Second Harvest Chief to Depart in July

Christine Vladimiroff, president of the national food-bank network Second Harvest, has announced that she will leave her post in July.

The charity described the departure as “unexpected,” and members of the group’s board said they would miss her leadership.

Ms. Vladimiroff, 58, a Benedictine nun, said she would step down after seven years to return to her order, the Benedictine Community in Erie, Pa. She will serve as prioress, the order’s top position.

Second Harvest, based in Chicago, is a network of more than 185 organizations that supply local food pantries and other organizations that feed the needy.

Ms. Vladimiroff leaves Second Harvest with a mixed legacy. During her tenure, the organization released what many call one of the most comprehensive studies on hunger in America, and the Clinton Administration appointed her as co-chair of the Advisory Committee on Food Security.

But Second Harvest and Ms. Vladimiroff also came under fire from hunger advocates who said the organization had a monopoly on food distribution from most of America’s major corporations and that the organization didn’t provide enough nutritional items. Ms. Vladimiroff defended the organization, saying that Second Harvest could only take what manufacturers offer but that the charity was trying to find ways to obtain more nutritional items.

The charity is conducting a national search for a successor.