Jaynee Day, the longtime President & CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, will retire next summer after more than 30 years at the leading non-profit organization that works to address hunger and food insecurity in our communities.

Calling Day a "pioneer in hunger relief," Jonathan Flack, Board Chair of Second Harvest, hailed Day's leadership of the organization and said her innovation and entrepreneurship has been critical to its growth and success. Flack said a committee has been selected of former and current Board members and community leaders to ensure a thoughtful and seamless transition of leadership. A new leader is expected to be named at the end of June 2019, upon Day's retirement.

"While Jaynee might officially be retiring from Second Harvest, we all know that she'll never 'retire' from working to address hunger issues in our communities," said Flack. "Jaynee's 30-year service to Second Harvest, her commitment to helping others and her leadership, friendship and dedication are unmatched. She has built the foundation at Second Harvest from which we'll continue to grow and help others."

"Second Harvest and the people who give of their time and dollars to help those less fortunate mean more to me than I could ever put into words," said Jaynee Day. "We have such a strong leadership team in place at Second Harvest, and I have full confidence they will continue the work to assist our neighbors who don't know where their next meal is going to come from. There's a tremendous team at Second Harvest and it's been an honor to work side-by-side with them, our Partner Agencies, donors and volunteers over these many years."

Day is among the longest-tenured and most respected non-profit leaders in Middle Tennessee and the Feeding America network. Under her leadership, Second Harvest has gone from distributing three million pounds of food in 1988 to more than 31 million pounds this year. The organization has grown to serve 46 counties in Middle and West Tennessee, and has recently opened a distribution facility in Smyrna, Tennessee (Rutherford County), with another center to open in Camden, Tennessee (Benton County), next month.

Throughout her three-decade career, Day has received numerous awards and recognitions from the non-profit and business community, including the Nashville Business Journal's "Most Admired CEO, Non-Profit" in 2012, 2015 and 2016, and the Nashville Post's "CEO of the Year" in 2016. She was also recognized with Feeding America's "John van Hengel Fellowship Award," and most recently, Bank Of America's "CEO of the Year" at the 2018 CNM Excellence Awards.