Fearless 11.25.24

Good morning, Fearless readers:

Happy week of Thanksgiving! We hope you find time to rest and enjoy time with loved ones this week. Our Fearless team is grateful for engaged readers and the opportunity to tell you important stories.

In this week’s Fearless e-newsletter, you will find:

A story about a Bondurant business owner who is choosing to continue baking with love following a customer’s racist comment.
A story about Hope Ministries launching an Empowering Women philanthropy group.
In the headlines: MercyOne unveiled its new statewide Maternal Transport Team in Des Moines last week.
One more thought from a Q&A with Deanna Strable, Principal’s incoming CEO, about being a working parent.
Lots more!

— Emily Barske Wood, Business Record special projects editor

Mary Harris had only been selling her food at Home Slice for two weeks before her signature cinnamon rolls became the talk of the region.

Harris owns Taste of Comfort, through which she sells home-baked goods and meals. She’s become a staple of farmers markets across Central Iowa, including Bondurant, since she and her family moved to Iowa at the end of 2022. Laura Lacina, owner of Home Slice Handmade Pies in Bondurant, asked her if she’d like to serve breakfast at the store before it opened on Saturdays.

"I did it the first week, and it was a little slow, but giving up isn’t an option," Harris said. "So then we came in for week two, and look where we are now."

At the second pop-up on Nov. 9, a customer purchased breakfast and then made a racist comment to Harris, who is Black, telling her to "get down, turn around and pick a bale of cotton," before leaving the building.

"In my 43 years on this earth, I have never had someone look me in my eyes and say something with the intention of demeaning me and feeling like it was OK for them to do so," she said.

The incident coincided with a nationwide rise in racist text messages sent to Black people across the country. Harris decided to post about the incident on Facebook in hopes Bondurant residents might consider the types of behavior they tolerate in their community.

"They know me by now. I’ve been here for 27 markets. I can tell them, and they can talk to each other," she said. "I just wanted to know that I was being heard and that I was going to be safe. And they did more than that."

At the time of writing, Harris’ Facebook post had received over 2,300 reactions and been shared over 1,300 times. She’s received more than 600 comments, which have been overwhelmingly positive.

"The 3,000 engagements I have had with my post have said, ‘We’re sorry this happened,’ ‘I’m glad you’re making people talk about it because we knew it was here,’ or ‘This is not what we’re about,’" she said.

Baked with love

Harris was working in the hospitality industry when she began to rethink her relationship with work.

"I had two memories of my mom. One of them was [that] she worked all the time, and the other is she taught me to cook," she said. "So as I was commuting sometimes three hours each way to my job in Silicon Valley, I was like, ‘What will my kids remember?’"

That element of love and connection formed the foundation of Harris’ business. She calls herself a relationship person. When you approach her tent at a farmers market in Bondurant, Baxter or Ankeny, you’ll see her chatting and laughing with each person in line. She intentionally goes to smaller markets, where she’s able to form connections with her customers.

She believes food is a powerful force in bringing people together.

"Food is a language that anybody can speak. It’s a neutralizer and an equalizer. I’m not a super huggy, affectionate person, but I’ll feed you," Harris said. "Food is a feeling, and if I can give people a feeling of comfort, then they are more receptive of me."

She bakes everything from strawberry rhubarb bars to molasses cookies to caramel apple bars. She’s especially known for her cinnamon rolls, which she describes as less traditional and "soft, silky and not too sweet."

Baking has allowed her to connect with folks from across Central Iowa. She felt bolstered by those relationships she built through her business as she took to Facebook to share her experience.

"I wasn’t nervous. It was just me having a conversation with the people that have been eating my cinnamon rolls," she said.

Just keep baking

A few days after her post gained attention, Harris noticed an interesting coincidence of timing. The interaction with the customer occurred the day before her father’s birthday.

"My biological dad was a part of the Civil Rights Movement and he desegregated the University of Alabama," Harris said. "Standing in the schoolhouse door, Gov. Wallace, President Kennedy sending in the National Guard. All of that is in my bloodline."

Harris was no stranger to the existence of the racism she experienced from the customer. She’s particular about which markets she goes to. She has had to ask a market organizer to move her tent away from a vendor who made her feel unsafe.

Even with those anxieties, she finds great joy when her food becomes an experience for a community. She describes her baking as her love language, explaining that everything she bakes is a memory meant to evoke something special from the recipient’s past.

And while she doesn’t expect the type of racism she has experienced to disappear, she’s hopeful that the ensuing conversation is indicative of the way her community will continue to welcome her and her culinary talents.

"I hope to be able to figure out how to get a space of my own to be able to bake long term," Harris said. "Hopefully, I can do that as a part of the Bondurant community. They definitely received me with open arms and rallied behind me when I shared this story and showed their heart. And their heart is good."

Hope Ministries will open a new 100-bed center this fall that will greatly expand the organization’s abilities to serve women experiencing homelessness in Des Moines.

The new facility has space for amenities the organization hasn’t been able to provide before. Dedicated classrooms for learning instead of couches and kitchen tables. An auditorium. An art therapy room. A fitness room and a salon. A commercial kitchen and dining room.

The design is meant to support the safety and healing of the women the organization serves, according to Chief Development Officer Kathy Coady.

As the opening of the new facility drew near, Hope Ministries recognized the need for additional funding. The organization landed on a unique idea for a philanthropy group, one where women could give back to their communities while gaining valuable experience and relationships themselves.

This led to their new group, "Empowering Women." With 44 women already in the group, the nonprofit is looking to reach even more women ready to make an impact.

We talked with Coady about the Empowering Women group. The Q&A has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Why did Hope Ministries form Empowering Women?
We have been growing our services for homeless women and mothers with children for several years. The culmination of that effort is our new expanded center for women and children. When that’s at full capacity, we will be able to serve 100 women and mothers with children. That’s huge growth from where we are today serving 30 women and children. We need more women who are passionate about uplifting and supporting women who are working hard to transform their lives.

What does being a member of Empowering Women entail?
We are a new philanthropy group for women who want to give, serve and learn.

We’re requesting a $1,000-a-year contribution that can be given one time or in monthly increments. That’s the give part.

Serving is volunteering with us. We have specific volunteer needs at the new center that we’ve identified for Empowering Women. One of them is Count Your Blessings Boutique, where women staying with us can spend "Blessing Bucks" that they earn by reaching milestones on donated items, like a new pair of earrings. We’re also asking Empowering Women who are interested in being mentors to work on more of a one-on-one relationship basis with women. Empowering Women who enjoy arts and crafts can volunteer in the art therapy room.

The learning piece will be a couple of opportunities a year where Empowering Women can tell us what they want to learn more about. These are learning opportunities for the donor who maybe says, "I want to help women, but I don’t really understand what women deal with that brings them to a point of homelessness. How does that happen?" They’re opportunities to educate people who haven’t had that life experience.

How will this group impact the women Hope Ministries serves?
As we go from a 15,000-square-foot center and serving 30 women to a 50,000-square-foot center and serving 100 women and children, our revenue needs will be going up dramatically. The revenue from Empowering Women will support all of that work with women and children.

We will have 50 shelter beds and 50 life recovery beds. Women and moms with children can come to us and get immediate help, and all of their daily essential needs are met. Our life recovery programs have a curriculum with life skills, job training, education, spiritual growth and development, health and wellness. Women can stay in that program for up to two full years, no cost.

These are women and kids who’ve come from traumatic life circumstances in almost every case. They need safety, they need to build trust, they need time to heal and they need to work on themselves. This new space gives us great opportunities for that.

Who should join Empowering Women?
We’re looking for women who want to have and understand the personal impact that they can make on homeless women and mothers with children in our community. Women who want to be personally engaged in what’s happening. This is for women who say, "I want to make that financial contribution, but I also want some personal involvement."

What would you tell a woman considering joining Empowering Women?
You should join a group like Empowering Women because you can make a difference in a woman’s life, and it’s not only going to change her life. It’s going to change the lives of her kids, her loved ones, her friends; it’s going to have a ripple effect that will impact generations to come. This is something much bigger than yourself that you can be a part of.

MercyOne new Maternal Transport Team provides critical care for labor and delivery statewide: MercyOne unveiled its new statewide Maternal Transport Team in Des Moines last week. The team provides specialized care throughout Iowa for mothers experiencing difficult labors, especially in areas lacking obstetric services. External fetal heart monitoring equipment both in the transport vehicles and at MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center allows providers to monitor patients in labor across the state to detect quickly when the team should be deployed. Read more about the team here.

Simpson names director of workforce partnerships: Simpson College appointed Jennifer Chittenden as director of workforce partnerships for the college’s Online and Graduate Studies. She will build relationships with workforce clients to offer employees access to 15 bachelor’s, master’s and certificate programs through the Simpson Online and Graduate Studies programs, according to a news release. She previously worked for the PEO Sisterhood and the Des Moines Downtown Chamber of Commerce.

‘After years of infertility, I was finally pregnant. Then doctors said there was a problem.’: Courtney Crowder adopted a principle to get her through an incredibly difficult period: "Friction is needed for expansion." The Des Moines Register columnist’s experiences resemble those of the nearly 11% of women in the United States who experience infertility. She shared the grueling journey she and her husband went on while trying to have a child in this column in the Des Moines Register.

Child care grants for Iowa businesses available again: Businesses looking to expand their child care options for their workers can once again apply for the Child Care Business Incentive Grant. The grant, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, helps businesses cover the costs of child care centers either on-site or in local centers. Businesses with at least 75 full-time employees that aren't a child care business are eligible for the grant, according to this story in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Women get less exercise than men. It's a problem. (New York Times). OpenAI’s female staff complain of gender disparity after Murati exit (The Information). US Soccer gets $30 million from Michele Kang to boost women’s, girls’ teams (Washington Post). GOP lawmaker seeks bathroom restrictions on federal property (NPR). Trump names Karoline Leavitt as youngest ever White House press secretary (AP). Women facing ‘broken rung’ in careers, missing early promotions, according to report (CBS News).

Business Record Digital News Editor Sarah Diehn recently interviewed Deanna Strable, Principal Financial Group’s incoming CEO. Here’s a bonus question from the interview.

How did your experience as a working parent shape you?
The mantra I've always had is work-life fit. I’ve had a company that is so supportive of that, and I hope that never changes. Then I had a spouse that was also incredibly supportive and we really had to choose how to do that together and both be successful in parenting our kids, working with our elderly parents as they went through their life stages, and ultimately, both of us having a successful career here at Principal. The other thing that I’ve really recognized is I am probably one of the few executives here that is dual-income. Either you had the female executives that honestly paved the path for me and many others, but a lot of them either didn’t have children, had chosen to have their husband stay at home or vice versa with the men.

I do spend a lot of time talking to younger people, both men and women, and I feel a lot of times they’re self-selecting themselves out of advancement because they don’t think they can do it all. The first thing I would say is that is a personal decision that people need to make, but I’ve really tried to lean into being a role model that it can be done. It’s made me a very organized person because you have to figure out how to make it all work and I think that helps when I’m given more complicated things at work. I’m able to chunk it up. I’m able to see how you can make it work, how you make progress toward an end goal. But that combination there is something I’ve leaned into and really tried to help some of our younger employees understand.

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