The Five Year Baby Was Birthed

Today was the long awaited ribbon cutting for the opening of the Food Bank of Central and Eastern NC’s new headquarters. Five years ago it was apparent that we needed to move into a larger building. I was the chair elect then and I started doing everything possible to get the Food Bank in the best possible shape from a governance perspective so we could expand.
It took many people a lot of work to make sure we had succession plans, and gift and endowment policies and many legal items. We worked on strategic plans, surveyed the market, discussed the future with other hunger leaders and started searching for a new building. It took forever.  
Then one day about two years ago we got word that a couple named the Ogburns had passed away and having no children had left the entirety of their estate to the Food Bank. We did not know the Ogburns personally. They had been donors who over the previous ten years had given us $1,800 total. Starting with $25, but never more than $200 in a year.
About the same time we learned about their estate gift we found the Raliegh Flea Market building at 1924 Capital Boulevard. It was big and needed a total renovation. The building cost about $4.5M. Amazingly the Ogburns left us a little more than $4 Million dollars.
The writing seemed to be on the wall. The board grappled with the question of whether we should buy this property. I was in the optimistic crowd who said we can’t ignore the divine intervention that we had received this gift at the exact time we found a great property.
So we pulled the trigger and bought the building before we had started to raise a single dollar for the renovations. We have a ten million dollar campaign and less than a million left to raise as we open the building officially today.
I sat on the front row of the audience as Peter, our CEO, stood in front of the American Flag and the Flag of North Carolina I felt such a wave of pride that our Food Bank had completed this organization changing feat in such a quiet and remarkable way.  
We serve over 800 partner agencies who feed over 650,000 people in one third of North Carolina. We are going to be able to do it in an even more efficient way now with our new building. It was accomplished by people, but I want to give credit to that greater power who sent us the Ogburns at exactly the right moment. I believe and I am going to continue to believe as long as there are great people who work to help their neighbors. This baby may have taken five years to come about, but it will live a long time giving life to so many. Praise Be!