ST. CHARLES, Ill., March 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- H. Dennis Smith, President & CEO of Northern Illinois Food Bank, will retire effective March 31, 2011, after more than 12 years of service. The Board of Directors completed their search for the new CEO and hired Pete Schaefer, former Corporate Vice President at McDonald's Corporation, who assumed the role on February 11th. Schaefer has served on the boards of Northern Illinois Food Bank and Greater Chicago Food Depository.
Smith joined Northern Illinois Food Bank in August 1998 after he left the "for profit" food business in 1998 when he retired as Director of Corporate Communications for Van den Bergh/ Lipton Foods, a division of Unilever, N.V. He quickly became engulfed in the challenge of finding and providing food to help hungry people. From his first day, Smith has embarked on a campaign of getting people involved in ending hunger in northern Illinois. His approach is simple … he just asks for help.
In the years that Smith has guided the Food Bank it has increased the amount of food it distributes from 7 to 35 million pounds in 2010, increased its Partner Agencies from 210 to 665, and expanded its service from helping 70,000 people annually to more than a half million people each year. Northern Illinois Food Bank was recently named the 2010 Food Bank of the Year by Feeding America, and Smith received the Nonprofit Executive of the Year award from the West Suburban Philanthropic Network in May 2010.
"I am confident in Mr. Schaefer's leadership to continue to move this organization, that we all have built together, forward," said Smith. "Hard work and dedication has made this Food Bank what it is today and I know NIFB will continue to maintain its focus on our mission of providing food to hungry people."
About Northern Illinois Food Bank
Northern Illinois Food Bank (NIFB) is an Illinois non-for-profit Corporation that provides food to all those in need through its 665 partner agencies in the following thirteen counties: Boone, DuPage, DeKalb, Grundy, Kane, Kankakee, Kendall, Lake, McHenry, Ogle, Stephenson, Will and Winnebago. NIFB acquires, gathers, handles, and distributes donated, government, and purchased food to more than 61,600 different people each week through local food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, youth activity centers and other food assistance sites. In Fiscal Year 2010 NIFB distributed over 35 million pounds of food and was named the 2010 Food Bank of the Year by Feeding America. The Food Bank has launched a Capital Campaign to build a new Food Distribution and Community Nutrition Center to enable them to handle more food more efficiently to meet the increasing demand.
For more information contact:
Jarrod Daab
[email protected]
Northern Illinois Food Bank
(Work) 630-443-6910, ext.136
(Cell) 630-290-2364
SOURCE Northern Illinois Food Bank
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