Food Depot names new executive director
For Jill Dixon, one of the standout moments of working at a food bank through the pandemic came in a mall parking lot in November 2020.
Dixon, the current deputy director of The Food Depot, was coordinating a drive-by food distribution early on a Saturday morning. That week, several local grocery stores had temporarily closed their doors because of COVID-19 outbreaks among their employees, and The Food Depot had picked up a lot of food from those businesses to give it away before it spoiled. Dixon and one other colleague were first on site in the pre-dawn morning.
“It was dark still,” Dixon said. “All you could see were headlights, wrapping around the mall — multiple times.”
Dixon and her colleague looked at each other, the same questions on both their minds: Can we do this? Do we have enough food? Do we have enough people coming?
“The sun rose and the rest of the trucks arrived and the rest of the people arrived and we did it,” she said, adding that to her it was a perfect example of what her team could accomplish.
Now Dixon, 45, is getting ready for an accomplishment of her own: starting in July, she will take over as the organization’s executive director following the retirement of longtime leader Sherry Hooper.
“I just look forward to continuing and nurturing and expanding all those relationship that made us the powerful organization we are today,” Dixon told The New Mexican on Monday.
Dixon, an Albuquerque resident, has been with the food bank since 2012, after being hired to finish out a capital campaign to move The Food Depot into its current 27,000-square-food warehouse. She’s been the organization’s deputy director since 2021, a role she said she took with an eye on future leadership opportunities.
In a news release from The Food Depot’s leaders, the organization credited Dixon with overseeing several programs, including Resource Navigation, which helps New Mexicans find and connect with wraparound resources like counseling and emergency shelter; Diaper Depot, a program that issues a week’s supply per child of diapers and wipes for families in need, and Food 4 Pets.
Hooper, who publicly announced her retirement last month after more than two decades in the role, said in a news release she’s grateful for Dixon’s leadership.
“I know The Food Depot’s future is in capable hands,” she said.
Dixon said her main order of business will be to continue putting into practice a strategic plan the organization built in 2021, which lays out planned growth through 2025.
“It is an incredible honor to serve our communities,” Dixon said. “Not everyone gets to have their passion mingle with their work, and I’m just incredibly grateful that I do.”