FIND Regional Food Bank CEO Debbie Espinosa named to lead Harvesters
Debbie Espinosa is leaving FIND for Harvesters on Aug. 28, a handoff that puts staff morale, donor trust and volunteer continuity in focus.
Debbie Espinosa’s move from FIND Regional Food Bank to Harvesters put a spotlight on something every volunteer-powered nonprofit knows: leadership changes travel fast through staff morale, donor confidence and the machinery that gets food from a warehouse to a pantry shelf. FIND said Espinosa will step down as president and CEO on Aug. 28 and then take over Harvesters, which serves 27 counties across Missouri and Kansas.
FIND said its board will appoint an interim CEO and launch a national search for a permanent successor, while Espinosa stays on briefly as an advisor to help with the handoff. Harvesters said she will officially assume the role at the end of August and become the sixth person to lead the Kansas City-based food network.
Espinosa has led FIND since 2018, a period that included the opening of a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Indio. FIND said the facility expanded food-storage capacity and supports workforce development programs, two capabilities that matter well beyond the executive suite because they shape how reliably food moves through the system and how many people can keep the operation running.
The scale of that operation explains why the transition carries weight. FIND said it distributes more than 20 million pounds of food a year and serves about 125,000 people on average every month across more than 10,000 square miles in eastern Riverside and southern San Bernardino counties. In late May, the nonprofit said Amazon and FIND were partnering for a fifth annual summer hunger initiative, and Espinosa said distribution lines can spike by 10% in the hot summer months.
Her resume also reaches deep into the broader hunger-relief network. FIND says Espinosa served in national roles with Feeding America, including as a member and past chair of the Feeding America National Advisory Council, and a FIND post said she also served as chair of Feeding America’s National Council of food banks. Board Chair Tricia Pearce said, “Debbie leaves FIND stronger than she found it.”
For A Simple Gesture, the lesson is practical. When a mission-driven organization depends on green bag pickups, pantry partners and volunteer coordinators, succession planning is not just a personnel issue. It is how a nonprofit protects route coordination, donor trust and volunteer retention when a familiar leader moves on, and it is why the strongest organizations build systems that outlast the person at the top.
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