Laura Rhea

When Laura Rhea and her husband moved to Arkansas in the early ’80s, they struggled to find work. But Rhea calls that a blessing because she learned firsthand the hardship of hunger.
“There is nothing harder I’ve ever done in my entire life, including running an almost $11 million organization. It’s not nearly as hard as not knowing how you’re going to feed your child,” she said.
Rhea eventually found a job at Heifer Project, now Heifer International, working for a man named Jerry Bedford, the founder of Arkansas Rice Depot.
After a few months at Heifer, Bedford told Rhea that he wanted her to be executive director of Arkansas Rice Depot, which was a small operation at the time.
“Today, if someone had asked me to run an organization of this size, I would have just run screaming into the night,” Rhea said.
Since she joined Arkansas Rice Depot in 1984, Rhea considers her greatest accomplishment to be starting the Food for Kids backpack program, which has been replicated in more than 40 states and 118 food banks, she said. The program involves sending backpacks full of food home with kids who don’t get enough to eat at night or on the weekends.
Rhea also developed the Simple Pleasures gourmet gift shop, which provides a substantial amount of revenue for the nonprofit.
Rhea said her secret to success was, “Find a job you are passionate about, and then give it all you have.” Her management philosophy: “Ethics always come first, our mission second,” she said. Rhea added that during the next 10 years, Arkansas Rice Depot plans to raise an endowment to sustain the organization during tough times or natural disasters.
Rhea has served in the past with the Arkansas Hunger Coalition and the Arkansas Interfaith Hunger Task Force. Rhea said the success of Arkansas Rice Depot was because of all the devoted volunteers. “When I look good, it’s really because of all the people around me who give me so much help,” she said.

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