Welcome to another enlightening episode of the Servant Leader’s Library, where profound discussions on leadership and community service take center stage. In this session, we’re privileged to host David Lapp, CEO of Blessings of Hope. David’s journey from an Amish farm to leading a transformative nonprofit offers a unique perspective on integrating deep-rooted faith with effective leadership to make a substantial impact in the community.
Dive into a compelling conversation that covers the evolution of Blessings of Hope and how David’s upbringing and values have shaped his approach to servant leadership. This episode is not just a narrative of personal growth and success; it’s a testament to the power of visionary leadership and the profound impact of faith in guiding life-changing missions. Join us as we uncover the strategies that transform good intentions into great deeds, making a lasting difference in countless lives.
Watch the episode above or listen over at Spotify. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss the next great servant leader’s story!
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Episode Transcript
Nicholas Paulukow
Thank you. Alright, welcome to another episode of the Servant Leader’s Library. I’m your host, Nicholas Paulukow, CEO of ONE 2 ONE, where we live and breathe managed IT, cybersecurity, and of course, leadership.
Today I have the absolute pleasure of introducing someone who’s turned leadership into a calling, David Lapp, the CEO of Blessings of Hope. Now, David didn’t just pop into the CEO role. Nope. This journey started in New Holland, PA in a big Amish family no less. And by big, I mean 12 kids. That’s some serious family leadership training right there.
David’s roots are on the dairy farm in Indiana, but in 2006 he moved back, you know, with his tribe to Lancaster, PA, to focus on his passion for helping others. David co-founded Blessings of Hope, an organization that’s taken the idea of food surplus and transformed it into community impact. Think of it as kind of turning corporate donations into meals for families.
Under his leadership since 2018, Blessings of Hope has become a powerhouse for feeding people. Because who needs waste when you can spread hope? David, his wife, and 12 children? Yes, you heard it right. Live in Ephrata, PA, where he’s not just leading a nonprofit, he’s also making a difference every single day. So, David, welcome to the podcast. We are thrilled to have you here to share your insight on Servant Leader’s Library and how you’ve grown Blessings of Hope. We really appreciate you coming on today.
David Lapp
Thanks for having me. Thanks for the invitation and just allowing me to be a part of what you’re doing.
Nicholas Paulukow
Absolutely. I think we’re more honored to be part of your journey here. I mean, David, you grew up kind of in a large family, right? And worked on a dairy farm. How did your upbringing, you know, develop your hard work and your leadership and kind of your community service?
David Lapp
Well, as you know, as a 5-year-old, as a 6-year-old before I would go to school, I had to get up in the morning and you know feed the calves, give the cows hay, that kind of thing. And you know, I usually joke that I learn to enjoy working, some of it willingly. And, you know, some of it was, you know, child labor laws, or child labor was, you know, forced upon me.
But I look back and I see it’s one of the best things that could have happened in my life just being taught to be responsible at a young age. Being taught to actually enjoy working and you’re not just doing it for the paycheck but doing it to contribute to the family.
Nicholas Paulukow
That is wonderful. That’s well said. And I think the lessons that you took away kind of growing up on that, how are you applying that kind of to running such a large nonprofit such as Blessings of Hope?
David Lapp
When I was about 17 to 19, we were in Indiana. We were on a dairy farm, and we were 400 acres with horses and we had two herds of cows.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow.
David Lapp
I think it was around 100 cows that we milked twice a day and just the out-of-the-box mindset that our father, you know, he, we didn’t know what we didn’t know that we couldn’t do it. So, we did it. And you know, if you’re on a farm.
Nicholas Paulukow
Ha ha ha.
David Lapp
There’s always work to do, but for some reason we got into custom hay wrapping on the side then, yet to take up all our free time.
Nicholas Paulukow
Really.
David Lapp
But I looked back. And those were some of the, I would say, some of the most fun years of my growing up years was just, you know, being busy being on the farm, challenging ourselves beyond the normal and just being able to see God move in a mighty way and you know, we got the work done, we got. The you know it was. It was just a fun time growing up with my brother and a couple hired boys and you know we did it. We didn’t know we couldn’t do it, so we did it.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, that’s true, right? I always said when I was a kid that would say for me it’s kind of like ignorance was bliss during that time, right? Like if Dad said do it. You know, we were hanging out with Dad, you know, but it sounds like your father was quite an entrepreneur himself. Kind of creating different ideas and different solutions.
David Lapp
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
I bet that was a fun experience, right? But man, if anybody knows, you know, taking care of cattle and milking. Especially if you’ve not done that, that is an extremely difficult undertaking. And I mean that it’s like it’s there’s zero vacation, there’s zero time off. I mean that that’s a lot of work. That’s a yeah.
David Lapp
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
I maybe. Maybe the Blessings of Hope almost like a break, a little bit from the 24/7. I don’t know.
David Lapp
Well, you know, with where things are at right now, we have a great team in place that runs the organization and it’s actually a blessing just to be able to empower them to do their piece of the organization and to run with their piece of it and watch their leadership develop as well.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love that. I love that you noted back in 2006. You moved back to Pennsylvania. Like what inspired that decision did it? Did it shape the direction? Kind of the career and journey that you’re on today.
David Lapp
So, we grew up in New Holland, PA, when I was 13, we moved to Indiana and that was ultimately for cheaper farmland.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
We had a 70-acre farm here in Pennsylvania and Dad wanted to give all the boys an opportunity to farm.
Nicholas Paulukow
Ah.
David Lapp
There was eight of us boys and you know to put eight boys on a 70-acre property isn’t going to cut it here in Lancaster, PA, with where the land prices were at.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
So, it went to, went to Indiana for cheaper farmland. And then in 2005, we were excommunicated from the old, old Romney’s church. So, we grew up horse and buggy, you know, no electricity. No, vehicle is not anything like that. And so, we were on a journey with God in 2004, 2005, and we no longer fit the religious mindset and God had us.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
Basically, God shook our box, and we fell out and he had bigger things for us. So, when we when that all went down, we moved back to Pennsylvania in 2006 and that’s when we joined.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
Two of my brothers, one of our sisters and another couple Aaron and Barbie Fisher, and we started light of Hope Ministries more as a counseling ministry and as a church.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK, OK.
David Lapp
And then out of that, we had a need for food for our own families. And Aaron had been helping at an outreach, giving away food. He would bring food along home for our own families.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
So, Aaron had grown up in a food insecure home. And somebody would bring them a box of food every couple of weeks, and it was just the whole idea of, you know, serving people was always in his blood. And one of the challenges that we saw early on was these large corporations have semi truckloads of food available to donate, but they don’t want to deal with 50 organizations every day, so it’s cheaper to just send it to a landfill and get rid of it. And then you?
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
Have the nonprofits that want, you know, ten boxes of that semi-truckload or maybe a pallet, but they can’t take the whole semi other fresh produce?
Nicholas Paulukow
All of it. Ah, OK.
David Lapp
So that’s where the idea came from. For the distribution model, as you see it today, is being able to take from the donor at the volume, he wants to donate it and then make it available to the nonprofit at the volume. That nonprofit can use it.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. I mean, that’s huge thinking and that that’s amazing. Like, I mean, what a blessing. I mean, no pun intended, right? Blessing of Hope, like, like for those who need it and the quality of it is so substantial. I know personally working with them, I mean it is a huge box of wonderful goods. It’s not. I mean, you know, I think some of them had, you know, entire meals in there, which I think is quite impressive. I mean, how? How do you all manage that from? Like spoilage and whatnot. I mean, I’m sure that’s just the same struggles as maybe like any distributor would be having too, is it? Is it hard to manage that?
David Lapp
But it’s definitely a challenge to keep the product, to keep the product moving because you know most of the product, we get is closer to expiration date or like fresh produce.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
It’s right. You know, you know, we might have a couple of days on it, but we do a lot through our food selection centers and we also do outreaches where we, you know, something’s hitting that point where it has to move.
Nicholas Paulukow
Ah.
David Lapp
Rather than just throw it out, we still want to send you an outreach and have people that can still utilize it. Now we do have some spoilers. You know, we do have produce that will sort. We have stuff that we had to throw out, but anything that we can’t utilize goes into a methane digester or to animal feed. So, we don’t send, we don’t send a lot of food to the landfills where we are, you know as much as possible we try.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh wow.
David Lapp
To utilize what we have to either be put back into, you know, through a methane digester into fertilizer or to feed some animals.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow, that’s unbelievable. I mean, you’re really. It also is helping in so many different ways, right? From a landfill piece. I mean, that’s one thing, but now you’re able to actually feed and produce even more greater good. Do you? Do you like as you started this right? I mean, it’s quite large now, but what were like some of the early day challenges that you had to overcome?
David Lapp
What 2006? We started a three-car garage and growing that into, you know, 2010 committing to packing seven boxes a week for a local pastor. When you had, you know, a couple of pallets a week coming in and sometimes it was a whole pallet of one item, you know.
Nicholas Paulukow
Ah.
David Lapp
And just stepping out in faith and believing that God would supply that. And you had seven boxes turned into 12, turn into 20 turn into 50. And you know, I think it was 2012 when we shipped our first semi-truckload of food. And it took a few months to collect enough of food to put to make a semi-truckload of extra that we could ship out to an outreach. And you just do step by step, celebrating the small wins that God had us had for us today, and then taking the next step that he that he showed us.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. Wow. I mean, I love that, right. Like I’m a I’m a Catholic boy. But like, like listening to that and we call it kind of like knowing our faith and living our faith like that gives me shivers, cause, like, ultimately, we are to live our faith. Right. And like, like, to serve others and like. What you’re doing is truly living that, but also with the trust, right? Like we say like you know. Great things happen when you let go and right. We’re human beings and we always want to control it. And like what an honor, or what an ability that you all have to do that. Like, I mean that I think me personally that’s something that you contemplate every day in prayer of like, am I doing what you asked me to do, right. And. Am I holding on to it or am I really letting go and the great thing seemed to happen in my life when I let it go.
David Lapp
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
But man, sometimes the ignorance of the human mind. Is like you know. Well, you can maybe you know change that I just. I’m very inspired by. Kind of the understanding of how you’re living that that’s just unbelievable.
David Lapp
You know, it’s one thing when you say you’re gonna trust God no matter what, but then when the no matter what shows up and you have to, you know you’re facing a deadline and there’s a hundred employees depended on God, God coming through here and it’s like.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
You know what? Are you going to do about this? And it’s like you learn to trust God at a different level.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. You’re absolutely right. I you know, as you grow a business similar to mine, my father. Actually, I’m first generation this country. My father came here when he was five through Ellis Island. But the Mennonite Church actually paid his debt off because they came here with debt and we landed in Lancaster County because of the graciousness of the Mennonite Church. And he worked on Amish and Mennonite farms till their debt was paid off.
David Lapp
Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
And so, my dad, this Polish boy that spoke German, and my and Dutch and everything like that, he’s in this one-room Amish schoolhouse. And you know, he’s and my dad was like, yeah, they made fun of me because I had a funny accent. And but what? The just the beauty of the community to do that, my father said. Nick, your whole life, have your faith and your ability to work hard and everything will be fine. And man, there’s truth to that. And but sometimes you get misguided. When things are going well, right? Yeah.
David Lapp
So cars today schwetzer.
Nicholas Paulukow
Funny. Funny that you say that. My father, too, is a kid, and still today I didn’t realize growing up on the commitment to the respect of the Community to give back and we would drive like 3540 miles away or 30 minutes away to get like a mower fixed and I. Like dad like. Like this is an Amish man fixing our mower and they and they’re and like. Why we driving this far away? And he goes, you give back to those who helped you. And I’m like, oh, so as a young kid, my dad’s speaking Dutch. And I’m like, I have no idea what he’s talking about here, but I didn’t learn that too many. Years later in my life on how important it is to give and to receive right and when you have a blessing. So that’s bringing a lot of heartfelt memories to the goodness that you’re providing.
David Lapp
No.
Nicholas Paulukow
So I didn’t mean to kind of derail our conversation there.
David Lapp
Wow.
Nicholas Paulukow
What you’re doing is really the definition of servant leadership, right? Like, how does that philosophy influence, you know, the people that you bring on board to help you? Like, how do you teach them or instill this the values that you have and you know the feeling that you have and the and the just the true. Mission.
David Lapp
Yeah, I mean it. It comes through, you know, through meetings, through communication, through just sharing hearts. We do three days a year where we do an all-day employee training team-building event where it’s, you know, we’ll bring a speaker in or we’ll, you know, just watch a video series or something and it’s a, it’s a collaborative day of just getting to know.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
Who we’re working with that kind of a thing. And that’s been very good for our team, is just to you know as we as we keep growing. And we have employees at different locations just getting to know each other, getting to work together or serving together for a day, you know, with the one in October, we did a box packing shift where you know, everybody came to our Leola facility, and we packed box. You know for the morning. And stuff like that. And it it’s also we have a monthly book reading program where we offer you know we have a book of the month and then we offer employees a $50.00 gift card to a local restaurant. If they read the book and.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK. Ah.
David Lapp
Report on it and it it’s interesting to see to see the people that do that on their own time automatically step up through the organization and the people that that self-educate that, that have that mindset of you’re going above and beyond are the ones.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh, I like that. Wow.
David Lapp
That automatically step into the next levels of leadership.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well, that’s absolutely wonderful. Like I think we when I hear you saying too is kinda. It’s like the we before me like it’s about the greater good in mind like when you when you get into selecting people to work with you in your in your organization mission like is. There a way that you identify mission-baked people or people that think beyond just themselves. I mean that sounds, I guess, a little harsh but. You know.
David Lapp
And you know, everybody wants good employees. So, you know we, I mean just like anybody else, you know, we’ve hired quite a few people the last couple of years. We went from 8 employees to like 110. I believe we are right now since 2020, so you know four years hiring 100 people and you know, yeah, there was some people that didn’t work out. But you know, a lot of a lot of this can be, you know.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. Wow.
David Lapp
Just this is this is what needs to be done and. Keep putting the right people in the right positions.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. And I guess people probably are attracted to the mission of the organization. I can imagine. Yeah. Wow.
David Lapp
Yeah. Yeah, we have a lot of good people that are, you know, serving here and being a part of what we’re doing.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow, that’s an amazing growth, 88 to 100 people. That’s a lot to handle and a small amount of time. Wow.
David Lapp
Yeah, yeah. And in that in that same period of time, we had, you know, volunteers like, whoever showed up to volunteer that day was there to work to having over 40,000 registered volunteers in that same period of time. And we see about 1300 volunteer positions a week filled right now and they just said that the not just building the organization but building the processes, building the systems. Of scheduling volunteers and how all that’s gonna work. So, it’s been. It’s been quite a journey.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow, that is unbelievable. That is a lot of volunteers. I mean, for today’s area 2 of trying to gather volunteers like that is an enormous amount of volunteers. What a what? Kudos to your team as well to be able to cultivate such a wonderful group of people, yeah.
David Lapp
Yeah, it’s absolutely amazing just to see what the team has done and what God has done, you know, through our efforts to be able to, to actually have an impact on the people that we meet.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. Wow. And we, we talk a lot about like faith drives a lot of kind of the mission of a lot of things and you know how do you meld kind of the faith component and the leadership component of kind of building an organization, right? Like you know there. The faithful component and what is developed with and now it’s getting larger and you have this like business component. How do you stay true to like the true mission while you’re getting into this like really? Large scale business, right? Like.
David Lapp
Well, you have. You have to be able to steward what God has entrusted to us, and that includes paying our bills.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
That includes, you know, we have not figured out yet how to roll into a Flying J truck stop and tell them that by faith we need fuel in this truck they want to.
Nicholas Paulukow
Ha ha ha.
David Lapp
They want a credit card. You know our vendors. Yeah, we’re a faith-based organization, but we’re also a business that has, you know, we have vendors, we have people that we are responsible to pay as well because it doesn’t look good to be a Christian organization that can’t pay your bills just because you’re a Christian organization.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right, right.
David Lapp
So, you’re developing that whole side of it and making sure that that you’re able to, you know, we’ve had crazy growth, but being able to end that process still. Sustain our cash flows and. A few things. The last couple of years around that.
Nicholas Paulukow
That is a lot. That’s a lot. So, from the aspects of kinda the you mentioned, you work with a lot of corporations and whatnot. Like how? How does that affect? Like, how do you choose those corporations that you work with? Are they more sustainable organizations? Are they? You know, is there a selection criteria to the organizations that you work with?
David Lapp
But when you say organization, are you talking like vendors?
Nicholas Paulukow
Vendors. Yes, the ones that are providing the food that you’re distributing and whatnot.
David Lapp
So, the organizations that are providing the food, those would be so all the foods donated, we don’t buy anything. It will be all you know, donation, and we have a we have a couple of guys out on the road, you know, meeting with different organizations.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
Just building those relationships.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
You know, as far as from a from a like a fuel vendor or something like that, you know? Yeah, we do a, you know we’re interview a few different organizations and see who’s a good fit and it always it always benefits. Them if they’re already a donor or if they’re already involved in the organization in some capacity because we believe in, you know, supporting the people that support us. And you know, if a local fuel company, you know, if they’re very similar in price, but one sends Vol.
Nicholas Paulukow
Alright. Yeah.
David Lapp
Or they donate. They’re going to get the upper hand. It’s just that’s just automatically going to happen.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hi. Yeah, I love that. I love that. As you’ve started to scale the business as well, what would you say are kind of the most significant achievements that you’re proud of recently?
David Lapp
Just the way the team is stepping in and leading different parts of the organization and being able to delegate that effectively to, you know, to the point where most of the day-to-day operations, I don’t have to worry about, you know we have people in place. That run the day-to-day. I don’t even know who’s working today, you know. I don’t know. I mean, I have an idea I could. I have ways of finding out if I need to. But. Is operating at 2:00 to the point where they make it happen, and I would say that’s probably one of our biggest successes is having the having the people in place that can run the day-to-day operations of it, which frees me up to make sure the big. Picture is intact in the you know the future vision is going to where it needs to go.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s true leadership right there. That’s amazing. It’s such a short amount of time with that amount of people that that is unbelievable. That’s unbelievable.
David Lapp
The less I have to do, the more gets done. Yeah, the, the more I can stay out of their way and empower them to do the work, the more gets done because it’s not all coming back to me calling all the shots.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, absolutely.
David Lapp
It’s, you know, you have teams of people that that lead portions of the organization.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love it. I love it. That empowerment that, as you have a large family, right? So, I’m sure that’s a lot to manage and you’re spending time here, but I wonder if you’ve mastered the art of delegation with such a large family. I don’t know how does. How does being part of a large family and, you know, running an organization, does anything have in common? Like, I mean, you know it’s a whole. I only have four children, so I’m like, wow. You know our families and our community, you have been up to 12. And I know that’s a that’s a lot. A. That’s a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of work to delegate. So how do you combine both of those efforts?
David Lapp
Yeah, if you had to have four children, you did. You did all the work. Now, if you would have had five or six, the older ones could have helped raise the other ones. You know, that’s how that works. Just like an organization. As you keep growing, if you run a small organization where you have to be involved in everything, you have to.
Nicholas Paulukow
You’re smart, man.
David Lapp
Be there every day. You know you have. You have to be actively engaged, but as you as you grow up, you know our youngest are twin boys that are two years old. When they were four weeks old, we could leave them home with our oldest daughter. We could go out for a date night. We have built-in babysitters and you know, just like, just like an organization as you grow.
Nicholas Paulukow
Oh, I love it.
David Lapp
I’m not saying they’re building babysitters, but you have building leaders that that then lead people that that help make it happen.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah. Bring that community together. That, my friend Sean, then has something he’s working on something there, though. I think he’s on like #6 so. He speaks about that quite often that that the older ones take care of the younger ones and it starts to. Yeah, yeah, that that is a great and that’s a great connection there.
David Lapp
I do, yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
What? What do you think the future goals look like from the vision standpoint of you running this organization? How do you see it? To continue to grow, what challenges maybe do you see?
David Lapp
What we’re seeing is a national organization. Food waste is a national issue. Food insecurity is a national issue. We have a self-funding model with through our food selection. At this point, the food selection centers that we have generated about 75% of our cash flow and a little over half of the volume generates about 75% of the cash flow.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK. Wow.
David Lapp
So. Being is that we can take more of the food that we’re sending to outreaches and just send it because of volume and move that through another selection center very quickly the handling fee that the selection centers generate will cover our entire operational budget and in order.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
To do that, we’re gonna need a few more selection centers and you know, as I said previous. Ly Waste is a national issue. We live in a nation that waste the semi truckload of food every 13 seconds. Last year we distributed 28,000,000 lbs. of food, which according to our calculations is about 3 1/2 ten thousandths of a percent of the food waste.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow.
David Lapp
So, we have barely covered that. The tip of the iceberg of what’s out there. And so, what we’re seeing is building out, you know, into other areas with distribution center and then our food selection center model and serving every major city in City in America with a se. Centre and you know to do that, it’s going to take significant resources. He asked. You know what some of the challenges that we see is it’s gonna be raising the capital that we need to build that out.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
We had, you know, quite a bit of discussion already around. Do we just go out and lease buildings or? But then you’re dealing with landlords, you’re dealing with rent increases you’re dealing with? Who knows what all and what we’ve actually done this year? We’ve just launched a private investment fund to invite the community to invest into our real estate needs as we grow.
Nicholas Paulukow
Alright. How?
David Lapp
To so we can so we can build the whole thing privately as a nonprofit. Have full control of the real estate as we grow and be able to, you know, expand into other areas and utilize more of the of the food that is being wasted and serve more people.
Nicholas Paulukow
That is extremely smart, right? I can only assume if you’re owning the real estate, give you some equity, then you’d be able to use that equity to potentially then leverage that for some more property that that is that is, you definitely have it right with that delegation out there constantly thinking big. That that is amazing. I love it. I love it. That is, that is very educational for all of us, right? I think a lot of people that get into. Their work. Think that being in it is the successful part, but. What you’re showing is being out of the day. Today is more successful from, you know, working on it instead of in it. And I think that that’s a really great lesson for everyone to hear because it’s too much time goes by that many people think they have to be in the business. And or maybe can’t figure out ways to educate someone else to be able to do that part. And I think you’ve you’re a master of that. Yeah, that’s.
David Lapp
Well, I’ve. I’ve heard this saying a number of years ago. It said the only thing worse than training an employee and he goes to your competitor is if you don’t train in many states.
Nicholas Paulukow
Well said.
David Lapp
And it it’s like, you know if we invest in the people, if we invest in their education and they go to a competitor, they go to someone else. You know we still had an impact on their life for the rest of their lives. Whereas if we just let them stay here and they’re not getting the job done, they’re, you know. And nobody’s growing. Nobody’s benefiting. And that’s what we like to see is to be able to invest into our people, even if even if that means they go out and start their own business or whatever. You know, it’s about building God’s Kingdom.
Nicholas Paulukow
Alright.
David Lapp
It’s not about building Blessings of Hope.
Nicholas Paulukow
I love that and tell us about like, the amount of people I think you said it earlier that that you’re impacting. So the way the model works from I understand is that an organization would purchase the boxes and then distribute them, is that right? Do I have that correctly?
David Lapp
So all the all the food’s free, we get the food free, we give it away for free. But we have a we’re a service-based organization.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK.
David Lapp
So, the organizations that are giving away the food. So, we receive food from over 1500, I mean over 200 organizations on the corporate side. And then we have over 1500 nonprofits that we serve with that food.
Nicholas Paulukow
OK. Wow. Wow.
David Lapp
So, what we saw a number of years ago is if we, you know, if we don’t have any kind of a donation or a handling fee system, we’re having to do all the fundraising. To distribute the product. If we have 1500 organizations that are each doing an outreach and they’re raising a couple $100 to cover the cost for their outreach and we bring that into a central model. Now we can be a privately funded organization that can EMP.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
Church to be the hands and feet of Jesus. We can empower these organizations to share.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
Classes to share gospel message, whatever. When they’re giving out food. Whereas if we’re tied into the government funding or the state funding whatever, then we have all kinds of restrictions that go with that.
Nicholas Paulukow
Alright.
David Lapp
So, our model is rather than have go after all kinds of government grants or whatever and try to find all the free money, that’s empower the church to take care of the community. Power them to raise a few dollars. What they need to do their outreach. Follow that into blessing New Hope, and then we can make them proud.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
Development to them, you know, at a very reasonable handling fee. Thanks.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. Oh, I love that. That is, that’s wonderful. And you know, for those that are listening, that might be in nonprofit work or trying to grow their nonprofit, what advice would you have for them?
David Lapp
Think bigger. There’s we’re limited by our own imaginations. We’re limited by our own self-inflicted limitations. And we had this conversation, I think it was 20/18/2018 or 20/19 as an executive team, we had this conversation where we had so many people tell us over the years that, you know, they knew God called them to something and they would fight it. They would struggle with it. They would. They would do everything they could to educate God what was possible. And so, we had this conversation around what would happen if we would never say no to God instead of us trying to educate God. What’s possible? We would say yes. Lord, show us how to do this. Show us how to get through this next challenge. Show us how to overcome this next obstacle and we look back to last six years and it’s just incredible. What God has done.
Nicholas Paulukow
It says that too. I was reading a passage the other day that that it said exactly that right and. It says also it says hey, listen, you know you can’t just receive, right? You have to ask. You have to ask specifically, you know, how do you want me to do this or how do you want me to solve this? And I was reading one passage and it just basically said, you know, what do you want? Right. The Lord says. What are you looking for like? And you know, I think that that is amazing. And they said that tenfold will give to those who. You know, follow him. But I think that’s amazing. I’m very inspired. It it is, it’s quite amazing. It just and I love the idea. Think big, right? I think I’m taking that from many nonprofits sometimes. Think small and I have no money, right? And that’s what I took.
David Lapp
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
So, I could be wrong, but my it’s about like thinking bigger and then solving for that problem, right?
David Lapp
So, the question I would have if you know if, as a nonprofit, if you’re listening to this and you say I’m just a small nonprofit without any money.
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s.
David Lapp
Why? Why is that? You know, think beyond the Today and think about what God called you to think about what God entrusted into your hand and if God wants to bring something he’ll. He also has a way to fund that. And you know, sometimes we have to think outside.
Nicholas Paulukow
Baby.
David Lapp
The box. Sometimes we have to get a little creative, but I am. I am 100% convinced. There’s more money available to nonprofits than the nonprofits have vision to spend it.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
And the reason I say that is I just heard a statistic. A few weeks ago. Right now, there’s 1 1/2 trillion dollars in donor-advised funds in America.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow.
David Lapp
So what? I heard when I heard that was there’s 1 1/2 trillion dollars that the businessman already got, his donation is his benefits for it’s no longer the businessman’s money, it is. There’s no way he can bring that back into his business. This has. Go to a non-profit. So there’s 1 1/2 trillion dollars is sitting there waiting on a vision.
Nicholas Paulukow
Hmm.
David Lapp
Can we share a vision with the businessman that he wants to get behind and help fund for God’s Kingdom? So that that’s what? That’s what I hear when I when I hear that side of it and I know quite a few people that you know they.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
Want to make a difference? They already made their money. They want to make a difference with those funds and you know, can we share a vision that they can connect to? And help them fulfill their vision. You know if all they have is money, that’s a that’s a side place to be, you know, can we help them fulfill the rest of their life by giving them vision and helping them see their money be put to work and actually impact people’s lives for?
Nicholas Paulukow
Alright.
David Lapp
No, no.
Nicholas Paulukow
You’re absolutely right. You can’t take it with you, right?
David Lapp
That’s right. That’s right.
Nicholas Paulukow
It’s the root of all evil. If I I I when I was a young boy, I went to my pastor and I said help me understand this. Why do we work? Why are we taught to work to make money? When, when? What’s the purpose of that? Like if I can make more money, that feels wrong like and answer that for me, right? And he and he looks at me right. Like with his with his stern and, you know, confident eyes. And he says, listen. God might have given you the ability to do that, but. Where it is in good or bad is how you use it. If you hold it gluttony over people, then that’s not good.
David Lapp
Uh huh.
Nicholas Paulukow
But if God gave you the talent to do it, and you can help others, that can’t help themselves with that talent, then that is what you’re meant to do.
David Lapp
Right. Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
And I didn’t. As a young man, I was like, OK. Well, I thought, don’t go make money. Don’t be don’t be bound by money. And he brought just a different perspective. And I think that’s exactly what you’re bringing, right? Like you’re connecting to right to the someone has a need, but they want to connect and see how that need is driven. And you’ve created a sustainable way through that through that project of like acquiring real estate, they can see it, they can connect to it.
David Lapp
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
They can see the growth and I think that’s very astute because a lot of non profits sometimes. Don’t see it in that way. And connect it. They asked for their mission, but they really aren’t asking for where we need it and how it connects to where they’re going. I I think that’s amazing.
David Lapp
I think there’s way too many nonprofits that are that are limited by the leaders. Decisions around what they can do and they’re not allowing God to show what, what, what God can do. And you know if I’m if I’m building an organization for my own, for my own fleshly gains or whatever, I’m going to have limitations of what I believe. Is possible, but if we open this up to let God build it like, OK Lord, what do you want to do? Here we are. We are stewards. Here we are. We’re here to steward to, to bring stewardship and impact for God’s Kingdom, and that includes food that includes finances, that includes, you know, volunteers. How can we as a community have a greater impact for God’s Kingdom to the point where somebody in the community has a need? They look to the church for answers, not to the bar. They look to the church for ways to help out their neighbor and. You know, instead of everything else that they look to anymore.
Nicholas Paulukow
Do that. That’s well said. As a kid growing up, everything was bound around the church. Everything we did was around the church, how we helped each other, how we helped others, and I think society has changed that a little bit and.
David Lapp
Huh.
Nicholas Paulukow
I this is odd to say, but like I’ve been, God works in funny ways because some of the conversations that I’ve been having with him. Last week. He said. Pay attention to who you serve. And I was like, whoa, what? Like now I’m like what? What are you trying to tell me, right? Like focus on who you’re serving and then listening to you. I’m like God, you work an interesting way. You send different messengers talking about different messages, and so I thank you for that. That it’s amazing how connecting for the greater good of others and serving. Just solves a lot of other problems, you know.
David Lapp
Yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Because we’re thinking about others outside of our own selfishness and I think that that’s amazing. And sometimes, sometimes you feel that you’re probably like the only one, right. Like, I’m sure you know, even for myself, like, well, why do? Why should we be good? Why should we help others? You know, that’s kind of catastrophizing sometimes ’cause it feels like society’s against you. But ultimately that was the same for Christ, right? And everywhere he went, it was a trial and tribulation.
David Lapp
Huh.
Nicholas Paulukow
But he saw everyone as good. And I’m like, wow, what a what a unbelievable, you know, thing every time that you get frustrated. So what a what? A great, great, great understanding of living. Truly, what you’re trying to accomplish. You talk about the books at Yuri, So what? What reading is impactful to you? What? What? What do you get the most out? Maybe authors or? Topics.
David Lapp
A lot of the books are on leadership, you know, education. Self. Stretching our imagination, stretching our limitations. Building, you know, trust building, team building, those kinds of books. Few of the authors that I enjoy are like John Maxwell, Dave Horse Agar. Yeah, there’s quite a few that that we’ve that we’ve put out there already. Excellence wins is a is a good one. There’s. I think we have about 25 or 30 on the list right now that we’ve done the last two years. So yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Those are great books. Also, there’s one that brings the mind for me. Just on your people, your donors, and what you do. There’s a book called The Go Giver.
David Lapp
Yep, that was one of them that we did. Yep.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow, yeah, that just is like, wow, that connects kind of the portion of what you’re saying to other maybe businessmen that are looking to really figure out how to how to really enact their giving. Wow, that’s great. Yeah. For young people that are getting starting their families and starting to figure out how they’re gonna serve the Lord. What? What advice do you have for them?
David Lapp
But you gotta start somewhere so you know if you can. If you can volunteer at an organization that you believe in and you can, you know, you can learn leadership, you can learn to, you know, just be on a normal. If you can find an older person to. Sit with and glean their wisdom there. There’s all kinds of. There’s all kinds of ways to advance your education for free. You, whether that’s one-on-one, talking to somebody, whether that’s watching a YouTube.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
One thing our teacher did. An eighth-grade education. I don’t have any high school, no college. But one thing our teacher is she taught us how to learn and what I mean by that is, you know, rather than just telling us this is the answer or the shortest way to get to the answer, she told us to read the instructions, understand the principles behind. How to how we got to the answer and if you want to learn something in today’s day and age that there’s YouTube out there on any almost any topic you want to learn about. That you can watch for free or you can sit there scrolling Facebook for hours on end. And at the end of the night, you had nothing. So it it’s all depending on, you know, if you want to learn, if you want to advance your skills and your impact on eternity, you know, educate yourself. Be a be a self-motivated leader. Be a self-motivated individual that that is able to step out and you know the first person to lead is yourself. You can look at everybody else and what they should be doing or what they’re doing wrong, but. Yeah, until you step into that role or until you try it. Until then, you just have an opinion.
Nicholas Paulukow
You’re absolutely right.
David Lapp
You know it’s when you step in and you try something and you overcome it. That’s when you gain the authority to then teach it to other people, because until then you just have an opinion.
Nicholas Paulukow
Wow. Wow. I love it. I love it and I think it’s also it says, hey, if I have a problem, the problem is me.
David Lapp
Yeah, yeah.
Nicholas Paulukow
Right. We can’t change others. We can encourage them, but we can change ourselves, right? I think is maybe what I’m hearing. Yeah, that’s great. And it is, you know, as we kind of wind down a little bit today like what it, what would be maybe the most impactful leadership lesson that you learned or maybe some words of wisdom from the business side of things?
David Lapp
You gotta start somewhere. And I love the quote. I’m not even sure who said it, but I heard this quote says I am only one but still I am one. I can’t do everything, but I refuse to do nothing. And you know, if we can go through life and remember that even, you know, if something looks overwhelming, if a if a task comes up that that we don’t think we can or that we can’t overcome you know can we start somewhere? Can we do something? And yes, as the saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. You know you. You have to. You have to start somewhere and if this huge mountain opens up in front of you, you know you can try to scale them out in in one leap, or you can take that next step and you can.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah.
David Lapp
You can trust God to show you the step today that you need to take today instead of worrying about tomorrow’s problems today. You know, if you worry about tomorrow’s problems today, you just get frustrated.
Nicholas Paulukow
Yeah, that’s well said. That’s well said as you kind of wrap up today, do you have any parting comments or feedback?
David Lapp
Push beyond the push beyond the ordinary. There, there’s, there’s. There’s one life to live on Earth. And while we’re here, you know we can. We can choose to live a comfortable life to where we’re you’re going through life and live and die. And nobody even knows that we lived. Or we can step out in faith and allow God to take us beyond what we believe is possible to what he. Called us to. And actually have an impact on society that would last for generations.
Nicholas Paulukow
That’s great. That’s kind of saying, you know, in a way that it’s kind of the stories and the memories that carry on kind of instead of the things and the items that you have, it’s more of, you know, what’s the impact that you’ve had on others. Yeah, I love that.
David Lapp
Yeah, don’t. Don’t decide. For God, what’s possible in your life? Let him lead you and go beyond the ordinary.
Nicholas Paulukow
Very insightful, very insightful and David, we appreciate it. And everyone, this is a wrap. Unfortunately, I would love to talk to David for another couple of hours here, but he probably would. He’s got work to do and that’s a wrap on this episode of Servant Leader’s Library. Huge thanks to David Lapp, the CEO of Blessings of Hope for sharing not only his journey from his Amish farm life to leading a powerful nonprofit, but also his insights and how servant leaders can truly transform lives, whether it’s your family at 12 or thousands of families in need across the globe.
David, you’ve given us such so much to think about from the value of faith and leadership to the power of turning food surplus into real impact. You’re running a nonprofit. You manage a large family, and you make a massive difference all at once. I think I need to kind of up my game here a little bit.
So, for our listeners, if you’ve been inspired by David’s story. Or learn something new about servant leadership. Don’t forget to subscribe. Don’t also forget to check out Blessings of Hope and how you can volunteer and leave us a review or share any of the episodes, so it impacts others.
So, thank you again for tuning in to Servant Leader’s Library. I’m your host, Nicholas Paulukow reminding you to lead with purpose. Serve with passion and well. But that may be also consider starting your own twelve-person team at home. No. Until next time, stay humble. Stay hungry and keep serving.
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