Bruce Rankin
Executive Director
Westside Food Bank
Bruce Rankin has served as Westside Food Bank’s executive director since 1989. Under his leadership, the Westside Food Bank has grown from a scrappy grassroots effort serving a handful of agencies to a central organization in the community’s food assistance network, working with over 55 nonprofit social service member agencies to distribute millions of pounds of food to over 200,000 individuals in need and their families in western Los Angeles County.
For more than three decades, Rankin has worked diligently to improve access to nutritious food in our community and throughout California. He is one of the founders of, and the board member with the longest tenure of service to, the California Association of Food Banks, which works to coordinate food banks throughout the state to create a more equitable food system through sharing best practices, advocating for better food policy, supporting the state’s agricultural system, and providing food to people in need. He helped the Association develop its Farm to Family Produce Project, which rescues millions of pounds of food from farms and distributes it to food banks throughout the state. He also helped that program expand to include fresh eggs and chicken, greatly increasing access to high protein foods among low-income people across California.
Rankin has established strong relationships with a broad network of stakeholders including private foundations, faith-based organizations, elected officials, volunteers, member agency staff, and individual supporters, building a network of support for Westside Food Bank’s food assistance work that has brought in tens of millions of dollars from thousands of people over the past 30 years.
He has played a significant role in supporting countless food programs, provided counsel on best practices, access to resources and education, and welcomed many new agencies into Westside Food Bank’s network.
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