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AfterWords: Finding Food Justice
1. Ron Pringle, President and CEO of Inter-Faith Food Shuttle
Over the course of 20 years, Ron has built a successful career in Non-Profit Leadership. Through his budget control responsibilities and extensive experience in warehouse management, development and fundraising, he has helped to develop budgets and financial planning activities which helped streamline processes to enhance overall productivity and customer satisfaction.
L. Ron Pringle is a graduate of Cross High School and later, received his Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Human Services from Springfield College . After high school, he served his country during Desert Storm as a Chaplain’s Assistant in the United States Air Force. Ron joined the Second Harvest Food Bank of Southeast North Carolina (SHFB SENC) in April of 2012 as the Operations Manager after serving over 12 years at the Lowcountry Food Bank in Charleston, South Carolina. Starting out as a Warehouse Associate, he worked many diverse positions within the Food Bank including Agency Relations Director and Director of Operations. It was here he achieved many accommodations, assisted in the development of new partnerships on local and national levels, and established innovative ways of providing services to those underserved. In November 2013, he was named the Food Bank Director of the SHFB of SENC, where he lead the recovery efforts of two major hurricanes that devastated much of his service area.
In May 2020, Ron was announced as the President & CEO of the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle in Raleigh, NC. Here he continues to serve his community, speaking on behalf of those underserved, improving their quality of life through transformational programs and services.
As an experience leader, he is skilled at developing, optimizing, motivating leading highly effective work teams.
He has been honored by the Fayetteville Observer as a “40 Under 40” recipient and the Mountaire “Better Community” award. He is an avid golfer and Rotarian who enjoys spending time with his family.
2. Erin Dale Byrd, Board Chair of Fertile Ground Food Cooperative and Executive Director of The Partnership and Partnership Action Funds
Erin Dale Byrd is the executive director of The Partnership and Partnership Action Funds. The Partnership Funds invest in the development and exercise of independent political power (IPP) at the state level to drive and sustain local, state and national change. Erin joins TPF after 12 years leading Blueprint NC. Erin is the board chair of Fertile Ground Food Cooperative. Her deepest passion is to build a cooperative economy where her people can own their own labor and live in their purpose. Fertile Ground is an effort to build a multistakeholder (workers, consumers, producers) grocery store and cultural center in southeast Raleigh. The core focus of Erin’s work is building power with the people most impacted at the center. She believes that a winning strategy for transformative change must be rooted in deep relationships and unlearn white supremacy colonizing culture from the inside out. She has a degree in Sociology from the College of William and Mary.