Girl Boss 2019: Trisha Cunningham

Two summers ago Trisha Cunningham found herself at a crossroads. For three decades, she’d worked in a variety of roles at Texas Instruments (TI), most recently as chief citizenship officer. She was ready for a change, no longer sure she wanted to stay at the company she’d been with since college. Ultimately Trisha decided to take the helm as CEO at North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) where she felt she could truly have an impact on her community. 

Since her move to NTFB, Trisha says many people have asked her about the difference between the corporate and nonprofit worlds. “On the corporate side, if TI had a bad quarter, we weren’t able to give as much earnings per share,” she said. “Now if I have a bad quarter, people go hungry.”

Since joining NTFB, Trisha has overseen the completion of a $55 million capital campaign and the food bank’s move to a 230,000-square-foot facility in Plano. The new building doubled the food bank’s dry food capacity, and tripled its refrigerated capacity. NTFB now provides more than 190,000 meals every day for families across its 13-county service area. 

Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere believes that Trisha is a visionary leader. “She thinks big and connects the mission of the North Texas Food Bank with the grand need of the community,” Mayor LaRosiliere said. “It has been a pleasure to work with her. I look forward to seeing good results for the community from Trisha’s efforts.”

According to Trisha, NTFB is essentially a nonprofit logistics company that is responsible for gathering and distributing food. It coordinates efforts with approximately 250 organizations that provide access to food through more than 1,000 regional programs. Before the capital campaign, NTFB was distributing approximately 62 million meals a year. Today the output has increased to almost 77 million annually, with a goal of 92 million meals set for the year 2025.

Despite North Texas Food Bank’s accomplishments, many people are surprised to learn that one of every four area children are food insecure. Trisha plans to continue using her job as a platform to raise awareness and enlist support.

“There are truly hungry people here, and there is something you can do about it,” she said.

See all of the 2019 Girl Bosses >
Written By
More from Joshua Baethge
Plano Portal Project Sculptures
Drivers heading into Downtown Plano now have more to look at than...
Read More
Join the Conversation

2 Comments

Leave a comment
Leave a comment