Phyllis Haynes

Phyllis Haynes believes that success in life is based on what you do to help your community and not how much money and power you gain in the process.

After spending her entire career in the public sector, including the past 24 in nonprofits and seven heading the Arkansas Foodbank Network, Haynes, by her own standards, is wildly successful.

“I am driven by a work ethic that finds reward in contributing to humankind,” said Haynes. “I am motivated by contributing to finding a solution every day, and that’s what puts a smile on my face.”

The positive evolution of the Arkansas Foodbank Network under Haynes’ watch is undeniable. The nonprofit’s individual donors have increased from 250 in 1999 to nearly 30,000 in 2006, a far cry from being nearly 95 percent dependent on one revenue source when she joined. Under Haynes’ watch a statewide association of food banks called the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance has developed from an $870,000 grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation and a $389,000 settlement grant from the Arkansas Attorney General to set up a more efficient network of distributing food to hungry Arkansans throughout the state.

“Embarking on a public awareness campaign to strengthen our presence in the community has resulted in the Foodbank being recognized as an expert at providing food for the hungry and as a leader in disaster relief,” said Haynes.

In the next few years Haynes’ goals include securing a capital campaign grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to build a new state-of-the-art, “green” food bank facility and getting the nonprofit in line to cut hunger in half in Arkansas by 2010.

The nonprofit currently reaches nearly 70,000 people monthly.