Alameda briefs: Food bank director stepping down after eight years
ALAMEDA
Cindy Houts will step down Friday as the longest-serving executive director of the Alameda Food Bank (AFB) after an eight-year tenure that saw a major increase in the organization’s impact on the community.
When Houts took the helm in 2015, the food bank was operating out of a small trailer at the western edge of what is now Jean Sweeney Park. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Houts engineered a weekend move to the nonprofit’s Alameda Point warehouse to provide more operating space and drive-through service as demand for service increased tenfold.
As the pandemic ebbed, she took advantage of the additional space to create the Island Community Market, where AFB clients can select food from shelves in a setting similar to a grocery store. Houts also extended the AFB’s hours to better service its many working clients and expanded AFB’s outreach to other community organizations.
Houts, whose achievements were acknowledged by her selection as one of the grand marshals of Alameda’s July Fourth parade this year, will be succeeded as executive director by longtime Program Manager Teale Harden.
— Alameda Food Bank
St. Joseph high school student completes BofA internship
Kosi Amuzie, a student at Alameda’s St. Joseph Notre Dame High School, has just finished a prestigious eight-week paid summer internship as part of the Bank of America Student Leaders program in which she worked with Junior Achievement of Northern California.
She and four other San Francisco and East Bay students selected for the program shadowed corporate leaders and explored ways to bring financial education to more youth. The Bay Area student leaders also recently returned from a week-long leadership summit in Washington, DC, with 300 other student leaders from around the nation.
Kosi, of Hayward, is a first-generation American with a high grade-point average who is fluent in Igbo, her family’s native Nigerian language, and is president of the Black Student Union at St. Joseph Notre Dame High.
The BofA Student Leaders program provides community-minded juniors and seniors nationwide with first-hand experience developing leadership and practical workforce skills working with local nonprofits, all while earning $17 an hour.
— BofA
AUSD, College of Alameda leaders to address Chamber Aug. 9
It’s hard to believe, but schools will be back in session soon. Would you like to know what’s happening in the Alameda Unified School District and the College of Alameda in this coming academic year?
Join the Alameda Chamber & Economic Alliance via Zoom at 8:30 a.m. Aug. 9, when the Chambers’ Economic and Government Affairs Committee hosts from the AUSD Superintendent Pasquale Scuderi and College of Alameda President Dr. Diana Bajrami as guest speakers. To attend, register online at bit.ly/3OnbRGq.
— Vox Populi PR
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