Food runs in the family for Harvesting in Mansfield CEO

By Bobby Quinten

Mansfield Record

Nov. 21 was not a typical Monday at the Dr. Jim Vaszauskas Center for the Performing Arts. The Harvesting in Mansfield (HIM) Center set its tent in the parking lot early that morning with its inviting message of “Nutritious Food with Dignity.”  Semi-trailers and pallets of boxes dotted the lot.  In the cool fall air, dozens of volunteers packaged Thanksgiving meals for those in need in their community. Those “Hunger Heroes” then loaded those meals into vehicles as families drove up.

By the end of the day, HIM Center distributed 5,000 meals to families. To put that number in perspective, 66 percent of Texas’ incorporated communities have less than 5,000 residents.  5,000 meals would feed everyone in Alvarado with leftovers.

“I am a very driven person,” HIM Center CEO Lisa Selman Richardson admits.

What drives her is the desire to provide more than food to people.  

“We help those who cannot help themselves, so that they can go to bed at night grateful they made it through another day and have hope for tomorrow,” she said.

Richardson shared her leadership journey at her favorite lunch spot, Saltgrass Steak House in Mansfield.  She and husband, Stewart, love Saltgrass for its relatively quiet atmosphere and healthy menu options.  Her family has a generational connection to helping others through food.

“My grandparents were very involved with the food pantry at Bisbee Baptist Church for years,” Richardson reminisced. “For a long time, Bisbee had one of the only food pantries out here.”

Richardson grew up in Mansfield and graduated from Mansfield High School, so she remembers well her grandparents’ volunteer work with the Bisbee food pantry.

“They taught us all to give back, to know at the end of each day that you made a difference for someone that day,” she recalled.

Her parents continued the family tradition through their volunteerism in church and the community.

“Mansfield, my family, the schools, they all formed me to be who I am today,” Richardson said.

She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Arlington with a major in business and minor in political science.  She worked for an aerospace government contractor for 23 years, eventually becoming its general manager. She said she succeeded in the business world because “God gave me the gift to lead.”

In her off-work hours, she created Panache Events for planning weddings and other full-service events, and she volunteered in a learn-to-read program led by Dee Davey. Over the years Richardson also developed skills for working with nonprofits and writing grant proposals.

So, when the time came four years ago to do something new, she joined the staff at the Harvesting in Mansfield food pantry.  In a sense, it was her destiny.

All of Richardson’s family lessons, work experiences and passions merged into her CEO role at the HIM Center. Harvesting in Mansfield is a faith-based nonprofit food pantry that provides perishable and non-perishable food to individuals in need.  HIM also responds to bulk requests from community organizations such as shelters, senior centers, soup kitchens and daycare centers. HIM is the No. 1 agency in the eight counties served by Tarrant Area Food Bank because of its capacity and volunteer support. Richardson’s political science college courses have been helpful as she works constantly with governments, civic organizations, other nonprofits, businesses and religious organizations for donations and support.

For example, her primary partners in the Thanksgiving meal drive included the Tarrant Area Food Bank, which sponsored 2,500 of the 5,000 meals. The other 2,500 meals came through a local group of anonymous supporters led by William Rhodes of WR Roofing.  HIM also received support from The Big Good, a Fort Worth-based foundation created by former Texas Christian University football coach Gary Patterson and Grammy-winning singer Leon Bridges.

Through “banding together to share resources,” Richardson calculates it costs only a $20 donation to provide enough food for a family to eat twice a day for a month.  That’s approximately 400 pounds of food.  By providing enough meals for a month, Richardson said, “We lessen the shame that many people have of frequenting a food pantry.”

“Our real goal is to give them some food relief while they try to get back on their feet that month,” she said.

A food pantry is the rare business that wants fewer customers, not more. HIM staff members rejoice when a customer no longer needs help.  Richardson said that “this year 2,700 families totaling 8,267 individuals are back on their feet and no longer need our assistance.”

This is especially impressive considering the ongoing population growth in the area.  

“There’s no way around it,” she said. “The city’s growth feeds directly into our food pantry.  As costs go up and housing becomes less affordable, more and more residents find they cannot make it that month.”  

With community growth in mind, HIM is taking receipt of a second truck for mobile food deliveries through a grant.  HIM Center also is negotiating with Mansfield Cares, which provides the building at 150 S. 6th Avenue to HIM, to utilize the other half of the structure for added capacity. Expansion would allow for a HIM Market where customers can shop for themselves in the spirit of “Nutritious Food with Dignity.”

Whenever Richardson needs a little more inspiration, she turns to her husband of 33 years.  In 1987, Stewart Richardson went to work for his wife’s father. There he met Lisa, fell in love, and married her.  Today Stewart works as a construction project manager for Ramtech Building Systems.  Richardson said her husband knew food insecurity firsthand during a difficult childhood.

“Somehow Stewart survived and without bitterness,” she said.

Stewart Richardson now sits on the HIM Center Board of Directors that provides overall guidance for the company. The food pantry has seven paid employees, approximately 85 regular volunteers and an advisory council.  

Like any other business, Harvesting in Mansfield has its obstacles.  

“Staffing is a challenge, putting the right people in the right roles,” Richardson said. “Plus, I feel responsible for all of them in all of the decisions that I make.”  

She seeks to understand what employees and volunteers do well, assigns those tasks to them and watches them “take off. Then they lead themselves.”

Overall, Richardson’s management goal is to make good business decisions while maintaining the family feeling of the organization.  

“I tell everyone this is not about me, and it is not about you,” Richardson explained. “This is about the people we serve. We need to respect them, and we need to always respect each other.”

That family-like bond never was more important than the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CEO vividly recalls arriving at the center the first day of lockdowns and finding 400 people in the parking lot.  

“I saw the panic in their faces, and I could hear the panic in their voices,” she said.

The HIM team lined up the crowd with social distancing in mind, while providing guaranteed slots for many to come back later that day.  The usual morning food distribution turned into an all-day event.

Amazingly, the HIM Center never closed during the pandemic.  The typical two-day-a-week distribution schedule expanded to five days. HIM accepted walk-ups and implemented a mobile market to take food to other parts of the community.  Recently, HIM started Mega Mobile Markets twice a month at the Vaszauskas Center for families to drive through and pick up meals. The next Mega Mobile Market is 6:30 p.m. Dec. 14.

Amidst the worst world health crisis in a century, Richardson confessed, “I was changed forever. I take less things for granted now.  I’ve seen the goodness of people with a strong willingness to help their neighbors.  I appreciate my life more. We should all appreciate our lives more.”

Asked what she would change if she had it to do all over again, Richardson thought for a moment, and replied, “Nothing. The road was hard to get to where I am today, but life comes with lessons that we all need.  They are not always pleasant lessons but needed just the same.  So I would not change a thing.”

Richardson shared an emotional story about a student volunteer who worked distribution one morning.  When his shift was over, the young man asked the CEO if he could take a box of meals home because his family had nothing to eat.  

“That’s a reminder that hunger and food insecurity are all around us and we never know,” she said. “Of course, I said yes, and I was so proud of him that he had the courage to ask.”

“Those are the days that make me very happy,” Richardson said.

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