Michael Tankenoff, an alum of the Master's in Strategic Communication program and Executive Director of Loaves & Fishes MN, shows how communication influences real-world change.
By Michael Tankenoff, Executive Director of Loaves & Fishes MN and member of Cohort 3
When I enrolled in the Master's in Strategic Communication - University of Minnesota, I was focused on building a career in the private sector, developing brands, shaping narratives, and driving growth. What I didn’t fully appreciate at the time was how transferable those skills would be, and how essential they are, in mission-driven work.
I’ve been fortunate to have a wide range of experiences throughout my career, from entertainment production and PR in Los Angeles to healthcare advertising in Minneapolis, and ultimately as an entrepreneur and operator. I served as Co-founder and Head of Marketing at Orange Chef and later SVP of Global Sales at Anova Culinary, where I saw the company grow from Kickstarter through acquisition.
Through that, I learned that success depends on alignment: between audience and message, brand and experience, and the teams and partners who bring it all to life. Without that alignment, even the best ideas struggle to scale. That lesson carries directly into the work I’m doing now.
I returned to Minnesota in 2021 with my wife and our six-month-old son, with the intention of raising our family here. But over the past few years, as Anova’s integration into its parent company was underway, I felt a growing pull to put my experience to work closer to home. The need was hard to ignore.
Across Minnesota, food insecurity is rising, and the systems supporting our communities are under increasing strain. It became clear that this wasn’t just a challenge for the nonprofit sector, it requires leaders from across industries to help strengthen the social infrastructure that keeps communities stable.
That realization led me to Loaves & Fishes MN, where I’m now stepping into the Executive Director role at a critical moment for the organization.
At Loaves & Fishes, we provide free, healthy meals across the Twin Cities through a network of community meal sites, partners, and street outreach—serving millions of meals each year. But the challenge isn’t just operational, it’s communicative.
How do you convey urgency without creating fatigue? How do you build trust in moments of uncertainty? How do you align teams, partners, and communities around a shared mission?
These are strategic communication challenges at their core.
The foundation I developed at UMN, understanding audience, clarity, and consistency, shows up every day. It shapes how we communicate urgency without overwhelming people, how we build trust with donors and partners through transparency, and how we align teams around a shared mission in a resource-constrained environment. That shows up in everything from how we frame our impact and engage volunteers to how we create clearer, more consistent communication across the organization.
It also shapes how we define success, not just through scale, but through experience: ensuring that every person who walks through our doors feels welcomed, respected, and seen.
Food insecurity in Minnesota is rising, and more families are relying on organizations like Loaves & Fishes, often for the first time. At the same time, nonprofits are being asked to do more with less.
Strategic communication, at its best, connects people to purpose and drives action.
For me, this work is also personal. Minnesota is where I grew up. Coming back, and now helping lead this organization, feels like a full circle moment: taking what I learned, what I built elsewhere, and applying it here.
Because ultimately, this work isn’t just about strategy. It’s about showing up for Minnesota, and helping ensure that everyone here has access to something as fundamental as a meal, and a place where they belong.