Jay Worrall
President Of Helping Harvest Food Bank
Serving those in need is more than a career for the President of Helping Harvest Food Bank, Jay Worrall. It's his calling. A part of the third generation in his family to engage in the nonprofit sector, Worrall refers to his professional journey in Berks County as a religious experience.
Q: What brought you to Berks County?
I moved to Boyertown in 1997 to enroll in a Ph.D. Program in interreligious dialogue at Temple University. I started working with homeless children at the Pottstown Salvation Army homeless shelter and as a tutor through the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. I taught classes at Temple in the morning, took my graduate classes in the early afternoon, and then I would stop at five homeless shelters in Montgomery County on my way home. I fell in love with helping homeless children, dropped out of the Ph.D. program and started working full-time. My career evolved around anti-poverty and nonprofit work since then.
Q: What made you gravitate toward this line of work?
A lot of it had to do with the fact that there were very few men in these children's lives. I was a tall, young white guy with long hair and earrings 28 years ago who would show up at these homeless shelters. Usually, these young children, oftentimes without a man in their lives, were eager to interact with me. I felt that they had been treated very unfairly and that they deserved whatever I could do for them. I also have family members who work in nonprofits, including my grandfather, who founded an organization that helps people transition from prison back to society, my mother, who was a social worker, and many of my brothers. Sometimes I use religious language when I talk about the experience I had working with homeless children in the late 90s. It really feels like a call that I received that certainly was a very moving and meaningful experience for me. I really have had such a fulfilling and great career doing the work that I've been doing since.
Q: When did you start your career at Helping Harvest?
After being at Alvernia University for about nine years, where I was able to help college students understand and envision a life in the nonprofit world or a life of service, I started thinking that I might want to go back into the nonprofit arena. I felt so fortunate that this position at Helping Harvest came up. I'm very passionate about low-income children, and we've been able to develop some new programs around feeding children that I'm very proud of.
Q: Did you always know you wanted to be the president of a company?
Not early in my career. I remember telling my friends that I did not want to be an executive because I found that working directly with low-income and homeless people, both when I was at the homeless shelter and as a community organizer in the city, I found that work and those relationships to be so valuable. As I matured a little bit, I realized that I could have a greater impact as a leader.
Q: In a career of helping others, how do you fill your own cup outside of work?
I own two old British sports cars: a 1961 Triumph and a 1970 MGB that I enjoy working on. I also recently started demolishing an old bathroom in our house that I'll be remodeling. I talk to people, manage relationships and work on a computer for the most part during the day for work. And then in the evenings on the weekends, I try and keep my hands busy. I also really appreciate the architecture and history of Berks County when it was becoming an industrial powerhouse with the Reading Railroad.
Learn More
This April. Helping Harvest is launching a maternal health program where food-insecure pregnant mothers are able to get their nutritional needs met. Learn more at helpingharvest.org.
Your Impact. Due to your generosity, Helping Harvest feeds more than 110,000 people every year, which includes about 4,000 bags of food a week for local elementary schools through the Weekender Program.
