St. John's Bread & Life Director Reflects on 10 Years at Helm in Brooklyn

"When I came 10 years ago, we were a small, community-based organization primarily serving Bed-Stuy and the tip of Bushwick. And in these 10 years, we have really grown. In 2016, St. John's Bread & Life served 500-600 people a week. Now, it's 11,000."

"I remember him telling me, 'You'd be great at this.' At the time, she had been working at Mercy Home, a nonprofit assisting people with disabilities, for 28 years. She was the development director, a position that consisted of office work and fundraising. She longed to return to her roots as a young member of the Sisters of Mercy - helping people face-to-face."

"A point of pride for Sister Caroline is the level of trust she built with the staff - so much so that when the executive director retired in 2018, workers urged her to apply for the job. She did and was given the position."

Sister Caroline Tweedy left a 28-year career in nonprofit development to become Chief Operating Officer of St. John's Bread & Life in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 2016, seeking direct service work aligned with her religious calling. She improved interdepartmental communication and organizational efficiency, earning staff trust that led to her promotion to executive director in 2018. Over a decade, the organization experienced dramatic growth, expanding from serving 500-600 people weekly to 11,000, while broadening its geographic reach beyond Bed-Stuy and Bushwick to serve clients across Brooklyn and Queens.

Read at The Tablet