One-on-One
DANA YOST — PRESIDENT AND CEO OF ROADRUNNER FOOD BANK
It might not strike you as a high-technology and large business, but Roadrunner Food Bank is a large operation. Leading the food bank since the end of August is Dana Yost, the president and CEO. Originally from Phoenix, Yost has been in food banking for 13 years, after having a career with the Arizona Fish and Game Department.
He previously worked at St. Mary’s Food Bank in southern Arizona. The food bank was near the Nogales, Arizona, port of entry, which is one of the largest border crossings for produce in the country, Yost said.
Yost was tasked with increasing the food bank’s sourcing. Under his watch, the amount of produce the food bank acquired each year went from 5 million pounds of produce to 50 million pounds.
At Roadrunner, Yost oversees a nearly $20 million operating budget, about 120 full-time employees and 35 AmeriCorps workers. The bank operates a fleet of trucks that travel 20,000 miles across the state each year, delivering food and other products to organizations. About 40 million pounds of food goes in and out of the food bank each year.
To unwind, Yost says he focuses on building relationships with his grandchildren. He said they are big video gamers, and he’ll often play online games with them from their home in Arizona.
“I’m never good at it. I could barely even figure out what I’m doing,” Yost said. “But I show up and we have a blast together.”
How long have you worked in food banking?
“This is my 13th year. I started my career at St. Mary’s Food Bank in Phoenix, and moved to Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona in Tuscon. Part of the work that I was doing was to manage our produce-sourcing operation in Nogales, Arizona. And to give you a scope of that, it’s one of the busiest ports of produce entry into the United States. We grew that from sourcing 5 million pounds of produce a year to when I left it was about 50 million pounds. And we’re recovering that (food) and shipping regionally and all over the county”
How did you get into food banking?
“My family. I grew up in Phoenix and as a kid, we would always go volunteer at St.
Mary’s Food Bank, doing holiday distributions. So I had a connection with St. Mary’s Food Bank growing up, and it’s just a vital part of the community, helping people in need.
“I spent a big chunk of my professional career with the Arizona Game and Fish Department.
“I moved back to Phoenix to support my dad, and I had an opportunity to apply for a job as a logistics manager at St. Mary’s. When I was with Game and Fish, I was with a missiondriven organization. And so (food banking) was a way to get back to doing that kind of work again.”
Does it get depressing seeing people who have hunger issues and who have trouble putting food on their table?
“I would tell you it’s maybe not so much depressing, but it’s incredibly humbling.
“I’ll tell you a story. This is like any other job, right? There’s frustrations daily. And I was having a particularly bad day. And I left work. I had to get away for the day. And I’m leaving St. Mary’s, and there’s an unhoused person sitting against the building, and he’s got his feet out, and I can see that he had holes in his shoes and didn’t have any socks on. And he was eating food and drinking water from one of the food bags that we gave out. And I thought, ‘How selfish am I. Because my worst day doesn’t compare to this guy’s best day.’
“It’s humbling and sometimes it’s saddening, but I don’t think I’ve ever been depressed a day in my life doing this work.”
What could Albuquerque’s business community do to help support the food bank’s mission?
“This is a big state. We don’t have a giant population and we’re certainly challenged by rural poverty and the realities of that. And it is impossible for
Road Runner Food Bank to solve that problem by itself. It takes a community to do this work. It takes folks showing up to volunteer and it takes folks writing checks. It takes folks advocating for us.
“It’s unacceptable that kids are going to go to bed in this state tonight, not just unsure if they will have a meal, but absolutely hungry. And that’s the reality of what’s going on. We’re one of the poorest state’s in the nation. Poverty is absolutely extreme in some of the communities in this state. Some of these communities are absolutely isolated. And the nearest grocery store is three hours away. We’re incredibly challenged by the ruralness of this state.”
Can you tell me how the business of being a food bank works?
“So we are responsible for the entire state from a hunger-relief support system. We have affiliate food banks and then we have a network of agency partners that do this work, like local churches, or the Salvation Army. But our main piece is to bring food in, that we supply to many, many different channels. We gather food from retail establishments, distributors, manufacturers and we congregate that food.”
It sounds a little like other businesses that work in logistics or product distribution?
“Without a doubt. I like to describe it that on one side you have waste and food availability, and then on the other side you have folks that need more food. And connecting those pieces is the food bank in the middle. And a lot of that is logistics, it’s sourcing food, handling the food, packaging it, then logistics around transportation.”
Can you think of an example where Roadrunner Food Bank
uses innovation or technology to help with your job?
We have a phenomenal information technology team. As I speak, we our rolling out new platforms to help us innovate. We try to really make data-driven decisions in everything that we do. So we are collecting data and then configuring it and getting it out in a way that makes sense and figure out where the gaps are and where are those hunger pockets in the state.
What are your pet peeves?
“I don’t have a lot of pet peeves, except for hunger and poverty ... The fact is, is that the stark reality of the folks that are struggling with food insecurity, is that they are struggling today. That’s why we need the community to help us.”