Running head: Community Action Project 1

Community Action Project:

No More Empty Pots

Marcus Benesch, Carly Cameron, Brady Fehr, Tera Maher, Chaz Maschman, Shannon

McKinley, Emily Nastase, Grant Swenson

University of Nebraska at Omaha

Community Action Project 2

Community Action Project: No More Empty Pots

Florence, a historic neighborhood in north Omaha, is home to a Catholic grade school

and church, many local businesses, and a tight-knit community. It has been confirmed as a lovely

place to “settle down” and raise children because it offers a small-town feel in a large city. You

can never run out of things to do in Florence, between the countless comfort-food restaurants,

historic museums, and hangout spots such as Kelley’s North Bowl. There is only one thing

missing in this seemingly perfect part of town, and it is a big one: a grocery store. Statistically,

around seventeen percent of our neighbors in the Omaha and Council Bluffs area have difficulty

accessing affordable healthy food options, and most of these individuals qualify as “low-

income.” People living in areas like this, formally named “food deserts,” are forced to live off

pre-packaged foods and gas station hot dogs. This lack of access to affordable fresh produce has

been proven to lead to an increase in obesity and diabetes. Many organizations, such as No More

Empty Pots, have been working to combat this issue in unique, innovative ways.

Nonprofit Background

No More Empty Pots is a “grassroots nonprofit corporation that connects individuals and

groups to improve self-sufficiency, regional food security, and economic resilience of urban and

rural communities through advocacy and action” (No More Empty Pots, 2018). Their core values

are education, stewardship, and sustainability, which drive their hope to support communities in

becoming self-sufficient and food secure. No More Empty Pots was founded in 2014 in order to

create a resource for people living in a “food desert,” which is an area without an accessible

grocery store. While this organization is targeted toward disinvested members of the community,
Community Action Project 3

there are no financial need requirements to be a participant. Co-founder and CEO Nancy

Williams summarizes their outreach by saying, “We don’t say no to people who are struggling.”

In short, No More Empty Pots meets people where they are and does whatever they can

to set them up with the resources that they need in order to get to a sustainable, permanent

solution. Their 15-week Culinary Workforce Training Program teaches students basic nutrition,

sanitation, and cooking techniques as well as career-development skills, such as resume building

and interview etiquette. This free program prepares individuals to enter the workforce and begin

providing for themselves and their families. Their Community Market Basket program makes

fresh, local produce accessible to everyone. Participants of this program register online or in-

person, choose a payment plan that works for them and retrieve their order on the delivery day

each week. No More Empty Pots also partners with Nebraska Food Cooperative and Lone Tree

Foods to promote a healthy and self-sufficient lifestyle within the community. The organization

continues to work towards creating more programs like these to support the fight against poverty.

Currently, No More Empty Pots is in the process of constructing their Food Hub next

door to their main office in North Omaha. The Food Hub is a building that will house the entire

process of food production and consumption, as well as most of the programs this organization

offers. The lower level, which is already finished, has commercial kitchens that can be rented by

the hour by food-related businesses that need an inexpensive place to start or expand their

business. There will be a cafe just for kids, as well as a community cafe where people pay what

they can. The upper levels will be home to a collaborative learning space, including a kitchen for

educational purposes. To top it all off, the roof will have a garden, kitchen and grill, and lounge

area. To summarize, the Food Hub holds many interdependent spaces and activities focused on
Community Action Project 4

job training, workforce readiness, food access, income generation, business development, and

food waste reduction.

Problem Statement

Over the past couple of months, our team has been working closely with No More Empty

Pots’ staff. Their CEO and co-founder, Nancy Williams, told us her story: her passion for her

community and food security, the reason why she started this nonprofit organization, and how

she continues the amazing work she does every day. She also happens to be their technology

expert and fundraising manager, which shows Nancy’s hard work, dedication, and determination.

Shelby, their Director of Program Strategy and Evaluation, has worked with us the most in

identifying problems and brainstorming solutions.

No More Empty Pots has incredible outreach; they serve hundreds of people annually and

countless individuals and groups have generously donated time, money, and energy to the

organization. However, they did not have a maintainable, attractive, simplified way to organize

and display progress towards company goals with donors and staff. Without this, it is difficult for

anyone to see and understand the reach of the nonprofit’s programs. This leaves people uncertain

and wondering, “Is this working? Is this worth it?” No More Empty Pots needed something that

could show where they have been, where they are, and where they need to go.

Another problem that we addressed as a group was the development of this organization.

No More Empty Pots has been active since 2010 and they are just now beginning construction on

their Food Hub. The past ten years have been focused heavily on fundraising and outreach, so

many of their problems are data-centered and therefore relatively small. We are excited for the

Food Hub to be finished so we can see more of what No More Empty Pots does in action, and we

predict that there will be more work for us to do soon.

Community Action Project 5

Design Thinking Process

Empathize

In order to solve this problem, we used the Stanford Design Thinking Process. The steps

in the Stanford Design Thinking Process are to empathize, define, ideate, prototype, and test. The

first and largest part of the process is to empathize. We spent the first two months empathizing

with our nonprofit by visiting the site and communicating extensively with the staff and

personnel. At first, it took a little while for the organization’s purpose to become clear but when

things started to connect, taking the next step in the Design Thinking Process was natural.

Define

As we worked with No More Empty Pots, we quickly learned how difficult the early

years in a non-profit organization’s operations can be. Finding investors who are willing to buy

into your purpose and motivating employees to make the dream come true can be difficult. The

idea of No More Empty Pots has been around for ten years, but it has gotten off to a slow start.

Nancy Williams continues to do an amazing job of fundraising, but with the organization being

ten years into its lifespan, an inability to display progress has been slowing future investments. In

addition, this inability to display progress decreased the morale of internal employees because

they were unable to the see the results of their efforts.

The problem was not that No More Empty Pots was lacking data linked to their mission

and core values - they were tracking the number of events they were involved in or hosted, the

number of participants that they served or helped at these events, the time (hours) that went into

these events, etc. The problem was that sharing an unattractive and illegible spreadsheet was not

going to convince and acquire new investors or improve employee morale.

Community Action Project 6

Because of all of this, we were able to define the issue: They did not have an easy, up-to-

date way to organize, attractively display, and share any of their progress with staff and donors.

This second step was a process and evolved as we learned more about the problem and how we

were going to approach it.

Ideate

After discussing this issue for some time, we decided to develop a key performance

indicator (KPI) dashboard, a collection of graphs and other visual data representations that will

update daily. Using this KPI dashboard, No More Empty Pots will be able to efficiently and

attractively share data with their donors and staff.

In order to accomplish this, we first needed to choose one of the various data

visualization frameworks to see which was easiest for the organization to use and would work

with their data. The software that was originally decided on was Tableau. We decided to go this

route because No More Empty Pots already had the software. However, as we worked with the

software, we noticed some of the logistical and financial issues that came with it. After some

further digging, it was decided that a better software to use would be Microsoft’s data

visualization software, Power BI. Currently, No More Empty Pots has not decided whether they

would like to use this software, so we have moved forward with using Tableau and continue to

research the benefits of Power BI.

After the software had been established, we needed to choose what data points would

connect graphically to best display the company’s progress meaningfully. Multiple ideas were

discussed including showing their progress towards their mission and core values. In the end, No

More Empty Pots favored showing the number of participants they served each month.
Community Action Project 7

Prototype

Once we had decided on how to display the data, which software to use, and what

specific data to present, we had reached the fourth step in the Design Thinking Process,

prototyping. Because we are still awaiting No More Empty Pots’ approval on the use of Power

BI, we developed our prototype on Tableau. Several group members worked in Tableau using the

data given by No More Empty Pots to create a graphic visual representation of the number of

participants served per month. This visual representation will update daily with any new data.

Test

Currently, we are waiting for more data and a license to Tableau and other software to

complete the final stage of the Design Thinking Process, testing.

Prototype Description and Solution

Our prototype is a Key Performance Indicator dashboard that visually displays their data.

Currently, No More Empty Pots stores all their data in a Google spreadsheet. In the spreadsheet,

each row represents an event that they put on and each column represents data that corresponds

to each event. This data can include the number of people served, number of staff present,

number of total volunteer hours, and other information of this sort. We have used third-party

software, called Tableau, that can translate a Google spreadsheet into multiple fields. These fields

can then be turned into any type of graph.

The graphs created by the KPI effectively display the organizations data. Before this KPI,

No More Empty Pots could not exhibit their data to investors or employees. The KPI will help

the organization tell their story and will lead to a multitude of benefits.
Community Action Project 8

Anticipated Impact

With this prototype, we anticipate that No More Empty Pots will be able to showcase and

monitor their progress with the number of people that they have served using a manageable up-

to-date visual. They will be able to use this visual in meetings with staff, investors, and donors.

This will help the audience better understand the large impact that No More Empty Pots has. The

KPI will also have a lasting impression on people, leading to more investors and support. The

more investors they get, the more money they have, the more people they can reach and serve. In

addition, through serving more people, the organization will be able to recruit and sustain more

volunteers. Lastly, the KPI will help the staff see what they are doing well and where they could

possibly improve and provide motivation. Overall, this dashboard will be a great tool for the

organization.

Next Step to Implementation

Our next step to implementation is teaching the No More Empty Pots team how to set up

and run the KPI. This project will have a lasting impact, so they need to understand the inner

workings of the program. Eventually, if they do choose to use the Power BI instead, we will help

them navigate that software as well. Hopefully, with this technology, they will be better able to

relate their board members to their employees.

Summary of Group Processes

As a group, it was easy to establish who would do what. Because most of the projects and

issues that No More Empty Pots has are technology related and most of our group members are

majoring in technology-related degrees, it made sense that most of our members would be

working on developing the prototype. The other group members that did not have a strong
Community Action Project 9

aptitude for technology and could not help in that area focused on communicating with the

nonprofit, organizing our work and meetings, and taking notes and writing.

Each group member had different emotional and social competencies strengths and

weaknesses. As a group we were able to leverage these social and emotional competencies to

navigate the highs and lows of the project. For example, at the very beginning of the project we

had to use our self-awareness skills. Self-awareness is having a deep understanding of one’s

emotions, as well as one’s strengths and limitations and one’s values and motives (Primal

Leadership, 2013). When we first started out as a group, not everyone knew each other very well.

Each of us had to have an accurate self-assessment in order to share our strengths and

weaknesses. Doing this was very helpful as the project moved forward because we knew who

was going to excel the best in different roles and situations.

At the beginning stages of the project we began empathizing with our non-profit in order

to see what issues they were facing. In order to do this, each group member had to use their

social awareness. Social awareness is quite simply the ability to empathize (Primal Leadership,

2013). Daniel Goleman in his book, Primal Leadership, describes empathy as sensing others’

emotions, understanding their perspective, and taking active interest in their concerns. Being able

to empathize with the non-profit, gave us the ability to recognize the issues they were having so

that we could move towards a solution.

Later, when we were feeling discouraged and confused about the direction of the project,

we had to rely on our relationship management skills. Relationship management is where we

find the most visible tools of leadership - persuasion, conflict management, and collaboration

(Primal Leadership, 2013). During this low we were able to build bonds, collaborate, and use

teamwork to get ourselves out of this rut.

Community Action Project 10

When we began working on the prototype, we were able to use our self-management

abilities. Self-management is the focused drive that all leaders need to achieve their goal (Primal

Leadership, 2013). When work on the prototype began, everyone had their own task. For the

completion of the project to run smoothly, everyone had to show initiative and optimism when it

came to their own challenge.

At this point, we have developed a sense of trust. Trust is essential for a team. Without

trust, team members are not genuinely open with one another and cannot admit their mistakes

and weaknesses (The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, 2002). When a group does not trust one

another, it can lead to a fear of conflict, lack of commitment, avoidance of accountability, and an

inattention to results. Because we have trust, we can openly discuss and debate when a conflict

arises. In addition, everyone is committed and excited to be working with No More Empty Pots

and accepts accountability for mistakes. We are still currently working on our results, but we are

eager to see the outcome.

Conclusion

These past few months, we have been working closely with No More Empty Pots to

develop a Key Performance Indicator dashboard in hopes of recruiting volunteers and donors and

encouraging staff members. A small project does not mean a small impact – something as simple

as this can make an immense change. Through continued work with this nonprofit organization,

we hope to create and establish a replicable solution to a nationwide problem. Organizations like

No More Empty Pots continue working every day to make neighborhoods like Florence a

healthier, safer place to live. With the help of the community, we can eradicate food deserts and

ultimately eliminate hunger.

Community Action Project 11

Appendix

Below shows a picture of our KPI prototype as of right now. The graph shows the number

of hours that participants engaged in programming per week. Other graphs that we produce look

like this one displaying a variety of data.

Community Action Project 12

References

Daniel Goleman, R. B. (2013). Primal Leadership. Boston, Massachuesetts: Harvard Business

Review Press.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Programs. (2018). Retrieved from No More Empty Pots: https://www.nmepomaha.org/programs/

Community Action Project 13