Mary HenniganKathy Webb’s retirement at the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance is official. Her last day was March 31, and she has passed the CEO title and cape over to Sylvia Blain, who started today.
Webb has worked with important organizations for decades, from stomping around Washington, D.C., as part of the women’s movement in the ‘70s and ‘80s, to spending the last 17 years with the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance. On top of her organization work, Webb served as a state representative from 2007-2012 and has held a Little Rock city director position since 2015.
A project that includes Webb as part of the team is generally a project that’s going to be successful. In her newest endeavor, she is going to act as a helping hand to nonprofit organizations with Kathy L. Webb Consulting. Webb said she’s going to be thoughtfully selective with the groups she takes on, helping with organizational development, fundraising, outreach and more.
Potential business is already looking good. Webb got a few bites from folks after filing her business license, she said. In a few weeks — after some seasonally appropriate decluttering — Webb will get the ball rolling.
“I love to do this kind of work,” she said. “I always have since I was a little kid.”
Webb has been a pivotal player when it comes to working with political figures on both sides of the aisle to combat hunger in Arkansas. And while she’s moving on from the nonprofit she’s spent nearly two decades with, her work on the issue is not over.
There are two years left in Webb’s current term as a city director, and she plans to spend more time taking an in-depth look at solving hunger at the local level.
“I think we have some opportunities to set Little Rock apart from what other cities are doing in terms of a holistic look at ways we can tackle the issue of food access,” Webb said. “Not just talking to people who live in food deserts, but thinking [about if] we have enough summer sites that all the kids are able to get meals, [if] we include SNAP outreach in city activities … just a whole variety spanning the different components of the issue.”
Moving on from the Arkansas Hunger Relief Alliance sparks a bit of emotion from Webb, but she’ll still be available on a contract basis, especially during the 2025 Arkansas General Assembly, she said.
“There’s an amazing team [at the organization],” she said. “A lot of them have been there for a number of years, and I expect things to continue to be very positive in the work that they do and the successes that they have.”
Webb and Blain, the new CEO, worked together in the past. Blain has experience in the hunger relief world through her recent role as the Potluck Food Rescue executive director and other food-focused positions.
“They won’t just be OK, they’ll thrive,” Webb said.
