Nourishing Hope is thrilled to welcome new Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Kriss, a veteran operational and strategic leader with a passion for helping people in need.
Kriss has nearly 20 years experience in the private and public sectors, most recently as the vice president of strategy for Tovala, a food tech startup. As the new chief operating officer of Nourishing Hope, Kriss will help guide the sustainable growth of the organization at a pivotal time.
Carolyn Kriss
Nourishing Hope, one of Chicago’s largest and longest-operating hunger relief organizations, plans to serve 30% more households by the end of its five-year strategic plan, which was approved in the spring.
The addition of the chief operating officer role to Nourishing Hope is made possible by the Northern Trust Anchor Award, a $1 million grant awarded last fall to bolster Nourishing Hope’s ability to serve more young people on Chicago’s South and West Sides.
Kriss begins her new role on Monday, July 15.
“We’re so fortunate and grateful to have Carolyn join our team at such an important time,” said CEO Kellie O’Connell. “She is absolutely the right person for this job — a strategic thinker and a decisive leader with a true passion for our mission of serving people in need.”
The opportunity at Nourishing Hope is particularly meaningful for Kriss, whose mother was a social worker. She was raised with the conviction that supporting families requires a holistic approach, both helping with urgent, practical needs and building a long-term foundation of wellbeing.
“I could not be more excited to join Nourishing Hope,” said Kriss, a Chicagoland native. “The opportunity brings together all my passions — public service, food, scaling organizations, and leading teams — in support of serving neighbors in the city that I love.”
Kriss began her career in food at Starbucks where led the $550 million hot tea business and led strategy for the Starbucks College Achievement Plan, which pays for employees to go to college.
She scaled growth stage tech startups as a general manager at DoorDash (food delivery) and Capsule (prescription delivery). Most recently, she served as vice president of strategy at meal delivery subscription startup, Tovala, where she led the data and customer insights functions, and created fundraising materials resulting in a $30 million equity investment.
Before working in business, Kriss was one of the first 200 staff to join President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and later served in the administration as a special assistant to the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, a $50 billion agency that runs Head Start, Childcare, Child Support, TANF, refugee resettlement, and more.
Kriss holds a master of business administration degree from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a bachelor of arts from Yale University. While at Booth, Kriss specialized in operations and co-founded the Food, Environment, Agribusiness and Development (FEAD) group for students with professional interest in food.
Kriss’s career has come full circle, as she will now lead operations for Nourishing Hope, which provides the equivalent of more than 4.5 million meals a year to people in need. She lives in Chicago with her husband and 17-month-old daughter.
“I can’t wait to help scale Nourishing Hope’s success and support its next chapter of growth,” Kriss said.