Building a Legacy: Fighting Poverty and Inspiring Generosity With Megan Shreve

In this episode of You Can’t Take it With You, host Jim Dunlop sits down with Megan Shreve, CEO of South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP), to discuss the importance of leaving a legacy through generosity. They explore how SCCAP’s holistic approach helps families escape poverty, the role of community-driven programs like Circles and The Gleaning Project, and why personal involvement makes all the difference. Megan also shares advice on how we can rethink our own impact and legacy.

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Megan Shreve is the CEO of South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP), an organization with a 60-year history that’s dedicated to eliminating poverty and enhancing family stability in South Central Pennsylvania. With 19 years at the helm of SCCAP, Megan’s expertise spans from early childhood education to systemic change management in social service programs. Her work involves overseeing innovative initiatives like the Support Circles and The Gleaning Project.

Episode Summary:

What does it truly mean to leave a lasting legacy of generosity? Is it simply about giving financial support, or is there a deeper way to invest in the lives of those in need? How can we, as individuals and communities, help others not only survive but thrive?

According to Megan Shreve, a passionate advocate for fighting poverty, building a legacy is more than writing checks — it’s about supporting people to help them create their own future. She highlights the importance of giving not just resources but time, energy, and encouragement to empower individuals in meaningful ways. Megan believes that true impact comes from seeing the potential in people and helping them break the cycles of poverty through programs that foster long-term stability. The power of generosity, she explains, is in the transformation it brings to both individuals and communities.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Jim Dunlop on LinkedIn
• Advent Partners
• Megan Shreve on LinkedIn
• South Central Community Action Program (SCCAP)

Special Mentions

• Ralph Serpe on LinkedIn
• Adams County Community Foundation
• Support Circles
• The Gleaning Project
• Ruth’s Harvest

Quotable Moments

• “When people have the opportunity to have meaning in their life, it changes who we are, and in turn, it changes our community.”
• “Personal responsibility and system work go hand in hand, and that really changed how we do our work.”
• “Generosity is not just giving money, but investing in time, education, and partnership.”
• “We’re not competing against each other; we’re working together to do the best we can for our community.”
• “The cultural piece of how to love people and see them for more than what brought them in, that set the trajectory of our work.”

Action Steps

1. Volunteer your time to local programs or initiatives addressing poverty or food insecurity: By walking alongside those in need, you can provide practical and emotional support.
2. Advocate for systemic change by understanding the barriers faced by those living in poverty: Participation in initiatives like Support Circles can highlight these issues and push for policy reform.
3. Participate in local food recovery efforts: This will help minimize waste and provide fresh food to the underprivileged, promoting sustainability and community support.
4. Donate to organizations with flexible funding options: This helps address immediate and diverse needs, which often lack government support but significantly impact people’s lives.
5. Reflect on your legacy: Consider how you can make a meaningful contribution to your community, whether through mentorship, service, or resource provision.

Sponsor for this episode:

This episode is brought to you by Advent Partners — a financial planning partner dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey. 

Our seasoned team is committed to guiding you toward your financial goals. We offer tailored solutions based on your specific needs, from standalone financial planning to integrated financial management.

Whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles, Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap.

To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit AdventPartnersFP.com.

Episode Transcript:

Intro 0:00

Welcome to the You Can’t Take it With You show where we feature stories around generosity designed to inspire and encourage others to do meaningful things in their communities. Now here’s your host, Jim Dunlop.

Jim Dunlop 0:18

Hi, Jim Dunlop, here a wealth advisor and host of this show, where I sit down with people who get it when it comes to generosity. I’m excited to have guests who can give us stories on generosity to not only inspire our listeners, but to give practical ideas on ways we can give. Today’s guest is Megan Shreve. But before we get to Megan, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by Advent Partners, Ready for Good. Advent is a financial planning team dedicated to helping you make informed decisions that simplify your financial journey, whether you are planning for the future, investing for growth, or navigating financial hurdles. Advent Partners is here to provide insights, recommendations, and a clear financial roadmap. To learn more about Advent Partners and how we can guide your financial success, visit readyforgood.com. Before I introduce Megan fully, today, I want to give a big thank you to Ralph Serpe at the Adams County Community Foundation. Go check out the foundation’s website at adamscountycf.org When I asked Ralph who would be a good guest on the show, he immediately urged me to talk to Megan. I’ve known Megan for many years, and I really love the idea of having Megan here. Megan Shreve is the CEO of South Central Community Action Program, better known as SCCAP. SCCAP is one of 1000 community action agencies around the country dedicated to helping families on a journey to long term stability and eliminating the causes and conditions of poverty. The organization has been in Adams County for 60 years, and Megan has been the CEO for the last 19 years. Megan, welcome to the show.

Megan Shreve 1:50

Thanks for having me, Jim. I really appreciate it, and thanks for all the good work you do in the community as well.

Jim Dunlop 1:54

Well. Thank you. And I know we have a lot to talk about today that I’m kind of excited about, however, before we jump into that, could you briefly introduce yourself to our listeners? Maybe give them a quick autobiography on who Megan Shreve is.

Megan Shreve 2:10

Sure. First, I am a mom of two amazing kids. They’re both grown, and I have a grandson. I’ve been married for, I think, 38 years, so a long time. I’ve worked in the nonprofit world for a long time. I worked first in early childhood Ed, working with at risk students, and then came to SCCAP, administered some programs, then took up a jump into the private sector, working for Deloitte, doing consulting work around large change management projects in many states, but mostly around software system implementations for social service programs, so trying to make that actually work for the people that would be using it and better serve the clients they serve. And then, when Jean Odom was retiring, a board member called to see if I was interested in applying. I did apply, and was interviewed with a number of others, and was fortunate enough to get this position 19 years ago, which is crazy to think about, and have considered it a privilege to do this work all this time.

Jim Dunlop 3:10

That’s great. So tell me a little bit about SCCAP’s history in the community.

Megan Shreve 3:15

Yeah, it’s exciting because SCCAP is celebrating our 60th anniversary, so we started as part of the war on poverty and planning for SCCAP started in 1964 when the war on poverty was announced. It actually was formulated in 1965 it was with some folks who started in the Adams County Courthouse with an original grant of $15,000 to fund a sheltered workshop. So it started really early on, and then from there, it really moved into trying to identify what the needs, the conditions in the community were and how we could support that. And that’s really been what we’ve done throughout our history. So you know, in those early stages, we helped launch a lot of programs into the community, including the heart center, legal services, the housing authority, Office of Aging, Head Start. Many of those programs started under SCCAP. They provided the fiscal oversight until they were strong enough to be launched into the community, which was really, really good work. Now today, the model is a little bit different, because we believe that by having a number of programs that serve families all housed together, that is in the best entrance of the clients we serve, so they can come to one place, and we can really, we think of it kind of as braiding those programs for the best outcome of the families that we serve. So, you know, we’re really looking at economic mobility, trying to help make sure that folks achieve long term stability, whether it’s a senior living on a fixed income, or it’s a new family starting out, we want to try and help them reach their greatest potential and be able to be stable. We want that senior to be able to age in place, stay where they’re happy and safe. We. And for that family, we want to see that, you know, especially if they’ve been in generational poverty, we want to see that end, so working across a large number of programs to be able to make that happen.

Jim Dunlop 5:11

So tell me about those programs, what they are specifically and what each of those do, that that are kind of braided together to use your term.

Megan Shreve 5:19

So yeah, there’s some that are pretty traditional anti-poverty work. So we have a large food pantry that serves clients in Gettysburg, and then we partner with food pantries around the county. So we administer the state food program to help get some dollars to them. And pantries are mostly administered by volunteers. You know that from roost harvest like, what would we do if we didn’t have our amazing volunteers? And that really is getting emergency food into the hands of folks. That’s been really critical though it’s always critical, but it was especially critical through covid, and now in times of great inflation, we really see that as a stabilizing factor for a lot of our seniors who are living on a fixed income, so people can come on a monthly basis to get food. We have homeless shelters in both counties, so that’s for folks who are literally homeless. In Adams County, it’s a family shelter. So that that shelter last year had nine newborns born while their families were at the shelter. At the same time, we had all of those newborns, we also had more seniors. It’s this really crazy dynamic that we’re seeing in the community where, you know, when families are young, they are at their least earning potential so and sometimes their costs are higher, especially with the price of rent in the county. We’ll talk a little bit more about housing, and then we see the same for seniors. You know, you may have worked your entire life in Adams County at a maybe a lower wage job, and you’re relying on Social Security. And so now, if you are, if you don’t own a home, and even if you do own a home, your cost may be excessive, but your rent might take up your almost your whole social security check. So we’ve seen more seniors who are homeless, which is just, you know, both in both those instances, it can be crushing. And so we really work to help stabilize those individuals and get them into safe, affordable housing for the long term. And then they sometimes move into programs like our Family Services Program, which provides coaching services to help families stabilize, help them get the resources they need, and then look at a long-term plan as part of Family Services. We have Support Circles. And that program really…

Jim Dunlop 7:30

And this is one of my favorite programs, by the way, go ahead.

Megan Shreve 7:33

You know, I’m not supposed to have favorites, but I would have to say it’s one of mine, because it, it really, it changed the way we do our work. And we actually, when I came back to SCCAP, when I was hired, the board really charged us with identifying, how could we help families move completely out of poverty? Well, that’s a big task. And so we looked across the nation, and we found Support Circles. And so we implemented in 2007 really, with volunteers to make that happen. And Support Circles takes folks who are just interested in figuring out a different future story. So they, it’s not, you don’t receive tangible things, but you get a lot of protected time and space to figure out, what do I want for my family? And so people self-select, and they participate in a curriculum called Getting Ahead and Just Getting By World, and that really facilitates abstract thinking. So we and we look at building more than just financial resources, because it’s never just finances, right? You know, we need a good support system. We need good role models. We need to be able to kind of think about our physical health, our mental health, our spirituality. And it doesn’t that doesn’t have to be a religious spirituality. But what’s bigger than ourselves? What can we invest in that makes us feel like we’re giving back to the community, to the world, in a service-oriented way? So people have meaning, and that program families, you know, create this kind of this goal plan of what they want to do, and then we match them with middle class volunteers, so folks who don’t know anything about poverty and they provide some bridging capital, they become intentional friends, and then together, we learn about the barriers that families are bumping into so that we can come up with community solutions or change broken systems. And I think what’s been amazing to me about Circles is all of the things I learned both in my experience working in the social services world, my work at Deloitte, my education, when you walk alongside someone who is stuck in poverty, who’s making the best decisions they can in the circumstances they’re in, and life gets harder, the harder they work. It changes the way you think about this. And so, you know, then you start to look at, you know, what happens when a family, when, when a mom takes a second job and suddenly, she loses access to food, supports and SNAP benefits, but she has $40 per month to spend on food. And Cara Russo, who was the first individual who moved completely out of poverty, we saw that with Cara, she had $40 a month to feed her and her children. Like, how do you do that and why would someone continue to work harder if their circumstances get worse? And so then you start to look at system issues and thinking about, you know, where are the gaps that prevent people from really moving out of poverty? Because if you don’t address those, then people will stay stuck. And so personal responsibility and system work go hand in hand, and that really changed the way we do our work well.

Jim Dunlop 10:38

And what I love about Circles is you have such a great track record of moving people from homelessness all the way up through to, you know, productive citizens who do it. And there’s all these programs out there, but the soft skills like balancing a checkbook and figuring out how to create a budget and doing those things are so vitally important to bridging that gap and getting out of there. And nobody talks about that or does that. Let me put this way, there’s not like federal and state funding to take care of that, and so this is a program that does that, which is just so incredible. And you mentioned Cara, and we both know her really well, and just a great member of our community. And sorry, I had to cut you off there.

Megan Shreve 11:27

No, no, you’re right. And you know, you look at Cara, and not only you know, did she work hard and move her family out of poverty, her kids are in college, you know, breaking the cycle of poverty, but Cara has come back to be that community volunteer and ally for other families. She’s serves on scouts board. She volunteers at her church. She is on a number of other boards in the community. She is so vested in making a difference. And I think, I think that’s it when, when folks, for all of us, right, when we have the opportunity to have meaning in our life, to see the difference that we can make, whether it’s, you know, being a donor to something that really is meaningful to us or being a volunteer and being able to help implement change. That kind of meaning changes who we are, and then, in turn, it changes our community. But you’re right, we have more people who’ve gone from you know, they were previously homeless, and now they’re homeowners or dropped out of school. We have someone who just got her PhD working with first generation students. It’s, it’s, you know, Bobby, who was in and out of prison for 17 years in our Getting Ahead class, we were doing a brainstorming process as folks were figuring out their plans. And he said, I never knew I had other options like he, you know, and he has been out of prison now for about 15 years, doing great. He and his wife have a house. Like the change that it makes. And it’s not like, it’s not that we’re giving someone something in Circles, we provide, you know, we certainly they use SCCAP services as they’re stabilizing those support them in that way, but it’s really giving people protected time and space to be able to create a future story, and then providing, whether that’s emotional support, the belief that they can do it, you know, identifying where systems fail you so we can prepare for those, and people are incredibly capable, and it is amazing and changes completely changes the way you think about the folks who come in our door. So you don’t reflect back to them their lack what brought them in. You can reflect back to them their incredible capabilities and skills, and then just help them make some shifts in that work, so and so.

Jim Dunlop 13:43

What I like about this story is generosity is not just about giving money, but really investing in time and education and partnership to get to that next place. Well, I want to shift gears a little bit, because another program that’s near and dear to me, because I’m involved with a partner organization, is the Gleaning Project. And, in fact, I told you today my son and his soccer team are going to glean this afternoon. So tell our listeners about The Gleaning Project and really, kind of one of the original ideas around generosity, in my mind.

Megan Shreve 14:22

Thank you. Yeah, The Gleaning Project is amazing. And what Circles is around self-sufficiency. Gleaning that’s about food. It is just one of those very right answers, and it was born from the work of Circles. So, you know, we held a community meeting and talking about food security, and someone happened to talk to Jerry Althoff and his wife Jan, who are the Father, and Jerry is the father of Gleaning. And talk, he was wanting to do a mission trip somewhere locally, like he wanted to do something here, he got a card about Gleaning, like all of these things came together. He wanted to make a difference. And so he started reaching out in something that he knew. He was a landscaper. He had contacts with producers and farmers, and said, you know, what happens to the apples that aren’t picked? What happens to the peas that are in your in your farm, that that don’t get harvested and they would go to waste? And so he started going out and collecting it, and he would bring that back to SCCAP, to our food pantry, which was just amazing. And when it got too big for him, he gifted it to SCCAP, and he was bringing in 80 to 100,000 pounds a year, which is astounding for someone who is volunteering again, using what he could to make such a significant difference. And last year, The Gleaning Project across both counties distributed 1.2 million pounds of produce.

Jim Dunlop 15:46

That’s absolutely incredible. And you know, Ruth’s Harvest, which is an organization near and dear to me, sending meals home every week with school kids who are food insecure. They’re getting Gleaning Project apples, sometimes potatoes, sometimes peaches, other things in their bags, but primarily apples that are part of that Gleaning Project. So it’s really cool to see that a local surplus of produce is feeding hungry people in this community, right?

Megan Shreve 16:13

A community resource, meeting a community need. And what’s great about both Circles and Gleaning, it makes it complex. But what’s great is there are no government funding tied. So it the regulations that you know, we can do what’s right for a family, we can do what’s right for the individuals we serve, which is amazing. So it fills that, sorry about that. It fills the food security for people who are in the wage gap. So I don’t have to follow what a food pantry’s income guidelines if you are food insecure, you know, and working towards long term. So really, we can help you, which is great.

Jim Dunlop 16:47

So you raise a pretty important point. You have funding from a number of different sources, and sometimes with that funding, there are strings and rules attached. Tell me where SCCAP’s funding comes from and how you’re able to leverage that, and sometimes some of the limitations too, with that.

Megan Shreve 17:05

Thank you. Yeah, so SCCAP, you know, has, again, a wide variety of programs. We’ve talked about some of the in the more innovative ones, but a lot of our funding comes from our larger programs, from the federal government down through the state to SCCAP. So weatherization, where we go out and weatherize a house, our WIC Program, which works with pregnant moms, infants to the age of five. That program is fully funded from the feds down to the state. We run an Early Learning Resource Center which does child care, subsidy, resource and referral for low wage earners so their kids could get  a quality early education funded from the feds down to the state, and those are fully funded programs. They have very defined regulations that we have to follow. And the rest of our programs are really a mix so it you know, for instance, our food pantries, we get some state food dollars, but no money to operate store distribute. Our shelter gets a little bit of homeless prevention money. Otherwise, we have to raise all the funds for Gleaning, gets nothing. Support Circles, gets nothing. And there are pluses and minuses to that, right? It’s wonderful to have fully funded where I can pay staff and provide a resource, but they do come with really stringent guidelines. And when that happens, especially when your goal is long-term stability, you know, people’s circumstances frequently don’t fit into a nice, neat box, and certainly one program typically doesn’t resolve the crisis that a family has. And so trying to be able to work with someone on an individual basis, to see, okay, you know, if we want you to have a self-sustaining wage, because that’s the goal. So, you know, in in Adams County, that’s a pretty significant number. You know, we’re, we’re talking more than $60,000 for a family of three. Then we have to find ways for you to be able to earn that so whether it’s working multiple jobs, what are the implications on a family for that? Or do you need to go to school? Is there training that you need to acquire? Do you need to work out of the county? 67% of the folks who are employed in Adams County work outside the county for that reason. So there’s a lot of complexities around that. And so when you know, when we get donations or discretionary dollars through the giving spree or from grants from smaller organizations, those discretionary dollars and when I say discretionary, sometimes people think that it have a bad connotation, but when you have funding that can be used to help a family overcome a barrier that’s preventing them from achieving long term stability. It’s an investment. And so it could be fixing a car. There’s no funding to fix cars, but if you don’t have a car in Adams County, how do you make it work? So it’s so it’s that way you, so our typical annual budget is about 11 million during COVID It was significantly higher because we did a lot of COVID relief work. We’re back down to that more typical budget. And I would say that about 60% of our funding is from the feds down through the state to us, and then the rest are smaller grants. Some are state, some are local, grants, and then donations from amazing community members and businesses.

Jim Dunlop 20:27

So thinking about that generosity in the community that helps drive your mission, what’s…tell me a little bit about your own personal generosity, and what’s your generosity origin story?

Megan Shreve 20:42

Yeah, you know, I think when I was going to college and interested in studying early childhood, I really liked working with kids, I needed to work somewhere close to where I lived, because I had no car, and I found a childcare center that was for low income kids, and they hired me on the spot, which was a bad sign, but I didn’t know it, but I worked with disadvantaged kids, and that job, I think, changed the trajectory of my career. It’s what got me involved working with folks who were struggling. And so even, you know, working in that job where you had to buy your own supplies to be able to meet the needs of the kids you were as a college student buying your own supplies to meet those needs. That sense of investing in someone’s life started there, and it really did change the trajectory of my life and now for me, when I think of generosity and giving. You know, I certainly believe in and making donations, and there are things that are really meaningful to me that I donate to, but I also really believe in investing my time and energy and thoughts, because I think it’s one thing when I write a check, it’s another thing when I can write a check and walk alongside someone. It’s another thing when I can write a check and be able to be there to see or to support that organization in whatever it is they’re doing in whatever capacity I can.

Jim Dunlop 22:17

So working in the child care center was influential to you. I know there are people who are influential to your journey as well. Tell me a little bit about one of them, and that’s Jean Odom.

Megan Shreve 22:29

Oh my gosh, Jean. I worked, you know, I worked my first jump into the nonprofit world. Was working at SCCAP, at We Care Learning Center. So I was the director there. And so I worked under Jean for about 11 years. And first, she was amazing. She was a pioneer to be doing this work in the way that she did it, to be an African American woman doing this work like when I even when I came back as the director, the vast majority of community action agencies were administered by men. So it was, it was, it’s an interesting thing, and she had been doing it for a long time at that point, but the legacy that she left for me and so many of the staff who worked with her, she taught us how to love people, and that when you do this work, where you are. You know people come to you at their most vulnerable. You know whether it’s a senior coming for food that’s hard to come to a food pantry, coming to our homeless shelter, walking our doors and having to ask someone for assistance is so hard, and so when you can come at it through the lens of first, that these are capable people who are in a difficult place, and that you can see them for more than what they’re coming in the doors, and you can see what you’re doing as an investment in their life, As a gift of generosity. I don’t know that piece from the story she told us about the early times to just watching the way that she interacted with people. It’s it set the trajectory and certainly, when I came back though, the programming and the systems that we use are different. That cultural piece drives our work.

Jim Dunlop 24:23

Well, Megan, this has been, this has been really helpful. And as we wrap up, I love this idea of generosity can be writing a check, and I think people probably go to that place. I know I do at times. That’s something I can do to help. That’s easy and go, but it’s this idea of partnership, of walking alongside and saying, Here’s my gift, and let me help you figure out how to use it to the best of your ability, so that it will have the meaningful impact that I’m intending.

Megan Shreve 24:55

Yes, yes, and to be able to feel like you can feel it then. I mean, to go out on a glean and pick produce and see that this produce is getting into the hands of somebody. I mean, that is an amazing feeling.

Jim Dunlop 25:09

You probably have heard this story, but we started, Ruth’s Harvest was started by the churches here, the ministerium in Gettysburg, and the concept of Ruth’s Harvest comes from the Bible, in the book of Ruth, and it was the story of the wealthy farmers and landowners would allow their neighbors to avoid the degradation of poverty, to come at night and glean the edges of their fields so that they would have food to eat. And so we didn’t come up with the name Ruth’s Harvest. We stole it from another organization. But we really like that concept. And then right away, Gleaning was, Gleaning Project was one of our partners in that. And so we were literally using that biblical concept in those bags. So it’s, it’s, it’s a pretty cool circle for us. And just one small example of the many things that folks are, that your organization is doing to lift up people in our community well.

Megan Shreve 26:05

And I think what’s great about it too, is, you know, we work together, right? So it’s we’re not competing against each other. We are working together to do the best we can for our community. And I think, you know, we are so fortunate that I’d say the vast majority of nonprofits, community partners. That’s the way we see it. Really. This is about building, you know, thriving families and strong communities and doing the best we can together.

Jim Dunlop 26:32

Absolutely well, Megan, I have one final question, but before I get to that, I just want to let our listeners know that they can find Megan at through SCCAP, at SCCAP’s website, which is sccap, South Central Community Action Program.

Megan Shreve 26:48

SCCAP.org.

Jim Dunlop 26:52

SCCAP.org. So and, and my and, by the way, happy anniversary SCCAP. Happy 60th anniversary. That’s a that’s a pretty special legacy in our community. So my last question is, if you could share some advice or wisdom on a billboard where you could reach a lot of people, what would your

message be?

Megan Shreve 27:12

I think I would probably say, What legacy Are you leaving? Because I just think you know whether it’s the way we spend or leave our money. When I think of Jean, when I think of my mother, the legacy that they left is the person that they were and the gift they gave me of that, and anyone can do that.

Jim Dunlop 27:33

I think that’s so fitting. And I did not prompt you on that, because the purpose of this show is to remind our listeners, you can’t take your resources with you when you’re no longer here. So what will your legacy be? I love it.

Megan Shreve 27:49

Oh, that’s great. Yeah, so we didn’t plan that.

Jim Dunlop 27:53

Megan, thank you so much for being with us today. I’ve really enjoyed our time together.

Megan Shreve 27:58

Thank you so much. Thanks for all you do.

Outro 28:03

Thanks for joining us to hear stories of generosity that remind us that you can’t take it with you. Visit our site at canttakeitwithyou.com for more details on today’s episode and to subscribe to future shows.

Disclosure 28:21

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