a lot of it. And so when I jumped in this, sort of business model thinking, I hear the narrative that people want to work, here’s somebody who’s willing to be put to work.

there’s this concept that people on social assistance are lazy,in Canada, that they just don’t want to work. And I could see that absolutely wasn’t true. as soon as we started running this, there was this desire to work and potential to do something. Social enterprise just became really natural.

I feel comfortable in that world because I resonate with the charity sector and wanting to provide social purpose for people and wanting to help. yet I think I have,a bit of the entrepreneurial spirit behind me too. I really wanted to see a sustainable solution to poverty. Giving somebody a hand out over and over again, isn’t getting them forward in life.

They want the dignity and value of doing. And so that was what this was providing.

[00:06:50] Suzanne F. Stevens: We’re singing from the same page because a lot of the work I did in Africa, I had learned from leaders way smarter than me that opportunity and dignity are the most important things that you can give anybody, regardless of their circumstances. And that is what makes it sustainable, which is one of the reasons I was drawn to interview you from Raw Carrot is because you hire people, you pay them a salary. so social purpose employment and the belief that you have that it can change their lives.

Tell us more about the observations that you’re making of the lives that you’re changing because you’re offering these people employment when so many people will not.

[00:07:37] Rebecca Sherbino: Yeah, I think again, it comes down to that business model. And for us, we really believe that there should be a continuum.

There’s on one side of that continuum is crisis intervention, and there’s people that can’t work at all, given the nature of their disability, how severe it is, their life circumstances, whatever that may be homelessness. And then on the other side of that continuum is full time paid employment in a profit driven sector. But somewhere in the middle of that sits, I believe, social enterprise or social purpose employment, and that needs to find a home. I believe that, you’re moving people from crisis intervention into something that’s more long term and sustainable.

they can jump in, they can have dignity, value, and purpose. And that may lead to full time employment, but it may just be the place that they stay given the nature of their life circumstances. For the average Canadian who doesn’t have a mental illness those stats are rising.

people in Canada are dealing with mental illness, but people who are dealing with an ongoing mental illness really aren’t able to work. necessarily in a nine to five job all year. They may be in and out of a mental facility. They may be dealing with medication changes.

They may have something like bipolar or schizophrenia that puts them in a cycle that makes full time work really difficult for them. And so the Raw Carrot is attempting to take those pieces and say, how can we structure a work environment that is successful for people and a successful for work at the same time. Because there’s a large group of people that certainly aren’t lazy.

They absolutely want to work. They absolutely want to participate and Just by giving them a paycheck and telling them to go away at the end of each month, it’s definitely not contributing to a successful outcome for them. They’re taking that they’re going away. They’re dealing with boredom loneliness They’re utilizing our social services.

They’re sitting in waiting rooms in hospitals. It’s not doing anything for our economy.

We’re paying for it on the other end.

[00:09:31] Suzanne F. Stevens: The Raw Carrot in addition to making quality soups, what else does it make?

So we started with soups and we’ve been in that for about eight years. We’ve added to that line, we do granola and pancake mix and a breakfast box. Now, the reason I’m asking you that question is because I understood that you had more than soup.

Balancing Social Impact and Sustainability

[00:09:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: The term social enterprise is such an interesting term, and one personally I’m challenged with, only because often people perceive social enterprise as a non for profit that creates income rather than a for profit that creates income but also does social good.

So the word is, muddy, which is why I call it She Impact Leaders, because it’s, unfortunately, no one really knows exactly what it is, and it’s defined differently. That being said, you’re a social enterprise that’s non-for-profit. Now, have you ever thought of being a for profit company, being that your soups are quality and you produce other quality foods to make it even more sustainable?

[00:10:44] Rebecca Sherbino: It’s such a great question, Suzanne. And you’re so right that the term social enterprise, has just morphed completely over the last decade that I’ve been working in this. it used to really be that a social enterprise was restricted to programs that were socially based, and now you’re right, it feels like the term has expanded to include not only, social based programs, but, for profit companies that have an element of good in what they’re doing.

And so there’s a big continuum of what social enterprise means.

For us, social enterprise encompasses the realm of our priorities, and what we’re doing is always a social outcome. So yes, we’re prioritizing income and revenue. As much as we possibly can, and we hold that in a very tenuous balance between the social outcomes to ensure that people have enough work and are able to work. However, we’ve definitely had the conversation that we’d love what we are doing to be fully self-sustaining through sales. So you’re right. One of the reasons that we’re delving into new product development is that when we started this it was a side hustle and we just wanted to pay people something and minimum wage at that point was 11.

25 and minimum wage is now 17. 55 or 17. 25. that exponential rise, which is great for people, and great when we hear that people are living in poverty. For a small business that doesn’t have a lot of income rolling in through the profit, from the revenue generating activities is very difficult.

 We’ve come to the place where we could be a profit driven company that’s just reinvesting more and more back into people. At this point, we don’t have enough margin to be able to do that, and so we continue to explore. We’ve added R& D to our sort of regular, budget line as something we need to be continually developing to get to the place where we’re able to be absolutely 100 percent self sustaining.

And that’s, we’ve got two sides of that. That’s our, our sites, our partners. They’re about 80 percent self sustaining through the sales of product. And then the headquarters, which is our franchise side of things, and that has a whole other business model associated with it as well.

But the goal really would be for both sides of that business to become self sustaining and profitable.

[00:12:48] Suzanne F. Stevens:

Funding and Financial Strategies

[00:12:48] Suzanne F. Stevens: If your sales are driving most of your revenue, but not all of your revenue, so you’re also fundraising or applying for grants? What other mechanism are you using?

[00:13:00] Rebecca Sherbino: Grants and donations would be the two areas. Most of that is donated funds. We use grants for growth pieces to what we’re doing, and we have a passive fundraising funnel that people donate. They understand that a hundred percent of their purchase is going back into employing people.

There’s again, just a big discrepancy sort of of what’s out there of a percentage of product may or may not be going to do a social good. And sometimes that’s 1%. And that’s a good thing for any company to be giving back into a social good is a good thing. But that may only be 1 percent of their revenue, or that may be 10 percent of what they’re doing. 100 percent of what we’re doing is rolling back into the social costs. And I mean, there’s a big accountability for a non- profit, right? There’s no profit coming back to the owners of this company because we’re a not-for-profit. That’s the whole goal. So we’re rolling back a hundred percent of all of our revenue and income into sustaining these jobs for staff because, we are hiring individuals living with disabilities and mental illness.

We support them in that, but that means that there’s additional costs. Our human labor costs are higher. We know that we bear that cost. We feel like the cost is worth it, but it is a social purpose employment. So, we know that there’s some costs on that side.

[00:14:11] Suzanne F. Stevens: So just for clarity though, and this is not a, you do take a salary in the non for

[00:14:19] Rebecca Sherbino: Everybody is paid.

[00:14:19] Suzanne F. Stevens: I suspect so, but sometimes people will have a non-for-profit and they’re not taking a

[00:14:25] Rebecca Sherbino: salary.

 In the early days, we had periods of time when I wasn’t making a salary.

When you’re launching something new out into the world, you’re willing to be the person who’s going to take that risk. So you invest your personal money. You go through lean times and you may go through more profitable times.

And in those lean times, I did not take a salary in the early days, but you can’t sustain that over the longterm. it has to become a model where it shifts from that.

[00:14:48] Suzanne F. Stevens: Yeah. and I really wanted to emphasize that because there’s nothing wrong with making a living for a non-for-profit. As a speaker, people will often say we’re not-for-profit.

I will say to them, but you take a salary. If you don’t pay me, I don’t have a salary.

[00:15:05] Rebecca Sherbino: Right. Yeah, there has to be a way to sustain it and over

the long term with any business or not-for-profit you have to look at I don’t want this to collapse if I leave. It can’t be completely dependent on me. Somebody in this role is going to want to be paid over the long term you can sustain that for six months or a year while you’re in lean times, but any business if you’re really working from a business perspective and a business model, unless you’re fully going back into the charity side where you’re asking for a hundred percent grants and donations to offset all your costs. But our plan is not to be that.

[00:15:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: And that’s what I admire most about you is the model that you are creating, that you are shifting from that and to be completely self sustaining. Because if I had it my way and I had a Magic Wand, I know this is big and it’s controversial. I’d love to get rid of it all the charities, except where you really kind of need it, but people creating opportunity and dignity so the beneficiaries are actually benefiting and contributing to its success.

Now I know that’s a bit of a sweeping statement, but I believe there’s more opportunity to do that than charities and not-for-profits are taking advantage

[00:16:12] Rebecca Sherbino: of.

Yeah, and there’s definitely a couple things in that. I mean, that could be a whole another podcast, but the few things that come to mind are one, the government is doing a lot to push charities in that direction, which is really great, right? We’ve got big grants out there, like the Investment Readiness Program.

We’ve benefited from that grant to really, try and bring your charity into more of a business minded, perspective. So I think that’s one of the great things that is happening. And there’s a lot of innovation, in the charity space. there’s a lot of innovation hubs and things like that going on right now, where people are really trying to explore those new opportunities.

Advice for Aspiring Social Entrepreneurs

[00:16:46] Suzanne F. Stevens: Do you have any advice for someone who is creating a non-for-profit and getting started or well on their way to make a grant compelling?

[00:16:58] Rebecca Sherbino: If they were morphing from a charity into a social enterprise?

[00:17:02] Suzanne F. Stevens: Yes.

[00:17:03] Rebecca Sherbino: The difficulty that I see in this space from not-for-profit to social enterprise is that a true social enterprise really needs to act like a business. When you’re talking about early days and you’re talking about risk and reward, that’s how a true business operates. So I would just say probably a compelling grant application, not that I’m saying you write risk in, we really need to shift in the charity sector from A model where we’re used to sort of a paycheck every week,to being able to take some of those risks. And so you’re really, maybe I would say it’s not so much the grant application, but the funder.

Really targeting funders that are willing to see things from a business mindset, there’s risk associated with that. Doesn’t mean you don’t have a good business plan and you don’t have financials. For us, when we have soup sales, we’re able to pay our staff lots and cook. when we have no sales, we have to stop cooking. We can’t just continue to pay our staff ongoing for doing nothing in the kitchen. And that’s some of the mindset that we need to shift. So more than even the grant application or the compelling grant, I would say, look for funders that are really willing to operate with a business minded model.

[00:18:09] Suzanne F. Stevens: Yeah, that’s great. And in regards to fundraising, you had mentioned that you do that passively. Is that just on your website in which you fundraise or is there other mechanisms that you use?

[00:18:20] Rebecca Sherbino: I mean I guess I say that because we don’t have a paid fundraiser on board for us. I do think that people are very intrigued by the concept of trying to get to self sustainability. people don’t want to dump money into an endless pit. And that is sometimes what the charity sector feels like.

And there’s probably no way around that. There just is a lot of need. But I think there is a sector of people that are really like, can we find something that’s self sustaining. How can we get it there? And so those people are happy to donate to something that’s trying to achieve that, trying to reach that, as opposed to just the, I know I’m going to have to donate to this every single year and it’s, just going to feel like it’s going into a black hole.

So is there any other way that the general public can assist with your growth? Beyond buying your products, of course, Assist in our growth. I mean, as opposed to donating. Yeah. So for sure buying, for sure donating. We look everywhere for advice from Experts in the fields. I’m always the first person to say, I do not know everything. I’ve picked everybody’s brains that I can to try and work on our business model.

So I think, one of the great things to do, I mean, you can come and volunteer at our sites, you can get involved, but, we look for experts that are willing to donate time to help us get to the next level and grow this to an organization that can be self-sustaining because when you are starting, even though we’ve been around for 10 years, we always feel a little bit like a start-up. And, you never feel like you’ve totally gotten there. You can always use people who are more expert. Have lived those big jobs, have been in the corporate sector and really have something to offer. Join the board. Help out in that way.

[00:19:55] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay, great, thanks for sharing that.

The Social Franchise Advantage

[00:19:57] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, the other thing that is quite unique about the Raw Carrot is that you are a social franchise, and I understand you have two locations now, and you’re getting two more, one shortly and one next January?

[00:20:13] Rebecca Sherbino: One starting this coming January. So we have four locations now and two more joining.

[00:20:16] Suzanne F. Stevens: So it’ll be six. Share a little bit about the advantage of a social franchise for the beneficiary and then for the business.

[00:20:24] Rebecca Sherbino: Yep. For the beneficiary, it probably doesn’t look any different. They come to a job at one location or another. That job is going to have a bit of a unique flavor depending on where you are as any workplace does. But they come to a job, they’re cooking gourmet products and they’re selling in their local community.

So for all intents and purposes, it would feel the same, just in a different location. From a business perspective, I’m so passionate about the franchise model. When we started this and we spent, my co-founder and I months and years trying to develop a business model, ensuring its success, developing health and safety protocols, operations, website, the myriad of things that go along with starting a business and developing a successful model.

Sharing Hard-Earned Knowledge

[00:21:07] Rebecca Sherbino: Three years in, we were like, wow, if we, If we could package this up and try to pass this knowledge off so that somebody else doesn’t have to start from scratch, that would be amazing.

Like, we just want to take that, all the learnings that we’ve been able to have and say, You could be successful and you don’t have to spend your first three years doing it. here’s the tools. We went through a lot of hardship trying to figure those things out in the beginning days. I am so passionate about not reinventing the wheel, trying to take existing learnings. It means for us that on, for our sites, they really can focus on the social aspects of what we’re doing. Again, as a social purpose business, our sites can focus on the social needs of staff, they can focus on the cooking, and then the headquarters of the Raw Carrot franchise can focus on all the business pieces. So again, looking from this sort of middle between a charity and a business, our sites can be very focused on the social. it’s a totally different skill set to be doing all the business pieces, the financials, the number crunching, all the backend running a website and a store, those pieces.

So we can centralize that and that leads to economies of scale for everybody.

Economies of Scale

[00:22:16] Rebecca Sherbino: When we first started our packaging, our soup has beautiful little pouches designed. I think those cost us about 2 a pouch and now we can order them in. we order 20, 000 dollars at a time and we get them for 37 cents or something like that.

You know, benefiting from the economies of scale that are created when you’re replicating something. Our sites can do what they’re best at, which is help the staff.

Challenges and Assumptions

[00:22:37] Suzanne F. Stevens: What was one or two of the biggest challenges from getting starting to getting it to where it is today?

[00:22:45] Rebecca Sherbino: Probably the business model. We’ve really worked at that and worked at that. We’ve had some consulting, to try and bring that to a place where we can become more self sustainable. I think we’re well aware of our limitations and the places where we can still grow and create growth. The easy part, honestly, was the employment.

And, in some ways I might’ve thought that was going to be the hard thing because again, the narrative is that “those people who aren’t working, they’re not going to bring enough value.” But when we started cooking in the kitchen with these folks, they were committed to their jobs, they were loyal, notwithstanding their challenges. They were there as much as they could be. They wanted to work. They worked past their threshold of work. So I don’t know how much the viewers would be aware of the social assistance system, but if you’re on long term disability support, for many years, up until this year, you could only earn 200 a month free and clear.

And after that half of it was clawed back. So one of our assumptions in our early days was people would just want to work a little bit and they’d make, want to make their 200 a month and then that’s all they’d want to do. Well, we were absolutely, that assumption was totally blown out of the water.

People 100 percent wanted to work. They absolutely had a desire to be useful. I mean, they still earned income, even if it was at half their salary, they were keen to come in and work and they loved coming in and being part of that family as they, many have referred to it. just coming and having that sense of community and value and dignity.

[00:24:10] Suzanne F. Stevens: I am just so happy to hear that because it supports everything I believe in. Everything I talk about is people want to be part of a community and that going back to exactly what you said, they want dignity. They do want to contribute. That’s our human nature to want to do that. That’s fabulous that was achieved and that’s your observation.

Now, have you, do you sell at all online or is it all in a store?

[00:24:39] Rebecca Sherbino: We sell locally, so just within the communities that we’re in and most of the communities that we’re in currently are rural areas. But we do sell within a 20 kilometer radius. We have pickup and delivery and an online store that facilitates that.

We sell online, we sell in retail locations, we sell at lots of farmers markets and farm stores. So we’re in about 45 or 50 sort of gourmet grocery farm markets all in southwestern Ontario area currently.

 Now, In addition to you were talking about that they are coming, they are creating community and dignity. How do you personally measure your impact on your business? W

Measuring Impact

[00:25:18] Rebecca Sherbino: e do a few things and probably this stems a little bit from my background in the charity sector. I was fortunate to work in monitoring and evaluations when I worked overseas. It informed a lot of what I’ve done because right from the very outset we started trying to evaluate our program and our impact not only for the participants that we’re serving but also for us to know that what we’re doing is worthwhile because, especially if you’re working for no wage for periods of time, you want to know that what you’re doing is actually making an impact.

The few things that we started doing right from the outset were just a yearly evaluation or conversations with our staff that included surveys, anecdotal information, just talking to them and understanding what kind of impact that was. we look at, both qualitative and quantitative pieces of information.

How many hours are they working? How many jobs have we created? how much are we able to pay them every year? And those are some really practical pieces. Because when we’re talking about the reduction of poverty, we know that people are living, up to 40 percent below the poverty line, if they’re living on social assistance, we can’t support everybody, but our society can’t fund it forever either.

we know that people are living below the poverty line and we know that we can reduce that gap by paying them an income. Poverty reduction and livelihood security is one of our basic measures. Are we moving the needle on those things? Do they have more to live on? And so those are some of the practical pieces. And other than that, it’s then the quality of life. Are we increasing quality of life? Are we increasing, human dignity and value? Are they participating more in their communities? Are they being more successful in life? Are they utilizing less health care dollars?

Those intangibles are much harder to capture. anecdotally, we know that those things are certainly happening as well.

[00:26:54] Suzanne F. Stevens: And you have 41 employees, I believe, and you also have volunteers.

Leadership and Support

[00:27:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: Leadership is one of the most difficult things that most business owners have to deal with, Do you have any unique challenges with hiring people with disabilities and mental health issues and how do you deal with them?

[00:27:13] Rebecca Sherbino: Okay. Into the leadership position specifically or into the staff position?

[00:27:17] Suzanne F. Stevens: More as a

[00:27:18] Rebecca Sherbino: As a leader. So we certainly have had leaders that also additionally struggle with mental illness and pieces of their own. What’s unique about that? I guess it’s the same model as working with our staff. Everybody has different things in their life that they’re dealing with.

And that, that is just as much in the traditional, profit driven workforce as it is in the non profit sector. I just think we, we really try to provide an accommodating space where people can, thrive in the areas that they can and take the time needed when they need to address the other personal pieces of their life.

So we try to beef that up by having volunteers that assist us. And so that is part of our business model is really just having these volunteers that are able to step in. When might be a staff member, might be a leader, needs a bit of a break, needs some time off, needs to have some space.

But having said that, if one of our leaders steps out of the kitchen, it is difficult for the business to keep running. Same as any small business, because each of the locations really operates like a small business. So when that key person, is down and out, we try to ensure that the business has some pieces that can support, and continue going, but it is a difficult thing for sure.

[00:28:29] Suzanne F. Stevens: Do you step in when a leader needs space?

[00:28:33] Rebecca Sherbino: Not much. We have had someone from our headquarters who occasionally has stepped in to support and help in different areas. We’ve tried to create that more within each of the little businesses themselves.

[00:28:43] Suzanne F. Stevens: Okay.

Advantages of Hiring Unemployable

[00:28:44] Suzanne F. Stevens: What are some of the advantages of hiring people that may be perceived as unemployable?

[00:28:51] Rebecca Sherbino: Yeah, some of the advantages. I mean, honestly, I feel so privileged to go to my workforce every day, working with people who are just amazing folks. Maybe one of the things that comes to mind is that the people I work with bring me joy every day. I work one day a week, that’s not in the nonprofit sector.

And I would say that there’s more human resource issues and unhappy people in the Profit driven space making great salaries than there are in the non profit space in a business where people are really grateful for what they have and what they’ve been given. So that’s probably one of the just most amazing joys that I have is being able to go into spaces where people are thankful for their job and thankful that they’re being given an opportunity and a chance. Now a job is still a job so that sort of wears off over time but, nevertheless, just those individuals are very committed to coming and acting more like a family. They support one another in a much different way because the community is really important to them.

They don’t have maybe a lot of supports on the outside. So they come in and those little communities become like little families and those people support each other and the volunteers that are working there get involved in their lives. So it becomes this beautiful fabric of people who are working together.

And so that is just such a privilege that I get to work in that.

[00:30:02] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, do you find that increases their loyalty as well because of that community that exists?

[00:30:07] Rebecca Sherbino: I think it becomes a back and forth, right? It’s not a transactional relationship in the same way. I think the staff understand, we are doing the very best we can to create spaces where we can, allow this business model to flourish. and they reciprocate that with their loyalty and with going above and beyond and working really hard while they’re there.

And, I think we try really hard to understand their circumstances and to give them space when they need space. but they repay that back on the other end.

[00:30:36] Suzanne F. Stevens:

Sustaining Social Impact

[00:30:36] Suzanne F. Stevens: at do you think the three most important initiatives to make your social impact sustainable?

[00:30:44] Rebecca Sherbino: To make our social impact sustainable, for us, I do believe that really working out that business model so that the business itself is able to be sustained. I guess that’s not only the products, ensuring that the products can cover all the costs of the business. Making sure that we stay true to what our mission is. our mission is social purpose employment. Our mission is driven by the people that we’re serving. We know what we’re offering.

We’re offering employment. we are doing one thing and one thing only, and we’re trying to do that very well. So we’re really trying to stay true to our mission, in offering social purpose employment for people living with disabilities and mental illness.

[00:31:19] Suzanne F. Stevens: That’s actually a really important point, because often what ends up happening is when someone ends up providing a service for marginalized, vulnerable, or underrepresented communities, they end up doing all the stuff rather than just focusing.

[00:31:37] Rebecca Sherbino: You see all the reasons that people need other supports.

And so you want to jump into those things sometimes.

[00:31:44] Suzanne F. Stevens: And then what you set out to do gets convoluted though, because there’s only so many resources to actually provide.

[00:31:50] Rebecca Sherbino: We’re very clear on the mission.

[00:31:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: So what do you see as the most important for a sustainable strategy?

[00:31:56] Rebecca Sherbino: Yeah, probably this just staying true to our mission. And I think that’s a difficult thing for charities who run in this sector where you’re a little bit driven by grants and donations and the whims of donors and chasing after funds I think we’re fortunate that so much of our income is earned income because then we can

I think we have to be able to dictate or determine for ourselves, that self determination where we want to go. But I don’t want to have to be determined by chasing money. I think we wouldn’t do that. I really I think we’re very clear on what we’re trying to do. We would probably shrink ourselves before we tried to chase money in different pockets or really trying to convince some funders to come on board to help us weather the storm.

But setting up for success. over the long term, like that’s very much part of our mindset. From the board level down is just ensuring that we have the structures that we need to be set up for long term success.

[00:32:50] Suzanne F. Stevens: That is such a powerful comment too, because you hear that so often where people are chasing those funds, and all of a sudden their mission is getting compromised, and then gets diluted. So for our audience, it’s a really important point that if you can make it self sustaining, then it will be the mission that you set out to do rather than somebody else’s.

Providing more meaning in your life for yourself and keeping you going, which is often why some people start these initiatives.

Rapid Fire Questions

[00:33:21] Suzanne F. Stevens: So Rebecca, it is time. It is time for what I love to call the rapid fire.

[00:33:26] Rebecca Sherbino: I’m ready.

[00:33:28] Suzanne F. Stevens: What do you think is the most significant thing citizens can do to uplift your beneficiary?

[00:33:35] Rebecca Sherbino: Believe that every person has value.

[00:33:40] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is one thing you wish you knew prior to engaging down this contribution path?

I maybe wish I knew how entrepreneurial minded I would have needed to have been, but probably just as well that I didn’t know that at the time. Isn’t ignorance bliss?

[00:33:58] Rebecca Sherbino: it is.

[00:34:00] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is the worst piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:34:03] Rebecca Sherbino: if I had a dollar for every time somebody told me that they can solve our business model problems, I would be a millionaire.

[00:34:13] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

[00:34:16] Rebecca Sherbino: step out in faith and do something about the problem.

[00:34:20] Suzanne F. Stevens: What is one piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur or non profit who wants to have a social impact? Let’s say an entrepreneur.

An entrepreneur that wants to have a social impact, I would say find what resonates with you and where your passion lies. Because if your passion lies somewhere, you are likely to stick with it over the long term. It has ups and downs, but that continued passion absolutely drives me every single day. Love that. I often call that your compassion connection. What pulls you? Not what happened to you, which is one of the things I love about you. You met somebody, but you Personally aren’t affected by mental health or have someone in your family that has a disability, but you were drawn to it. What is one recommendation you would suggest to promote a culture of contribution?

[00:35:12] Rebecca Sherbino: Get close to challenges that are happening. It’s easy to sit in a corporate office and never touch things that are happening, but go and volunteer in a soup kitchen. Even one time, take the opportunity to do something, to give back. Your heart will be changed.

[00:35:28] Suzanne F. Stevens: You have a couple children, do you not?

[00:35:29] Rebecca Sherbino: I’ve got two that are adopted from Africa. I’ve got a biological child and then we’ve got a foster child that we have on the weekends.

[00:35:36] Suzanne F. Stevens: Any of them a girl?

[00:35:37] Rebecca Sherbino: Yep.

[00:35:38] Suzanne F. Stevens: And any of them around 10 years old?

[00:35:40] Rebecca Sherbino: I’ve got teenagers, late teenagers.

[00:35:42] Suzanne F. Stevens: So let’s say 10 years old is a very impressionable time for young girls. If you had a daughter who was 10 years old today, knowing what you know, what advice would you give to her?

[00:35:55] Rebecca Sherbino: I would raise her to be as independent as possible and probably to have a bit of that combination of entrepreneur and compassion, because I think those are two qualities that if you’re willing to take some risks and you’re willing to step out and you’re willing to try and you’re willing to fail, those are always good qualities to have.

But I would certainly try to say, yeah, find that area of compassion in your life and explore that too.

[00:36:19] Suzanne F. Stevens: What advice do you wish you received at 10 years old?

[00:36:26] Rebecca Sherbino: as a woman, I do think I was really fortunate to have specifically a dad who really empowered me to be independent and entrepreneurial. What did I wish that I’d have known? I wish that I’d have known how difficult the journey sometimes is and that’s okay. it’s going to be a difficult journey in anything, but I think if we protect our kids from thinking that it’s okay to have the difficult periods of growth, they won’t get the chance to experience it because they’ll hold themselves back from it. We need to step in and it is going to be uncomfortable and being uncomfortable is okay. It’s not a natural feeling, but it’s okay to step into discomfort or uncomfortable feelings and sit there for a while and then discern, do I keep going or do I step back? But step into the discomfort and allow yourself to feel like that.

[00:37:11] Suzanne F. Stevens: What’s one thing you had to do that makes you uncomfortable, but if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t have the social impact that you’ve had?

[00:37:20] Rebecca Sherbino: I think it has been difficult working in a space where I don’t have lived experience and you alluded to this, Suzanne. That has made me uncomfortable because I feel like, sometimes I don’t have a voice in a space where, I feel like you need to have lived experience of disability or mental illness to be working in that area.

And because I don’t have that personally, I have felt some discomfort there. But over time, I have come to recognize that although it is not my personal story and it’s not my personal journey, my personal journey came because of people that I knew. And you’re right, that compassion side of things. So it is yet part of my story, even though it’s not my direct experience. I’ve been fortunate, so fortunate that I haven’t had to deal with the barriers that other people do, but that makes me all the more passionate to work and serve alongside them because they’re just some wonderful people. And I’m privileged every single day with the people that I get to work with.

[00:38:12] Suzanne F. Stevens: Who is the greatest female influence in your life and why?

My gosh, hard questions. Doing great

[00:38:20] Rebecca Sherbino: let’s see, female influence, it would be probably typical to say my mom,but I do think my family has been so influential, I’ve been fortunate to be raised in a family where I had two loving parents that provided for me, and both of them provided, different pieces to that, a nurturing environment that I got to grow up in was a huge benefit to me. Maybe that’s one of the things that allows me to give back because I had the privilege and the benefit of living in a good home. I have the capacity to work with people that have had more difficult circumstances than me. And I’m just thankful for that.

[00:38:54] Suzanne F. Stevens: What three values do you live by?

[00:38:57] Rebecca Sherbino: I hope that I live by authenticity. The things I want to give to our staff. Authenticity, dignity, truthfulness, working to give people value.

[00:39:09] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, is there a book in your area, be it in food manufacturing or in social enterprise that you would recommend for somebody to read?

[00:39:21] Rebecca Sherbino: Everybody that I know me if they’re listening to this podcast will laugh because there’s one book that I talk about all the time, which is Predictable Success by Les McKeown. It

is a wonderful business book for any person who wants to operate in business.

It sort of has a combination of, personality perspective and what is needed to scale. So it looks at, the vision that’s required, the operations and the processes, and really those three personalities that you require to grow and scale a business. And it is just a wonderful book that I refer to all the time.

[00:39:51] Suzanne F. Stevens: Besides your beneficiary, which beneficiary do you think needs the most investment of time, research, and money now?

[00:39:59] Rebecca Sherbino: I would say people that are experiencing homelessness because it’s such a severe challenge in Canada. And there is just such a massive lack of, housing. We’re in a housing crisis even some of the staff members that we’re working with, even though we try to mostly hire people that are, stably housed, Even some of the people that we’re working with are unstably housed and occasionally, not maybe living on the streets, but couch surfing, unstable in their housing, can’t pay rent, and living so close to the margin that, even the difference of a few dollars would mean that they can’t afford their rent. So yeah, the housing crisis is probably the biggest piece.

[00:40:35] Suzanne F. Stevens: Now, Rebecca, where can people find you? Besides on your personal page on, podcast. YouMeWe. ca, where else can they find you?

[00:40:44] Rebecca Sherbino: the usual place is LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, on the Raw Carrot website, any of those ways.

[00:40:51] Suzanne F. Stevens: Do you have any final words of wisdom for our audience regarding making a conscious contribution to society?

Final Words of Wisdom

[00:41:00] Rebecca Sherbino: Yeah, I would just come back to the jump in comment. I think everybody has the potential and it sometimes it’s unexpected, right? You don’t have to be a person that, wants to go and, feed homeless on the streets of Toronto. you don’t have to be that person. Your contribution can be really different.

It can be just business advice, legal advice. lots of people have a piece of expertise that they can offer. And so just figure out what that skillset is and jump into partnering with somebody to further the work. You’re not doing it by yourself. You’re just a little slice of the pie, but it doesn’t have to be donating.

It doesn’t have to be volunteering, but using the skill set that you have to make the world a better place is possible no matter where you are in life.

[00:41:40] Suzanne F. Stevens: I love that you’re saying further the work, because there are so many organizations out there doing incredible work, but they need to grow their impact, and need people to help them do that. you don’t need to start it on your

[00:41:52] Rebecca Sherbino: own.

[00:41:52] Suzanne F. Stevens: Thank you so much, Rebecca, for sharing your insight and inspiration and your social impact with us.

And for our audience to discover more podcasts with impact leaders transforming where we live and work with sustainable social solutions, visit podcast at youmewe. ca. Please like, share and subscribe, share with a friend. And until next time, I’m Suzanne F. Stevens, and I encourage you to make your contribution count for you, me, we.