Three Square CEO to leave after 11 years with food bank
Three Square Food Bank President and CEO Brian Burton will be stepping down next month after serving 11 years with the organization.
His departure takes effect Sept. 30, according to a Monday news release. While Burton will be leaving Southern Nevada’s only food bank, he will still help battle food insecurity as he plans to become the CEO for the Arkansas Foodbank.
“Southern Nevada will forever be my second home and I’m proud of the work that we as an organization, and furthermore we as an entire community, have done to help our neighbors,” Burton said in the news release. “This was not an easy decision by any means, but I am looking forward to this next chapter and returning to my roots in Arkansas to support and uplift the wonderful people throughout the state.”
Burton said he loves the work and community in Southern Nevada but he decided to head back to his hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas.
“It’s more of a going than a leaving because it’s the only other food bank I would ever consider going to because it serves my home state,” Burton said in an interview with the Review-Journal.
He said Southern Nevada’s community has become more aware of issues around hunger in his 11 years at Three Square, and navigating the coronavirus pandemic was possible because of the strong community response.
“It felt like a horror movie at the time when the shutdown happened in March of 2020,” Burton said. “But I had a front row seat to seeing a community respond in a compassionate, and unbelievably generous way, there were 15,000 new donors that came into Three Square during the pandemic.”
Michelle Beck, Three Square’s chief development officer, will take over as interim president and CEO.
Details on its search for a permanent CEO will be announced at a later date, according to Three Square.
Contact Sean Hemmersmeier at shemmersmeier@reviewjournal.
