Kristin Kehoe ’06
In her position as the associate director of volunteer services at City Harvest, the world’s first food rescue organization dedicated to ending hunger in New York City, Kristin Kehoe ’06 leads the team that recruits, trains and schedules volunteers for rescue, free produce distributions, nutrition education programs and more. City Harvest salvages food that would otherwise go to waste from cafeterias, restaurants, grocery stores and other venues with excess food and distributes it to soup kitchens, food pantries, senior centers, homeless shelters, and other similar organizations that can feed hungry New Yorkers.
As a student at Montclair State University, Kehoe took lots of classes with Dr. Tiffany Brown. Dr. Brown facilitated deep discussions in her courses, exposing Kristin to issues she’d never faced before. Kristin grew up in suburbia, sheltered from the effects that poverty has on families living in inner cities. The readings she worked with in courses such as Interpersonal Relationships, Marriage and Family, The Inner City Family and Parenting really inspired her to seek a career that involved helping people who faced the ill effects of social problems.
Kehoe’s favorite time of year on campus was the spring. As the warm sunlight brought green back to the foliage, she would relax in the quad with friends and watch other students play Frisbee. It was a fun, laid-back time for her. In her time outside of class, Kehoe was involved with Campus Recreation.
Her required internship brought her to Gilda’s Club North Jersey. Gilda’s Club is an organization that brings people touched by cancer and their families together for community and emotional support. There are chapters of Gilda’s Club, now part of the Cancer Support Community, throughout the United States. Kristin got a lot from her internship – she was able to go into her field and see real-life issues up close, rather than reading about them from a far-off classroom.
“Really take your time,” she advises current Family and Child Studies students, “to find the co-op that’s right for you. Your placement makes all the difference in your career, and if you spend the time to find a placement that’s best for you, you’ll benefit.”
Gilda’s Club hired her after her internship was finished, and she worked there for two years as a Development and Marketing Manager. She later went on to earn a Master’s degree in International Service from Roehampton University in London, UK, before returning to the US and working with the Diabetes Foundation and now City Harvest. Now, she personally makes a difference in the lives of one million hungry New Yorkers each year. The Family and Child Studies program at Montclair State University was the foundation in her career of helping the people who need it most.