Michael Flood has spent more than three decades helping communities respond to hunger. President and CEO of the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank since 2000, he has guided its growth while strengthening nutrition programs, community partnerships, and disaster response across Los Angeles County.

A Los Angeles native and the son of Irish immigrants, Flood brings a personal appreciation for food’s importance to family and community life. His food banking career began in 1990 and included leadership roles at the Redwood Empire Food Bank and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano before his return home.

Flood holds a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from the College of William & Mary, where he was an All-American soccer player. His experience in team sports continues to inform his leadership: building capable teams, learning through setbacks, and recognizing how much people can accomplish together.

Nate Springer is President and CEO of Care and Share Food Bank for Southern Colorado, leading an organization serving 29 counties across nearly 47,000 square miles.

Before joining Care and Share in 2022, Nate served 23 years as an officer in the United States Army, with assignments and deployments around the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, Europe and the Western Pacific. He concluded his military career as Garrison Commander at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, where he was responsible for an installation community of approximately 72,000 soldiers, civilian employees and family members.

Just five days after retiring from the Army, Nate began his next chapter at Care and Share. Today, he brings the same commitment to service, mission and empowered leadership to the work of addressing food insecurity throughout Southern Colorado.

For Nate, the uniform changed. The commitment to serve did not.

Dr. Colleen Heflin and Dr. Madonna Harrington Meyer, authors of Food for Thought: Understanding Older Adult Food Insecurity, join Food Secure Nation to combine rigorous research with the voices of older adults themselves. Their work reveals a problem shaped not only by income, but by housing, health, transportation, mobility, nutrition, social isolation, and access to assistance.

From grandparents skipping meals so grandchildren can eat to older adults struggling simply to get groceries home and prepare them, their research challenges a fundamental assumption: the food can be there—and food security can still be absent.

A lifelong public servant, McDonough has devoted his career to improving the lives of the American people through large-scale systems change and measurable results. From the White House to the Department of Veterans Affairs, his leadership has been guided by a deep respect for the dignity of all people, a commitment to serving all communities, and a relentless focus on results — a belief that service is not a role to hold, but a responsibility to fulfill.

As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, McDonough championed efforts that expanded benefits, improved care and delivered services to veterans who had long been overlooked. He bridged partisan divides by reflecting a steadfast commitment to honoring the nation’s promise to those who served and caring for their families with dignity, urgency and impact.

A lifelong public servant, McDonough has devoted his career to improving the lives of the American people through large-scale systems change and measurable results. From the White House to the Department of Veterans Affairs, his leadership has been guided by a deep respect for the dignity of all people, a commitment to serving all communities, and a relentless focus on results — a belief that service is not a role to hold, but a responsibility to fulfill.

As Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, McDonough championed efforts that expanded benefits, improved care and delivered services to veterans who had long been overlooked. He bridged partisan divides by reflecting a steadfast commitment to honoring the nation’s promise to those who served and caring for their families with dignity, urgency and impact.

Matt Habash has served as President and CEO of the Mid-Ohio Food Collective since 1984, helping transform a traditional food bank into one of the most innovative food-security organizations in America.

Over four decades, Matt has pushed the work beyond food distribution—embracing data, healthcare, technology, public policy and community partnerships to better understand where hunger lives and what it will take to address its root causes.

His leadership philosophy is equally straightforward: listen, challenge assumptions, surround yourself with good people—and never stop asking how the work can be better.

Cyndi Kirkhart is the CEO of Facing Hunger Food Bank in Huntington, West Virginia, serving 17 counties across West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Over her 14 years of leadership, the food bank has grown from a team of 13 to more than 50 employees and now distributes more than 14 million pounds of food annually.

With a background in psychology, mental health and community service, Cyndi brings a deeply human-centered approach to food security. She is also a writer, poet and member of Feeding America’s National Advisory Committee, where she has been a strong voice for rural communities, smaller food banks and the people at the center of this work.

At the heart of her leadership is a simple belief: every plate has a story — and every person is worthy of being seen for far more than what they need.