Deborah Flateman, meet Baltimore. Baltimore, meet your next Bill Ewing.
Flateman is the new CEO of the Maryland Food Bank, taking the helm from Ewing, who served as CEO for more than 25 years.
“I saw that it was an opportunity to step into the shoes of such a legacy and be able to bring to this organization my experience from Vermont,” she said.
Flateman was the CEO of Vermont?s Food Bank for 10 years. Before that, she had worked in development, and as a restaurant critic for a newspaper in Rhode Island.
Vermont?s Food Bank grew under Flateman from a staff of 11 to 30 and a food distribution that tripled, said VFB?s co-interim CEO, Christine Foster.
“Deborah has the ability to identify opportunity and she understands the notion that no one should go without food,” Foster said. “Her driving force is that statement, and behind that passion for that mission, she is able to say, ?OK, how are we going to get more food out there?? and then find the opportunity.”
Maryland is no Vermont, however. Vermont?s population is roughly 650,000 strong, while Maryland houses more than 5 million, according to Census data.
But Flateman has assessed her new situation.
“What we are doing right now asking everybody to gather around to ask ourselves the hard questions like ?Are we where we want to be?? ” she said. “I think what we have to do is permeate everything with the knowledge that no one should be going to bed hungry. If I can get Marylanders to look at that as a front-burner issue, we can end hunger in the state.”
Across the state, a number of nonprofit agencies within the Food Bank?s network focus diligently to end hunger where they can.
“We serve about 400 people per week, and the Food Bank always offers us food,” Sharp Street Memorial Church Food Coordinator Norma Jean Burton said.
Of Flateman, she said, “She is dynamic, she is very much in the know. When she came on board, she made us know that she was here for us, in a partnership and that was just like Bill [Ewing].”
Also new to the Food Bank is director of development Beth Benson. She is new to food banking, but has led many successful development campaigns around the state.
“I was initially concerned about looking at a position with a place where the CEO was leaving after so many years, but what impressed me was the way the organization approached the transition,” she said.
Benson, who has been with the Food Bank for two months, expressed her excitement to work with Flateman.
“There is enough food out there, we have the resources,” Flateman said. “If people decide hunger is unacceptable, we can make the change.”
