Phyllis Haynes

Running a nonprofit organization fits Phyllis Haynes like a glove.

Not only has she spent her entire career in the public sector, but she is motivated by making an impact on people’s lives, which she is in prime position to do as head of the Arkansas Foodbank Network.

“I believe it is our responsibility as individuals in a society to ensure that all people in that society have every opportunity to achieve their dreams,” she said. “I am driven by a work ethic that finds reward in contributing to humankind.”

And that’s a good thing, considering that more than 11 percent of Arkansans count on some kind of emergency food assistance each year.

Haynes has been a leader in the development of a statewide association of food banks called the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance, which secured an initial $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.

Before Haynes took over in 1999, the Arkansas Foodbank Network was almost 95 percent dependent on one revenue source. Almost seven years later, the number of individual donors has gone from 250 in 1999 to more than 25,000 in 2005.

“We have also expanded grand funding, special events and other donations to further diversify our funding sources,” she said.

Continued development of the AHRA network is one of Haynes’ plans for the near future, along with securing funds to build a state-of-the-art, green food bank facility that includes trucks, refrigerators and forklifts. Haynes said she’d also like to upgrade the 400-plus member food pantries across the state.

By 2010, Haynes said she’d like to have achieved her goal of cutting hunger in half in Arkansas.