Christie Jordan

Christie Jordan wants to work herself out of a job.

“That would mean our community in northeast Arkansas is a better place to live if hunger was not an issue that we had to address,” said Jordan, who is the executive director of the Food Bank of Northeast Arkansas.

Founded in 1983, Food Bank gathers, stores and gives out food to more than 90 nonprofit agencies in 12 counties in northeast Arkansas. Each week, it serves more than 5,000 people, Jordan said.

The 38-year-old said she had always enjoyed nonprofit work.

Jordan graduated from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro in 1995 with a degree in journalism.

But when she was hired in 1997 at the Food Bank, she was hooked.

“I knew this was the place I was meant to be,” Jordan said. “I know that we’re making a difference in the quality of lives for others.”

In 2011, she was named Nonprofit Executive of the Year at the first Northeast Arkansas Business of the Year banquet.

Jordan, who oversees about 10 employees and a flock of about 470 volunteers, said her management philosophy was to surround herself with the best people.

“If you surround yourself with good, competent people and give them the tools that they need to do their job, then it makes the teamwork good as a whole,” she said.

The Food Bank distributed 3 million pounds of food during 2011, up from 2.6 million pounds in 2010.

Jordan said the Food Bank’s recipe for success is simple.

“It has a great board of directors that help us in creating a vision for our organization,” she said. “And people are so generous to the Food Bank.”