Like Homecoming

Today I had the privilege of attending a Food Bank Lunch for past board members. It was a lovely gathering of many friends made over the years from time spent around conference room tables and in warehouses doing the work to ensure ‘No one goes hungry” in eastern and central North Carolina.

I was a volunteer and Board member of the Food Bank since Carter was two years old. That was over 25 years ago. I have witnessed a lot of changes and a lot of growth.

Today the President is a woman, Amy Beros, who we hired at the food bank as a staff member on the development team when she was a very young woman. She grew into the VP of development and left us to work for Feeding America and after being in the bigger Food bank world came back to take the lead role at our Food Bank. It made my heart happy to see how far she has come and all the good she is doing.

I got to see old friends who served with me so many years together. Barry, Jim, Carey, Chuck, George, Steven, Susan. And I saw people who joined the board after me, my friend Shelayne, and Becky. It was a surprise to see Becky because she is new on the board. We met years ago when we spent a year trying to make a merger happen between two organizations that we both led. Despite all our hard work and violent agreement the merger never happened due to a founder who derailed it. But Becky was committed to the mission and it is great to see her at our food bank now.

It was a homecoming like lunch. One I look forward to attending again in the future. I was sorry I couldn’t not stay for the whole thing because I had to go teach class. But I look forward to continuing my support of the Food Bank as the work they do is sadly more needed than ever. God bless the people who take care of those who need a meal.