IPM Food Pantry has announced that Alida Hart, President and CEO, will be retiring after serving IPM for over seven years.
Alida Hart has led IPM as president and CEO since 2019. Most recently, she guided IPM through the construction of a new Food Pantry and Distribution Center which opened in October 2023. The 12,000-square-foot facility doubled IPM’s capacity, resulting in a remarkable 69 percent surge in household visits. To support funding for the new facility and programs, IPM completed a successful $5 million comprehensive campaign.
During Alida’s tenure, IPM has experienced substantial growth, most notably a four-fold increase in the amount of food distributed to families in need — over 1.3 million pounds in 2023. Additionally, IPM has expanded its reach by changing the footprint of a traditional food pantry, meeting families where they are with over 100 Mobile and Pop-Up Pantries that deliver food access directly to communities in need. In 2023, IPM provided groceries for over 90,000 individual visits.
Under Alida’s leadership IPM introduced such innovative programs as Fresh Start Kitchen, which supports individuals starting over from adverse situations including homelessness and abusive relationships. IPM also established a Food Resource Hub in 2020 for other community service agencies and schools, enabling these organizations to distribute IPM food resources to their clients. Today, IPM has 56 Food Resource Hub partners.
In 2020, Cincy Magazine named IPM as the Food Pantry of the Year. Alida received the 2021 Medical Mutual Pillar Award for Community Service for Nonprofit Executive Director of the Year.
“It has been an incredible privilege to lead this amazing organization through so much change,” Alida said. “I am proud to be part of this compassionate and committed community of friends, volunteers, donors and teammates. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to serve our neighbors.”
“It has been an honor to work with Alida,” said Kelly Holden, IPM Board Chair. “She is an innovative and passionate leader who has cultivated partnerships with a variety of community agencies and civic organizations to further enhance our services to neighbors in our southwestern Ohio community.”
IPM has partnered with Centennial Executive Search to identify the ideal candidate to fill the CEO role and further IPM’s impact throughout our region. The incoming CEO will continue to drive innovation, strengthen programs, develop new initiatives and ensure that existing programs remain relevant to IPM’s mission. The full job description and link to apply can be found on Centennial’s website.