Cassie Wilcox
What Running a Food Bank Taught One Facility Manager About Doing Less
Jason Meyer didn’t plan to run a facility. He drove a truck for Gleaners Food Bank, learned how to fix things because someone had to, and kept getting handed more responsibility until one day he was managing 332,000 square feet, 100 trucks a day, and a warehouse where neighbors drive their cars through a live forklift operation to pick up food.
He figured most of it out the hard way.
The Early Mistake Almost Every Facility Leader Makes
In the beginning, Jason was purely reactive. A problem showed up, he solved it. Another one showed up, he solved that too. He thought staying busy meant staying on top of things. It didn’t.
“If I could have known that what we needed to do was simplify processes and make them safer and more economical, we could have cut out a lot of that extra manual work.”
The shift happened with equipment, LED lights to replace fluorescents that could never stay stocked, a machine to handle snow removal instead of paying $44,000 a year to someone else. Small decisions that changed how he thought. Once he started asking “how do we do this so it doesn’t have to be done again,” the whole job looked different.
The Thing He Wishes He’d Done Sooner
Jason didn’t go looking for mentors early on. He stayed in his lane, handled his problems, and kept his head down. He now considers that the most costly mistake of his career, not financially, but in time lost.
“Taking the time to talk to technicians, to get to know your consultants, and to really listen. All that information would have helped me do things more smoothly, and fast.”
The facility managers who grow fastest aren’t the ones who know the most. They’re the ones who ask the most questions of the people already standing in front of them.
What a Non-Profit Facility Actually Teaches You About Budgeting
Gleaners runs on tight margins. There’s no capital budget for wishful thinking. Every decision has to survive a conversation with people who haven’t stood on a warehouse floor and don’t know what a bad pipe installation costs you ten years later.
So Jason learned to document. Not for audits for arguments. Data on forklift battery cycles, maintenance history, equipment wear. Proof that what looks like a facilities expense is actually a business decision.
“Many of those who make financial decisions don’t understand the process. You have to be able to explain why something prevents a bad thing from happening.”
If you can’t make the case in language the finance team understands, you won’t get the resources the floor actually needs.
What 102 Million Meals Looks Like From the Inside
In fiscal year 2025, Gleaners distributed over 102 million meals to families across Indiana, and shipped food to all 50 states. They run with 120 employees and up to 40% of their labor done by volunteers, many of whom walk into an active industrial environment for the first time and need to be onboarded in minutes.
That’s the operation Jason manages. And the standard he holds it to isn’t “good enough for a non-profit.” It’s just good.
That distinction matters more than most people realize.