At the Central Texas Food Bank, our mission is to nourish our neighbors and create a future where every Central Texan has access to the food they need to thrive. This month, we're excited to highlight Angelica Cardona, a Business Analyst on our Data team and our Team Member of the Month, whose passion for service and dedication to continuous improvement are making a meaningful impact on our work.
Angelica's journey to the Food Bank is rooted in her desire to serve others. Growing up in Colombia, Angelica was influenced by her grandparents, who were always lending a hand to their community. "My grandparents were very generous people. They were always trying to help others, so I learned a lot from them," Angelica reflects. That early exposure to community service stayed with her as she grew, later guiding her career choices.
At the beginning of her career, Angelica worked in various computer science and business analyst roles. After earning a master's degree in business process management in Brazil, she lived in California with her husband, before moving to Texas to be closer to family. Angelica shares, "When we arrived here, I was looking for places to volunteer because I've always enjoyed that. I have found food banks very interesting since volunteering at a Second Harvest Food Bank in California. After volunteering for a while, I thought, 'maybe I should work here.'" Soon after, she joined the Food Bank as a part-time summer employee serving as a program monitor for our summer meals program. Angelica's exceptional attention to detail and outstanding customer service skills quickly stood out, earning her a well-deserved promotion to a full-time role on our Children's Programs team.
Today, Angelica serves as a Business Analyst on our Strategic Insights team, helping us transform data into visual information. This work is made possible by a close collaboration with team members across the Food Bank to gather, clean, and prepare the datasets. Angelica says, "What we do on this team is very crucial because we can't just send food out to the community without knowing if we're actually helping or if there is a more effective way to solve certain issues with food insecurity." In her role, she acts as a bridge between our data team and other departments, ensuring that each team gets the information they need to make decisions that best serve Central Texans.
One of her first projects in this new role is revamping an internal dashboard that includes client data from our Partner Agencies. By gathering data on the communities we serve, such as languages spoken and demographic details, the dashboard helps us assess whether we're reaching the people who need us most. "We have data showing the people we serve, and we have data showing the need out in the community, so it makes sense to cross this information, so we know where we need to relay our services," Angelica shares.
Angelica's passion for community service and data-driven problem-solving make her an incredible asset to our team. Having grown into different roles within the organization, she exemplifies our commitment to promoting from within and fostering growth. We're proud to have Angelica on our team as she continues to make an impact on the lives of Central Texans by working to end hunger through data insights.
