Danielle Butin was an executive in the managed care business until she lost her job due to downsizing, but instead of wallowing in worry and despair, she used her knowledge of the system to make it better.

She knew that hospitals are also businesses, and as businesses, they often have contracts with their suppliers that mandate the sole use of, say, one brand of gauze or a specific kind of stretcher. It's just like how some restaurants carry only Coke products, while others offer those in the Pepsi family.

She knew that when a contract takes effect, everything the hospital uses that falls outside of the agreement has to be thrown out.

She also knew that the average hospital patient generates around 25 pounds of waste per day, just by lying there.

So she began a business of her own: Selling those unused and lightly used supplies to hospitals around the world that have neither contracts with medical suppliers nor the proper medical supplies period.

And she doesn't limit her queries to hospital executives. Waiting for a Jamba Juice at Whole Foods in Union Square, the Times reports, she asked a store manager if they would donate cooking supplies to her cause. After a wait -- while the question was posed to other managers, no doubt -- the answer came back "yes."

Butin's plan isn't entirely new: Initiatives like the Malawi Project and World Relief also send supplies and help to needy people, particularly in Africa. While each of those organizations operates with a Christian ideology, Butin's Afya Foundation is secular. But religion aside, all are essentially humanitarian. And when it comes to helping people get well, that's really all that matters.