Meet Ethan Amos | President and CEO of Flagstaff Family Food Center

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ethan Amos and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ethan, we’d love for you to start things off by telling us something about your industry that we and others not in the industry might be unaware of?
I didn’t have any professional experience in Food Banking prior to becoming the President and CEO of the Flagstaff Family Food Center, but it was my lived experience and time spent volunteering that gave me a glimpse into the operations. Prior to working with the food bank, I believed people saw this as a valuable resource to the community, however, I now find myself having to convince even key stakeholders of the value that such a program brings to underserved families in the community. As I engage in more conversations with these key stakeholders I’m learning that many of them are becoming reluctant to maintain long term partnerships with the food center because they believe clients are getting free handouts and are becoming dependent on such programs. At the food center, we are heavily focused on two approaches to ending hunger. The first approach focuses on providing food to meet our clients basic needs and the other approach focuses on addressing the root causes of hunger. Many families who come to us are cornered by the pressures of high costs, rising rent, unexpected medical bills, and low pay. These economic challenges have reduced the size of the middle class and increased the number of families struggling just to make ends meet. It might be the role of the food bank to meet the basic needs of our clients but it will take collaboration with our entire community to address the upstream causes of hunger.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The organization was in a tough spot and needed someone who could build a positive work culture. Though I hadn’t run a warehouse, nor had I had any restaurant experience, I had a proven track record of building successful programs and teams. Thankfully, many of the skills and experiences were transferable, which allowed me to get to work quickly. The true saving grace was the exceptional employees who were hard-working and willing to step up wherever needed.

Before this role, I was the Tribal Relations Manager and Health Equity Administrator for Centene. I was able to launch these Medicaid programs in the northern five counties of Arizona, impacting over 125,000 members. Much of the work focused on creating initiatives addressing health disparities across rural regions by leveraging already existing partnerships to complete the work. Much of the initiatives revolved around increasing access to food and water, which had always been my passion.

Early in my career, I worked for the county’s juvenile court, working with youth who were on Juvenile Intensive Probation (JIPs), which was the last stop before the detention of corrections sentence. While working here, I established a community service program where we were able to take our students to volunteer at the food bank several times a week; this was my first introduction to the local food bank that I now work at.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I have never been much of the planner in my friendship groups and my best friend knows that; so he would set all that help. It especially helps, because he used to live here. However, my wife lets me tag along when her friends visit and its always a good time. We’d first make a trip to Bearizona (fun fact: the Food Center donates food to Bearizona that is fed to some of their animals) to check out all the animals roaming through the area – yes, mostly bears. We’d then take the 64 North and visit the Grand Canyon! Here we like to keep it simple – no major hikes or elevation gains. We walk the trail which hovers the rim and then catch the reoccurring documentary in the theater. We could probably quote half the movie by now, but we enjoy seeing people’s faces when they first see the canyon. For dinner, we would get take-out from Satchmos, here in Flagstaff.
On day two, we would begin the hiking. If our visitor was physically fit, we would take them on a hike near the San Francisco Peaks. If in the fall, we would to see the leaves turning throughout the Locket Meadow Trail. If it were in the spring or summer, we would take the Bearjaw trail! If our guest wasn’t much for high elevation hikes, we would head to Sedona – any of these would be a great choice.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Grand Canyon Food Pantry- has been tirelessly addressing food insecurity in the tiny town of Tusayan, AZ. We love what they do and fully support their mission

Website: hotfood.org

Instagram: @ethanam0s on Instagram – Nothing professional, just a boring personal blog. @Flagstafffamilyfoodcenter on Instagram– this is the good stuff!

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-amos-398a40a7/