As the founder of Lovin’ Spoonfuls (lovinspoonfulsinc.org), Ashley Stanley has made it her life’s mission to change the conversation around hunger. Over the past decade, her organization has recovered more than 14 million pounds of food that otherwise would have been thrown away and has worked with local nonprofits to feed thousands in need throughout the Greater Boston area. “Hunger is not a problem of supply, it’s a problem of distribution,” says Stanley, adding that 40% of all food produced in the United States each year ends up going to waste. “Let’s change the language; let’s change the approach.”

While Lovin’ Spoonfuls is very much a boots-on-the-ground organization, directly working with vendors to deliver fresh and healthy food on a daily basis, Stanley hopes that it will inspire people to take a deeper look at the issue of hunger. Over 40 million Americans struggle each day with food scarcity, and many more are just a health scare or missed paycheck away from hitting the poverty line and ending up in a situation where they need help feeding their families. Stanley believes that businesses, entrepreneurs and people of privilege have a responsibility to help solve this crisis “because the wealth disparity is so massive.” She continues, “You look at the larger piece of the population that’s living below the poverty line, and there’s somebody there who is working harder than I ever could and can’t access a pathway out. I [totally] think it’s our responsibility.”

As Lovin’ Spoonfuls prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary this winter, Stanley hopes to continue expanding its reach throughout Massachusetts and, soon, to a national level. Long term, though, she would love to see the idea of food rescue become an integrated part of how society operates. “One of the things that we’ve done well is create a model that can be replicable and that can evolve and scale, but it’s not so prefab that it can’t meet communities’ needs,” says Stanley. “ I’d like to see food recovery go the way that recycling did.”