Now, let’s get to our story. Last week, I visited Houston once again. This city may not be one of the most attractive in America, but it has always been auspicious for me. When we learned my father had cancer in 2003, he asked me to research where I could get the best treatment. I identified two American hospitals with the best track records in cancer treatment. One was MD Anderson in Houston, and the other was Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York.
We ultimately evaluated both hospitals, considering their advantages and disadvantages. After extensive discussions with the international departments of both hospitals, we settled on MD Anderson in Houston. My father was fortunate that his cancer was detected relatively early. He continued his treatment until 2007, and he eventually recovered.
His second stroke of good fortune came last year when we won the GFN Award. Around this time last year, we participated in the GFN’s first-ever innovation award. We were one of eight finalists and won the award. This is a significant achievement for Turkish NGOs. I wrote two articles about the innovation award we won and our subsequent experiences. I’d like to share them again as a reminder:
http://www.serhansuzer.com/tr/global-bir-stk-olma-yolundaki-tidere-buyuk-odul
http://www.serhansuzer.com/tr/buyuk-odulu-izleyen-macera-ve-kutlamalar
This year, we represented our association with our CEO, Pınar Değirmencioğlu, and our association director, Ezgi Özkök. Like last year, this year’s program featured a rich food banking experience. To give you an idea, I’d like to share the conference topics included in the program:
Monday, March 12
Successful Implementation of Virtual Food Banking
Volunteer Activity at the Houston Food Bank
Global Food Bank Innovation Award – Presentations
Tuesday, March 13
Strategies to Ensure More Food
Introducing the Concept of Shared Value
Using Shared Segmentation to Improve Relationship Management
Understanding and Controlling the Inventory Community
Factors Affecting the Global Food Industry
Regional Meetings
Wednesday, March 14
Fundraising and Resource Development: Corporate Partnerships
GFN Grants – Tips for Receiving Funding from the GFN
Field Trip: A Tour of the Galveston County Food Bank’s Operations
Thursday, March 15
The Importance of Measurement and Evaluation
Strategic Thinking – More Than Strategic Planning
The Transformative Role of Educational Actions for Beneficiary Institutions
National Food Bank Contact Understanding Different Network Models
Managing Your Institution
Global Food Bank Innovation Award – Award Summary Presentation and Farewell
This year, we were asked to speak on two topics for the program. One was about the TİDER brand. The other was to explain the benefits of winning our first innovation award. I will now share these talks, along with photos and slides from my presentations.
A photo taken during my first presentation.
A photo taken during the first presentations.
The title of my first speech was “Great First Impressions: Developing a Brand That Works for You.”
Since they asked me to summarize what I do at the association in two slides, I shared the two most important slides for us. One of these was our two main visions:
- Preventing Waste
- Enabling Those in Need to Remain Self-Sufficient
The other was the donation chain we aim to create to “prevent waste”: Food Producers and Retailers, Food Banks, Animal Shelters, and Biogas Plants.
I then explained the history of our association. Accordingly, I shared a slide showing the evolution of our name and logo:
As you can see from these logos, our association was founded in 2010 as the Food Banking Association. From the beginning, our mission was to be the umbrella organization for food banking. Our first logo was a very simple “pie chart.” It was designed, albeit somewhat carelessly, by an advertising agency that has undertaken significant work for corporate companies. Because at the time, I had asked the agency that handled the food retail business I was working for, “Could you provide some support here as well?” They presented us with this logo. Frankly, the outcome was unsatisfactory.
At the 2014 general assembly, I announced my intention to relinquish the chairmanship of the board due to a change of sector (I had moved from food retail to renewable energy), but the general assembly members insisted that I stay on. I explained that I could continue, but that the current Food Banking model didn’t satisfy me and that we should move from “giving fish” to “teaching people to fish while giving them fish.” I explained my envisioned new structure. Following these conversations, all the general assembly members fully supported me on this matter, and we unanimously changed our bylaws, and by majority vote, we changed our name and rebuilt our infrastructure.
When we changed our name, everyone suggested many new names, and some suggested we keep the name. Finally, my proposal, “TİDER,” meaning “Basic Needs Association,” was approved by a majority vote. While making these radical changes, we first changed our name from Food Banking Association to Food Banking and Basic Needs Association to help people get used to it. Two years later, we removed the Food Banking name and officially renamed our association Basic Needs Association. You can see the chronology of our name and logo above.
The story of our logo is as follows: I explained my vision to Gökhan Erkek, the founder of GEN3, whose creativity I’ve always trusted, and gave him detailed information. After explaining my vision, I said, “We want a logo that symbolizes a human figure who can stand on its own feet and fly with its own wings.”
Believe me, I briefed him on Friday. He worked over the weekend and got back to me with this wonderful logo on Monday. After a few minor revisions, our logo has taken its final form below.
As always, thank you so much for this wonderful logo, which is memorable and perfectly represents us, Gökhan! Afterwards, I shared the emblem designed for Support Markets by Elçin Ekinci, whose art is also very important to our Association and I truly admire and appreciate it.
This emblem will be placed at the entrances of all Support Markets. I would like to share this magnificent emblem, which “symbolizes the human being who bears fruit when you nourish their roots,” with you once again:
Thank you wholeheartedly, Elçin, for this magnificent work of art you have brought us!
Both our logo and emblem were greatly appreciated by all the Food Banking professionals who attended the conference. They expressed this during and after my speech.
On the next slide, you can see an animation of our logo, which we depict as a human figure capable of flying with its own wings and standing on its own feet.
On the following slides, you can see products designed with our logo:
Award and brooch designs
Our ring design. This ring comes in gold, silver, and white gold. Everyone loved the design, and there was incredible demand for our rings.
Fabric bag, donation box, and crate
A picture we took with our first t-shirt design and the t-shirts worn by our volunteers
A picture we took with TİDER professionals at Harvest Fest. In this picture, you can see our transitional (GBTİDER) logo on the t-shirts we wore. We have soaps placed neatly within the logo design. These soaps are part of the rural development project we launched in the village of Yırca.
Our final slide shows our logo and emblem together.
Between the morning speeches and the evening innovation award competition, we personally did some packaging at the Houston Food Bank, which operates on the American warehouse model. Here are some photos from that moment:
I gave my second speech in the evening before the finalists competing for the “Innovation Award.” Since we won this award last year, they asked me to explain what it meant to us. So, I prepared a motivating presentation. Here are photos from my presentation, the slides, and the information I conveyed:
In this opening slide, I state three benefits: International, National, and Internal (Domestic) benefits.
I’d like to list the international benefits we’ve seen:
- With the support of GFN, we’ve gained increased recognition among our members and food banking professionals around the world. Our news and interview, which you can see on the right side of the slide, have also played a significant role in this.
- Food bankers confirm that we’re on the right track in terms of sustainability. We’ve always emphasized our model of teaching how to fish while giving fish. Food banks appreciate this model. Everyone agrees that “giving goes a long way” and that making food banking sustainable requires helping those in need become self-sufficient. Therefore, I can say that our model is applicable not only in Türkiye but globally.
- Increased knowledge exchange with other food banks around the world.
I also listed the national benefits of the innovation award:
- Extensive media coverage (you can see some news about us on the slide below)
- Bringing the concept of improved food banking to the public:
- Providing the opportunity to speak in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) to discuss potential legislative changes for increased support
- Increasing the number of companies and public institutions supporting food banking in Türkiye
- Motivating existing donors
- Increasing the support of companies and public institutions already supporting food banking
- Increasing our recognition as the umbrella organization for food banking in Türkiye
- This success brings pride to NGOs in Türkiye
- Establishing strong ties with other NGOs to help those in need become self-sufficient.
After these media reports, I stated that the final benefit was achieved internally and listed the following points on the slide below:
- It provided significant motivation for our volunteers, individual donors, professionals, board of directors, and other individual stakeholders.
- It motivated us to do more work in terms of innovation and technology (for example: we accelerated the Support Cloud and Support HR efforts).
Finally, I announced that we would be presenting the following TIDER ring to all finalists in the innovation awards and that we would distribute any remaining products at the international reception the following day. The hall immediately erupted in joyful murmurs. After this speech, many people approached me for the ring. Everyone who attended the FBLI was very impressed with the ring design.
I emphasized the invaluable nature of all the finalists and emphasized that the development of technology in all areas contributes greatly to human development. I emphasized that these efforts should always be supported. I concluded by wishing all finalists success.
Finally, I’d like to share with you the video we shot spontaneously by friends around us when we won the award last year. As you’ll see in this video, I wasn’t expecting to win, so I didn’t react much at first; I tried to grasp the situation. I said, “Now let’s witness the excitement we had last year,” and I played the following video:
Everyone watching the video laughed and applauded. The hall was ready for the innovation award competition. Now, I’d like to share some photos we took during the Innovation Award competition to help you visualize it:
I’d also like to share photos taken at the international reception on the second day of FBLI, my last evening. Each country had its own table (some tables had two or three countries), and everyone showcased their offerings:
The TİDER Team traveling to Houston. From left to right: Pınar Değirmencioğlu (CEO), me, Ezgi Özkök (Director of our Association)
We shared our table with Ireland.
Our rings were very popular with the women who attended FBLI.
Colombia, one of my favorite countries in Latin America.
Argentina, another Latin American country close to my heart.
Australia, a place I definitely want to visit one day.
In memory of my grandfather, a Korean War veteran.
A crowded and cheerful Mexican table.
A Chinese table that won this year’s innovation award.
A picture of the hall where the international reception was held. The word HOPE here means a lot to all of us. Within HOPE, you can find the words that build our hope.
I’m not in this photo, taken on the last day of FBLI, because I had to leave early. I’d like to share this important photo with you, which features all the food banks around the world.
