Let's give a warm
Georgia Tech Welcome to our guests.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you for the introduction
I'm going to stand back here just

begin with her all this because
I think I asked my staff.

Because I know we have a lot of folks
at Georgia Tech that are involved

at the food bank and

I just want to share some of those numbers
we're about a mile from here north.

Near.

Joseph Lowery both of our so
very close by.

Georgia Tech and let me start out
by saying there are I think twenty

eight colleges and universities in the
Atlanta area could be more georgia tech

provides more volunteers than
any other college or university

in the metro Atlanta area last year
provided six hundred sixteen hundred and

forty six hours of volunteer time and
we use over a thousand volunteers

a month so that's no small thing so
give yourself a hand start out with.

Circle K..

Language Institute you were
the volunteer group of the year.

And really just recruiting all you guys if
you hadn't been volunteering at the food

bank to come on over.

I also wanted to say that I tol in
the school of management school many many

years ago Thank you guys for
in about the third grade but I taught

a semester here and really taught graduate
students talking about management and

social responsibility so I'm going
to hit on some of those themes today

about if you're going to go out and
be a leader and be a manager in the key.

Munity the I think the value of
being involved in community.

It's Georgia Tech and

pulleys people that work at Georgia Tech
both professors in the professional staff

also gave the most money through
the state system to the food bank.

And lastly I have a group through
the school for industrial and

systems engineering graduate students who
are working with me this semester and

their assignment they get graded on
saving me one hundred thousand dollars

this mask so if they come through
we're all going to be good so

that's the way I wanted to start is to
just thank Georgia Tech it's been a great

relationship through the years
both with graduate students with

volunteers with donations and
ways that we work together.

Now there and said I came to Atlanta
in one thousand nine hundred

seventy four to go to graduate
school Ridgeley from North Carolina

grew up in a small town of about eight
hundred people had never lived in a city

before in fact didn't plan on living and
staying here in Atlanta I was going back

to live in western North Carolina but
having come here for graduate school.

I found a call to serve.

Now I was not voted the most likely
to succeed in high school in fact

I barely got out of high school I joined
the service when I was seventeen and

spent four years in the Air Force spent
about two years in Southeast Asia and

Vietnam and came back from that
pretty scarred like we all

do if we go into war that at
that young age but knew that.

I wanted to go to school I was the first
one of my family to ever go to college

so I didn't have a.

Not a role models but
I did have a lot of expectation on me that

having gone through the service
that the G.I. Bill would pay for

my college and they did so
I went to business school.

And got a degree in
Business Administration.

And then I went on and
got a degree to teach business.

In community colleges it was a specialized
degree in North Carolina but

by that time I didn't
really believe in business.

And this is the late sixty's early
seventy's this is you know when

your parents were young people my age and
there was a lot going on in the country

I was that kid even back in middle school
and high school that always ask why and

why not even in an inappropriate
times never was

very endearing when I asked those
questions but they serve me well as I

went on to graduate school I studied
psychology and counseling and

by that time in my life was really
focused own my spiritual life and

what I wanted to do and I had no idea
often tell kids an undergraduate

school you know to keep stand in school
till it count rises up in you for

myself I used to come to Atlanta this
is one nine hundred seventy four.

And I always get Walsh
when I came into town and

I used to go down to the King Center.

Actually there was no King Center Back
then there was just the two of picket

fence the tree that King played on right
beside Ebenezer Baptist Church and

gravel one even pay so this was before
they raised the money and created a center

and you know I now I think it's the second
most visited national park in the country.

I used to go and circumvent the gray.

And.
QUESTION I was asking myself and

I was very seriously asking and you know
I'm twenty five twenty six years old now.

And got married hadn't gotten a real
job my parents were getting pretty

worried about me but now if you know
are you going to settle into anything

the question I asked myself was
what was I willing to die for

just as Dr King had given his life and

inspired me I asked that question of
myself what am I willing to die for.

And still did not get answers so
I came to Atlanta and

started a community down on tenth Street
and started working with the homeless

in Vietnam veterans I give you
the story because a lot of times you

don't know in middle school high
school college sometimes even in your

thirty's exactly what it is that you
want to really devote your life to so

that discernment process and that
questioning I think is very important.

So in starting a community of
people we took in homeless and

mentally ill people in our
home we started feeding people

down in the Piedmont Park we were
across the street back here.

Not having any sport really no money.

I ended up volunteer and at a downtown
church St Luke's of fiscal church.

And this is nineteen seventy five now so

very soon I was the lead volunteer and
within a year

I had the director of community Ministries
a new position at the church and

what I knew at that point was I.

Love to make soup I love to work with
volunteers I love to serve people

just as simple as that again had no
idea that it would turn into a career

that I would be managing anything other
than you know serving several hundred.

Well today but after a couple of years
in the community kitchen we were

up to three and four hundred people a day
and we were having to feed about seventy

five people at a time and then get those
out and bring seventy five more people and

I realized this was really not
conducive for transformational work for

ministry so I went all over town and

ass congregations churches of
all sizes shapes black and white

all denominations all faith groups and
I promised them all the food they needed.

If they would open their
doors to the homeless.

Thinking maybe one of them would
have a conversation with me.

A lot of them responded and
the only problem was at that point is

I didn't have any food and I didn't
even have a program I just went out and

said you know we can do this so
having got a positive response I thought.

I've got to go do it now.

I make that point because that's one
way to begin a business you go out and

promise people you're going to deliver
a product and then go back and after

deliver the product it's kind of stressful
that way it's better to plan ahead but

it worked at that point so
they gave me the basement of the church

was a room about this big
no no offices it was just

about one hundred twenty year old building
I started a food bank and it was an idea

that was going on in about ten cities in
the country I didn't know any of those

folks never heard of the term food bank we
were just starting one here and then soon

found out that there were about a dozen of
us and we met we created an organization

called Feeding America back in one
thousand nine hundred seventy nine.

The first thing I did because I'm going to
have to produce some food because I went

to the food industry I went to the grocery
store chain here it was owned by.

Family Back then the ultimate
family I went to them and

I gave them my big idea is
that how sincere out was and

how much I really wanted to help
the most needy people in the community.

They just kick me right out of the office
he said we don't give away food we're

selling food that's what are our
business model is to sell food.

First lesson for me.

I.
Had to learn the business of the people

that I wanted to help me so
I had to learn what are the issues or

the stresses in the grocery
business where I could be part

of their business model I had to offer
them a business proposition not just go to

him with a moral issue I mean they could
say they could give the United Way or have

their employees volunteer but they weren't
going to give me prop unless I could

help them so the beginning of the food
bank was me learning the grocery business.

It was me learning their big stresses
how do we control our inventory

we've got one hundred
stores around the city.

And they make a mistake
in the grocery store.

They can throw it in the dumpster and

they'd never know in the main office for
weeks or months so

the first thing we did was figure
out how could we track that product.

Anything that was donated to
me I had to inventory and

have them hand them
an inventory slip back and

say each store I could tell you how
much product you're not selling.

So I had a business proposition right.

And I need you guys to answer
a little bit it women.

So in any nonprofit are any business
that you're in for profit or non not for

profit you need to figure out what
the rules are in that business and

you had to figure out a business
proposition where you're creating a one.

Win Win sustainable
relationship over time so

the motto of the food bank is to
collect unmarketable product and

distribute it to community
based organizations.

I started out with about
thirty organizations and

about four thousand square feet.

Had a pick up truck that had been taken
off the road at Georgia Power and

you know they were discarding it and
asked how I began and

again I thought you know I'll spend a year
or so doing this kind of learning it and

then move on to the next thing but
funny thing happened in the meantime.

I really like the business and
I really like the people we were serving

the idea is that a congregation or
nonprofit organization

can come to the food bank and
get whatever product we had donated.

Now shift thirty one years later Aaron
to introduction he mentioned one hundred

twenty nine thousand
square foot facility and

I also have a sixty thousand
square foot so I have about.

One hundred fifty thousand and most two
hundred thousand square feet of warehouse

space today started with four have almost
two hundred today and what's happened

through the years is we have created
our capacity we've created a capacity

to work with different constituencies
in different parts of the community.

Let me mention a couple of programs that
we work with while we got in those and

then maybe some of the qualities that I
found are important to be successful.

In any good business today.

In a good business today is going to be
mission centered for profit or not for

profit you're going to have a mission or
some type of principles or

something that you measure
everything against So

at the Food Bank there's nothing an arm.

Mission about trucks I have about fifteen
sixteen seventeen trucks out on the road

every day will handle about twenty
eight twenty nine thirty million pounds

of food this year there's nothing
in my mission about trucks and

warehouses and agencies the mission
at the food bank is to engage.

Educate and
empower the community to fight hunger.

To engage educate empower
the community fight hunger so

my mission is not about the mechanics
it's about how do I get the community

involved in what we do we'll have some Q.

and A later but you could take any
business and we could break it down and

they're going to figure out who
their constituency are who their

customers are and
they're going to figure out a way

to measure that of whether they're doing
a good job figure out the metrics.

So we've created a number of
programs at the food bank our

core business is to collect and
distribute food product.

So everything else we do is based on
that core business if we don't do well

with our core business and
of other programs are going to do well.

We're able to measure for

instance the return on investment at the
food bank we have about a sixteen a half

million dollar budget of about one hundred
twenty full time staff people that work

there now use over one thousand
volunteers every month which is

worth about twenty eight staff people I
don't have to pay or do in real time work.

So the return only investment at the food
bank is every dollar someone would invest

in the food bank and in our case since
we are bank we used banking terms

we talk about return on investment I don't
want you to give me money I don't even

want you to donate money I want you to
invest in our work so the investment

at the food bank pays off we get about
two dollars an A I mean seven dollars.

And eighty cents worth
of food out the door for

every dollar that people invest in
the food bank good return on investment.

And if you're going to the community today
you can you can make the moral argument

it's the right thing to do but what people
are looking at now with more to do and

less money and
a lot of cynicism about who to trust.

You've got to show people what's
going to happen if they invested.

What good is going to happen
out there in the community so

core business dollar equal seven
dollars and eighty cents worth of work.

As we started thinking about who are the
partners we're going to need out there we

first great partner in Atlanta
community is the hospitality

industry and they were a big
hospitality town a big convention

town better to have them on your side and
us to be the charity of choice then.

Then Them not know who we are not care
about hungry people one of the things for

them is if there's homeless people out
there on the street it's not good for

business so
we had a conversation right away but

we started a program
called Atlanta's table.

Now the program where we pick up catered
food our food from restaurants or

food from hotels or food from the World
Congress Center it's already been cooked

and we pick it up and deliver it the same
day to agencies ready just like out

of your refrigerator you might have made
it this morning going to eat it tonight or

eat it the next day but to get that
done we had to deal with issues

of what happened of some I
get sick ability issues.

What about the logistics WHAT ABOUT HOW
DO YOU GOING TO judiciously handle this

what's going to happen to our reputation
if somebody finds out something went wrong

what's the health department going to
stay so any time you approach a partner.

That way you've got to figure out just
like I did with the grocery store what

are your issues in this case we actually
got of all passed the Good Samaritan food.

Which is now been passed by
Congress it's a national law but

we got the first one
passed here in Georgia.

And said that the donor donates to
the food bank is released of building.

So no matter what happens to that food and

where is the law building
go I take the law building.

OK I've got insurance when I
got on my side and mostly we

really watch what we do judiciously handle
the food somebody has got to accept it and

you've got to take it all for that dollar
the donor has deep pockets we don't.

So and Lana's table became
the charity of choice for

the hospitality industry in fact we got
U.P.S. to invest in the model when we

created a whole national network out of
the Atlanta food bank called food chain we

created by one hundred twenty five Seattle
table Alice table great about one hundred

twenty five of these around the country in
they eventually merged into Second Harvest

which is now called Feeding America that's
our national network of food banks So

today there are two hundred three food
banks we have seven of them here in

Georgia and
we collaborate we share product with H.

other we share best practices and we
particularly share when we have problems

how do we solve them so another program
that we started was community gardening.

We've built over one hundred
forty community gardens.

And has a constituency for
community gardens.

Think about.

Lana's table it was the hospitality
industry community gardens

who would be interested in that.

Well usually urban farmers
people that are growing gardens.

But community gardens are where a group of
people come together and all have a plot

so we have community gardens in
congregational yards we've got gardens and

schools as teaching gardens we've
got with one hundred forty and

we've got them all over the city looks
like a really cool idea today because food

costs are hot food costs are going to go
up with fuel prices going up you know so

everybody's want to do gardening
you know twenty some years ago.

It was kind of a new idea but the
constituent say there is neighborhoods and

people live in that community level.

So each program that I'm talking
about has a constituency.

Has a way to measure success.

It is relevant timely to the community and

people understand if they invest in it
what they're going to get out of it.

We've created a program
called Kids in need and

it's a big store with school supplies.

It's a while school supplies and a food
bank same kids from the same families

never have the school supplies it's
a product that there's a lot of waste

this year we're going to help over
twenty five hundred up to close

to three thousand individual teachers and
we have a store about the size of

this room with brand new school supplies
and teachers can come in and shop.

OK so we're an eight school systems now
two hundred ninety eight schools and

it's a free school supply for
school teachers and

you think about being school teachers you
have to buy your own supplies nowadays

they don't supply your
classroom bomb yourself.

There's a constituency why would we do
school supply program with food bank.

Going to help me out here I'm just talking
to myself think about school supplies

there's a constituency teachers.

Student principals P.T.A.'s

all the volunteers at school let me
think about that as thousands of people

that are thinking very well the food
bank they all are potential donors

they're all potential volunteers they're
all potential helping they find the supply

us we only handle new stuff so when you go
in it's like walking into office depot.

We have traction trade shows at the World
Congress Center when they have office and

school supplies and
they've gotten five six seven

tractor trailer loads of brand new
school supplies out of a trade show.

Now why can I get into the World
Congress Center with security badges

walk as I have Atlanta stable and
know that industry and they trust me.

So they let us in.

That's connected to that our
product rescue center we use over

a thousand volunteers a month take
volunteers as young as eight years old so

that families can come together so
again groups come together so

we have a lot of university students
come down here you can down a Friday

night volunteer and then go out have
a beer and pizza or whatever you know it's

a social experience you're doing real good
we measure what we do it translated into

the number of families we serve so you
feel like it's a meaningful experience.

We created a program called
the prosperity campaign

in there were helping working people.

With their taxes and
with their own benefits so

if you make less than a certain
amount this year I think it's

forty two thousand dollars with a family
of four if you Mike less than that

you get an earned benefit
you get a tax return.

Either you may not know about it or
you're going to pay a tax service a lot of

money to do that work
I've got sixty sites or.

Around the city run by volunteers.

This year or this last year we're in
the middle taxis now we've brought in

over eighteen million dollars
back to the community.

Now which industries are paying
those wages hospitality industry

the food industry health care industry and

retail OK Wow those are the those
are the industries I'm working with so

I could go to the hotel Council and
eye and say we've got a deal for

you all your employees that are eligible
for this will do their taxes for

free you can tell it was your idea
you're given him a pay raise and

I so each of these stories
I'm making a connection for

you why there's a constituency out there
what we need to do to do that program and

of course we've done earned
benefits around food stamps and

other benefits that
the technology to do all that now.

So is I think about the things that
has made the food bank successful.

One is if you're going to be a leader
you've got to be a good communicator.

You've got to have passion for
what you do.

You've got to work in
the context of community.

It's work a burning out otherwise and if
you're going to go in the business world

little burned out if you don't work in
the context of community and have support.

You've got to be able to
facilitate problem solving and

I know you go through college and
don't take a communication course of

facilitation course like you can get out
of management school without taking those

courses I can tell you that that
having the skill sets to be some

of the most important skill set Scituate
have as a leader in the community.

You've got to as I ask in.

My early days what I was willing to give
my life to you got to reframe the question

and say What am I willing to live for a in
when you ask that larger question not what

am I willing to die for dying is easy
living is harder you find out as you

get older that you've got to keep studying
you've got to exercise you've got to stay

healthy you've got to eat right you've got
to surround yourself with other people.

So to be a leader you've got to have
those basic basic commitments so

you might have calm basic disciplines
go forward tell me what time we are so

that I know because I.

OK so.

Now.

OK What were you guys going to do Q.

and A with me since you hadn't
answered my question so far but

I'm giving you five minutes notice here

I'm going to go back to the point that
I just made about having passion and

commitment for the work.

I grew up over confident.

Ask an inappropriate questions but
underneath being very shy.

Now I know I'm up here given a lecture and
I give them all the time now.

Basically I'm a shop person.

So as I got into my work actually I got
a teaching degree this was indication

of how I can fanatical things I remember I
was so afraid to get in front of my class.

And this is in college to do
student teaching that I figured out

to go to a president of a university and
tell him I want to be his assistant for

a semester if he would sign off that
I was assigned a student teacher and

he agreed and I followed this
guy around for a whole semester.

So I could not speak I could not
articulate ideas until I had a passion for

it till it was something that I was so
full of so

committed to that I felt like
I had something to share.

So doing your interior work which
I know is not the reason you came

to the university you're here to learn
the technical parts about management but

doing your interior work and
knowing who you are and

what you can commit yourself to and
what you can sustain over Tom.

I think will be essential to your success.

So let me stop there and

see what kind of questions you might have
on your mind I can answer technical things

about running nonprofits or
about leadership or about my own journey.

Anybody Thank you.

At what point do you feel like
you answered the questions what

could you die for or
what could you live for.

Well I answered the question.

Probably in that first
two years of my work.

That I knew this is what I
wanted to devote my self to.

I have to say that I didn't have a lot
of support from my family or from

other people saying Bill you're living in
community I lived in community my wife and

I did for
ten years we didn't own any property and

I'm getting up in my mid thirty's with two
children and we're still in this communal

setting so you know I didn't have a great
life point of this is how I'm going to.

Take care of my responsibilities but

I did have a point of this is
what I want to devote my life to.

I don't think you have to have a moral
calls or you have to work in the nonprofit

sector I mean I think you can be
an engineer or scientist or a manager and

if you do that well you can bring
something along are whatever

the process or whatever product is but
I think the question is important

the question about what are you willing to
live for is the deeper harder question and

that really is where you grapple with
I want to do this all the time but

I need to stop and exercise are on need to
stop and take time to be with my family or

I need to stop and
go back to school and study and

I need to learn these processes and what
I really want to do is feed folks OK So

there's a discipline here that I'm
suggesting that gets harder as you go

along it gets easier as far as you
knowing for sure that see it but it

gets harder in that everything I've talked
about starting with a pickup truck and

you know in a little room in the basement
I've had to learn to just fix I've had to

learn inventory control I have.

I got a fleet of trucks out there you know
last year Wal-Mart came to us finally and

said we won't to donate
everything out of our stores.

And they got eighty seven
stores in the Atlanta area.

Their commitment was to
the environment not to hungry people

they're a big environmental
leader like it or

not I mean they're building their stores
or experimenting with a lot of things they

said we're not going to throw anything
away and this was a national commitment.

Said Well great Give us your don't bail
and we'll take care of all that stuff

no they weren't going to give us
all the money for the dump and

they did when us to pick up food we got
to pick up the food three days a week.

With a trained staff in
a truck this refrigerated with

their branded containers we're going
to bring that separated out and get it

distributed out we're going to handle
about four million pounds of food from

retailers because Kroger came on we're
doing about fifty of their stores Publix

just came in here last week and said I got
about one hundred forty some stores so

this is the new movement in retail that
we will pick up all retail stores so

you're thinking I mean think to
yourself all of a sudden I've got three

hundred fifty stores to pick up and
I've you know I'm used to go in with my

big truck to the warehouse
to pick up things but

now I've got to figure out where all those
stores are get there at the appointed time

with a trained person get that stuff
there and get to the next door.

Saying about how you would handle that.

I don't know how to do this OK
here's another hand look around and

say who knows the most about there
who is the best in town there.

Who would you say who's great
in logistics and transportation.

U.P.S. I don't even take
left turns the day.

Coca-Cola eight hundred trucks out
on the road every day Cisco foods.

Fresh point.

I.
Got all those folks on my board.

I said I want to meet I want you to
teach me how to do this it took us

about four months of meetings with all
these folks around the table their best

logistics people we actually convinced
U.P.S. to give us their software.

We don't do left turns either.

Now this is a point where you've got to
be able to change and learn all the time.

Even if you're successful you've
got to be willing to embrace change

because change will come you're
always trying to get better so

some opportunity presents
itself usually as a problem.

There's another when you think about
problems as opportunities and ask me for

a title of my talk today and it was being
overwhelmed with opportunity because as

you know when people ask how I'm doing
that's usually what I say I'm overwhelmed

with the opportunity to my God there's
a lot of problems out there right now so

you know that's an example of
where you take a problem or

an issue and
make it into an opportunity and

then you figure out how do I get help
learn how to do that so as a leader

you've got to constantly do that all
the time and you're always looking.

Always good to have mentors
it's always good to

look to folks who have succeeded
some of written books some of them

you know aren't known at all
you have to go out and seek.

Another example we wanted to do great
customer service at the food bank

I'm talking about it talking
about customer service and

I realized you know it is going to happen
we just telling people we need do good

customer service there's a thing
in management called the mouth.

Award for the best customer service
who gets that risk are out.

A march myself down
the Ritz Carlton that's it.

It may be an odd request I want to train
my staff in the Ritz Carlton the way

I think they were it was such an audacious
ass I said yes if you don't ask

you don't out right and that's how
we learn if you don't ask questions

in class if you don't ask questions of
your colleagues in particular when you

become a professional you've got to ask
questions you might get a lot of no's

are I don't have time to do that or
this is not an appropriate ask for

May you just go to the next person and
ask a question.

Not too much of a segue from your topic
but you said your mission was engaged

educate empower community and hunger
unified hunger and to fight hunger yet

you've started to branch
out into taxation and

into working with schools and
it sounds like gardening also so

just curious about how you take your
mission at the end of the food bank and

then start to go off in those different
directions early at least how that

maybe is incorporated with your mission or
how you define yourself.

Well just as a not to put
you too much on the spot but

what do you think I mean way
where do you see the connection.

Well when you when you're fighting hunger
you realize that in the United States

unlike maybe some other places in the
world twenty percent of what we grow and

package is unmarketable in our country
twenty percent some of it gets plowed

under the fails you know it's under fail
over fail it's you know wrong wrong label

new flavor whatever it is Joe ninety five
percent of new products come on the market

every year that new taste of Triscuit
don't make it I mean I get calls on that.

Remember you.

When I had ketchup and squeeze
bottles used to not have that now such

a good idea then they put managers in
it you can't get man is the squeeze but

I mean we got a donated So
I mean there's a lot of product out there.

But you have to think if
the issue is not about food but

we still have hungry people then
what's the issue issues poverty.

And we're fighting hunger but
what we're doing is fighting poverty so

when you think about how do we fight
poverty how do we get the things to people

that they need if you've earned that
income and I mean this was started

under Republican administration when
we had welfare reform if you know

the Earned Income Tax Credit is to say we
want to reward those people to get up and

go to work every day but don't make very
good wages we want to reward them and

encourage them to work by
giving them a tax credit

out of people only know about it so
any way I can encourage that eighteen

million dollars worth this last
year then I'm fighting hunger right

school supply same kids come from the same
families that may not have enough for

food certainly never had a new box of
crayons never had the right pencils

we've even tested schools now that are
getting school supplies and test scores

went up by having all the supplies that
they need I mean a pretty basic thing.

So my mission and I think you're
catching on to this my mission is very

broad I mean my gosh everything
fits under engaging educating and

empowering doesn't it you know so
I just need to make the case of the there

is out there one thing you always have
to ask if you're in a business and

you see a new business opportunity
is you never go out and

survey the community churches
do this all the time or

congregations they'll decide they want
to help in a survey of the community and

say it came back that
we should have after.

School programs and
we should do feeding and

we should they never served by themselves
to say do we know how to do any of that

and they fail so I was not a matter of
knowing there is plenty of need out there

it's a matter of knowing what your assets
what your core competencies are so

nonprofits are really bad at this
because they see a new opportunity so

handling school supplies or
garden supplies are any of that

that's my competency I know how to
do warehousing trucking logistics so

I could do any anything like we had a lot
of non-food items at food bank you know

if you're on food stamps you can't buy any
hygiene items you can't buy Pampers for

your baby you know you can't buy any
paper products no cleaning supplies so

you know those are things people need so
you know we try to get so

good question but I think you always
need to think as broad as you can but

then bring it back and focus is that
our core competency what do we know

how to do that is it measurable
is it meaningful The other part

I hadn't talked a lot about is how do we
raise sixteen a half million dollars every

year you've got to have a lot of folks out
there that's going to support our largest

source of income is not the government
get very little government money

because politics change not foundations
although we do get foundation money

not even corporate money it's individuals
given a small amounts thousands of people

you know just give us give us what you
can give me twenty dollars multiply

that by eight you know that's
actually quite a nice donation so

a lot of what we do is around
building constituency out there

that will support our work and again
this is true and for profit or not for

profit you've got to know who your
customers are who your constituency is.

What percentage what percentage of your
employees are volunteers and we're busy.

Are paid and
how how do you find those wages you have

well as part of that as
part of that budget.

You know our largest.

Expense is employees I mean you know for
me it's just trucking warehousing and

eight but so I use a thousand
twelve hundred volunteers a month

that's twenty eight staff people
I've got about one hundred twenty.

Professional staff people on
staff some of them are kind of

entry level people working in a warehouse
and some folks have Ph D.'s it's a real

variety of people a lot of the things
that people do it food bank you can learn

if you're smart you work hard you've
got good values you can learn that but

I do need someone who knows accounting
I need somebody who knows technology

you know would just exist get to be
a bigger and bigger part of our work so

I've got to start hiring specialists for
that.

I hope you're asking thinking about
what food might be a great place to work

because I'm looking That's why I
come to these things I'm looking for

young people just like yourself
if there's ever a time and

I know you think there's no jobs out there
better stay in school as long as I can but

if there's ever a time to
be a leader to step up

to give some meaning and some
definition to the times that worry and

it is now I mean it is just it is
just wide open that I want to be as

encouraging as I can in that way and
to food bank we pay competitive wages

it's not as much as you're going to make
working for you know a Georgia Pacific or

an abbey or maybe even a Georgia Power but

it is competitive to other public sever
service jobs to other non-profits

and you got to do that because this is a
profession you know most of my management

teams have been with me for over
twenty years so this is what they did.

Well.

Well it is and.

Volunteers are very you know.

It's just like a group maybe
of Turkey here tech would say

yeah I'll be over there were
thirty people on Thursday nine.

Twelve of the show up or I've already
staffed up you know for thirty or so

you've cost me money right away so I need
to know is thirty going to be there so

a good volunteer program is
going to know who's coming.

How many we're probably going to check
with you twice before you get there

probably the day before I mean it's
a no joke either going to calm or

you're not going to comment
how many is going to be there.

When you get there I tell you how many
times you go out and volunteer and you get

there and god forgot forgot you were
coming or after got so many people just

sat over there less found something to do
right there you go I should not be here

these people do not need me to come to
the food bank we're ready for you by name

we know your group if there's a history of
you coming we'll say that we're going to

come in and we're going to collect
your data write your phone number and

your e-mail and whatever we can collect so
we can communicate to you again and you're

going to go through a training and we're
going to answer every question about what

we're going to ask you to do before we put
you to work no matter how long it takes.

Out an eight story our training video is
actually done by the cartoon that work and

we went to the car you know I thought
well who can do this I actually met

the president of Cartoon Network at
a function start talking to him and

he started telling me about you know man
we always do the creative work now we're

all in management we don't get to do fun
stuff anymore I thought well gosh I can

give you something to do why don't
you guys do a training video for

you know what the management.

To do it.

They did it there in it they wrote
the whole script about the music and

everything but with it so
we have a training video for

you then we're going to have you work for
about an hour and a half

well then they think about food bank is
that we have to throw white chocolate.

Too bad in because of chocolates not
kept the right temperature it'll turn

Why don't you still taste all right but
the people that make the chocolate

don't want to see that right so
they after a while.

So good built food bank you to eat all
the chocolate you want while you're there.

So we work from our half will take
a little break it's great to give middle

schoolers Chocolat you know a break and
they work work really good second ship and

what happens with their parents
act we send them home but.

So.

We are going to measure
what you did in PAL it's.

Competition's good we might actually
tell you that George state was down

here last week broke the records I don't
know if you guys are in good or not we're

using it working pretty good we're going
to measure that we're going to translate

it into how many families are Fayad and
we're going to tell you something about

where that food is going and if you would
like a different volunteer experience will

set you up to volunteer in
an agency where that food's go so

if you miss any of those steps of
course you think people many times and

ask them to come back but you've got to
do all those steps just like any business

you've got to communicate well make
people feel safe and train it's got to be

meaningful work measurable and translated
into something make sense to us.

I was just wondering about like
with the current economic recession

if you notice any trends in
more more food consumption and

trends in less donations of food and
money and and like.

What you think.

Well you know it's track because we we
have a saying that food bank things get

counted get done.

So we count a lot of stuff there we can
all our processes in a good business does.

In the last two years were
up seventy five percent.

I mean it's been doing this work for
thirty five thirty six years I've never

seen it like this twenty percent of
the people there are coming in to ask for

emergency food report
they've never asked before.

Has humbling.

Fifty percent of the people coming into
ass and it may be a congregation for

food report that they're working but

not making enough usually they don't
have health care for double house.

So when we think about and we are in very.

Challenging times as a as
a city as a region as a state

as a country I mean the states working at
over two billion dollars They got a cut

I've just spent the last five days in
Washington doing lobbying around policy so

you know things are going to
be fundamentally different in

your life than they were for me when I was
your age going to fundamentally different.

But when you look at challenges and
problems as opportunities what do you say

wow we're overwhelmed with opportunity
aren't we I mean this is a good time

it's a good time in the sense that if you
are managing a whale if you communicate

well if you can measure what you're
doing and it's actually having an impact

that people say that's a good impact
then you're going to get more support.

Because of it when you
have less dollars and

there's more competition for
those those organizations and.

You know transparency and
consistency always.

No matter whether what sector Your Ian and
business trends are.

Being being so that people can see exactly
what you're doing you go to my website so

you're not Nani's you can see our mission
our programs all the measures it's all

they are annual reports on the website so
it is a challenge right now because

our budgets going up the work is going up
on the other hand we're best in class.

So the big challenge for us quite frankly
is what about those seven hundred

organizations out there because we
exist to serve them they don't exist so

we can work and I just so
we can be there they we exist for

them they're our customers so
we have spent the last year and

a lot of work going out and we've had
forums where in thirty eight counties we

had twenty nine forums brought
all our agencies together and

asked them how are you doing what do
you need what could we do better and

that was a lot of time out when we could
be working just having that conversation

but very very important time you know
because now we know what they need.

I don't think demand is going to go down
any time soon it all comes back to jobs

and as I go out and
talk to folks about fighting hunger

you know way to fight hunger
people work not jobs don't pay but

jobs pay a living wage if you're going to
do that the real issue then is education.

Right I mean it all comes
back to education but

if you're going to try to address
education then you've got to start

looking at schools if you look at schools
you start looking at neighborhoods

you start looking at neighborhoods you
start looking at family structure so

everything is connected to everything else
in that way and I think it's incumbent

on us who are leaders in this sector
to say that not to just talk.

About our little piece but to talk about
there are many ways to fight hunger and

you can be an educator you can be an
advocate you can be a service provider you

can go out make a lot of money give me
stop I I mean it it's all connected.

The best companies I'll tell you and and
there's a lot of good ones in Atlanta but

the best companies are very
clear about their values and

make it very easy for
employees to get involved in community and

I can tell you if you're going
to get into management and

into top management you will after
get involved in your congregation in

your rotary in your in your professional
associations us what distinguishes

you not just how well you did in your job
but how you're involved in community.

There.

For YOU LET has been the most challenging
for the start and end of the bank and

also getting people to be on board with
you when there wasn't such a large return.

Well I think.

You know I think it's.

Coming come but when we were
starting things is you really don't

know how they're going to turn out so
there's a there's

a fear of failure I don't know how to say
it but cannot sustain this over time.

So one of the Rio key
components of being a leader

is you've got to be passionate you've got
to believe in what you're saying in this

crowd be reflected in your life not
just in your theory you've got to

be a good communicator you've
got to be a good persuader you.

That of persuade people to join
you in this so when I started I

started out with two volunteers from the
community kitchen who I said if you don't

want to serve any food come up and help
us out the where else I mean you know so

the first three people hired at the food
bank I promised him ten thousand dollars

a year no benefits because we didn't have
any benefits and all the food they could

eat and I didn't pay myself the first
two years because I worked for

the church and
then ran the food bank after I got off so

you know you hear the stories of
starting with nothing and so forth.

Have to start that way but

you always after a start I think if you've
got a new idea and you've got to convince

people to do it they have got to be
convinced that you're convinced and

that every fiber in you is going
to be committed to this thing.

I didn't know for some time that I could
you know I could raise a family you know

that I could carry on my
responsibilities as as an adult you know

I just didn't know how all of that was
going to work in the beginning but

I did know this is what in the sense for
me what God had called me

to do was to serve to be a servant
leader and you know if you.

Study different leadership styles but
a servant leader I mean

there's collaborative leaders there's all
kind of different leadership styles and

you probably read all those books but
a servant leader is a great gentleman

Robert Greenleaf back in the sixty's
who had been a bully for

thirty years retired and started
writing about servant leadership so

the Greenleaf center exists and
I'd encourage you to read about this but

the way you measure a servant leader is
not what they did you measure the people

around them if the people around
a servant leader are are more educated

more empowered to do the work if they're
charged up to go than that servant leader.

Did their job OK so that's what I've
tried to do is to draw all people and

organizations and corporations and
the public sector you know to this

call is not done it by say and
I can show you a business proposition

to I can show you how this is good for
your business it's good for society and

it's good for the people who are serving
so you got to create win win win.

Yes.

I would like to know and
people can come individuals and get the.

Warehouse or do you only distribute

through your network in our model
we only serve organizations.

We have organizations very close so
we do have individuals that com and

we can just say you know if you box down
the street they're prepared to see and

if you can be anywhere in Georgia and
call me up tell me yours zip code and

I can tell you where those
organizations are served.

And we do get a lot of those calls and

a lot of people who are are in a temporary
Bon some people you know need permanent

help but here if you're working at that
community level that's where I began

I work six years you know working
with homeless street people.

The food and I and maybe I should have
said this earlier the way we think

about the food all twenty eight million
pounds of it the way we think about

the food is a is a tool is
a vehicle to use because

where the work is being done is where that
person says I need food a person says

let's talk and let's figure out what
your story is because it might be

I can help you get a job maybe you need
more education maybe you've got a you know

some kind of domestic violence situation
going on in your family you know there's

a lot of those kind of issues food is
the thing we have a surplus of in society.

Shortage of health care
shortage of housing

you know a shortage of all kind
of shortage of school spots for

kids we've got food so
we use that food as a transformative tool.

And that really is at the end of
the day the way we think about this so

if I'm doing two million more
pounds that's two million

more stories that we might hear and
figure out how do we help people.

I was just wondering.

Where you guys go into new
ventures all the time or

you've said several And where do these
ideas come from do you guys have

committees do you just listen to staff do
you have a little box for new ideas and

then you seem to have so
much to manage already when you come up

with these new ideas do you have people
that go off and tell you about them or

do you lead them yourself and
then give them off to other people.

Yes.

Yes to all your questions.

You know.

If you're a social entrepreneur.

You do see opportunity everywhere.

You know for instance if I go
into a restaurant or hotel or

I even come here Georgia Tech.

I look around see how things work I
mean I'm good I'm just that kind of guy.

And I usually not looking at the top
guy I'm looking at the bottom.

So having those kind of eyes to see and
it's something you train yourself for

but if you have eyes for
opportunity you'll see opportunity.

I don't come up with every idea but
I do I do a den of five ideas

now as a as a leader I don't
always know what to do with.

The idea.

What I tend to do in this
is I'm just saying for

me I don't think it's in
the arena textbook but

if I have an idea I usually talk about it
for a while I bring it up in conversation

almost as if we're going to do it I
have no idea if we're going to do it but

I just start you know mentioning give
me some ideas or do you know and

then the second thing I do is I
start spotting someone to lead

that idea if it's in my organization
somebody's already working for me or

I'm always looking out for town and so

usually at the level that I hire
anymore because I've got managers and

I've got a C.E.O.
and you know it's a big organization.

I'm not hiring every
single person anymore but

we should never be called Sure
if we see something come in and

think in six months we're going
to need this start looking now

to have that person the dentist you
know have some people in your pocket and

you know if the right idea comes I know
that's the kind of leader out won't.

I will say that my staff occasionally
contracts with me not to bring any more

new ideas to them so
I built we can't do any more ideas so

you've really got to measure is
it the right time for that idea

is it does it play to our core
competency do we think there

is a constituency out there that won't
sus to succeed can we raise money for

is there a way to measure
if we do it whether and

translated into something the community
understands does it fit within my mission

I've got a broad mission but it's still
got a fit it's either engaging educator or

empowering in some kind of way so
you go through all those processes and

I don't necessarily have a checklist and
you know twenty eight things and

I check them but I'm always doing that
in my mind it's an intuitive thing.

Another thing I'll mention and
this is just something that I.

I guess developed when I was working
in working with the homeless is that.

I.
Discovered.

I had.

I don't know how to say this but
but like kind of a psychic ability

to see the best in people
instead of the worse I mean you

know you can see a person that's in
their worst state their addicted or

their you know they got in
trouble somehow whatever and

I had the gift of being able
to see the possibility in that

person doesn't always work out but
having that it really

helps in a dignified you know talent and
connect in talent to ideas.

So I think to be in this work
you've got to basically believe.

That most people want
to do the right thing.

That most people are good.

In the society that we live in right now.

And what you mostly see
own news in entertainment

is how can we scare the heck out of
how can we build more fear for the.

Weather the other person's a different
color nationality different religion

it's all around fearing the.

Now the great thing about your
generation is you can cut right

through that because you
have the technology as how

the revolutions are are happening
in the Middle East right now and

they're going to continue to happen
around the world we can't stop them.

Because people have
access to information but

you've got to access
the best part of yourself.

Of not just the information out there but
the best part of what you know in yourself

and if you can access that and look out
and see the possibilities instead of

the negativities see
the opportunities instead of a.

Problems you can see the best in people
and what if you could just create

the right situation they would step up and
do their best work then it's your job as

a leader to create that situation and
they will do their best work.

Bill you and your organization's a servant
made an impact in this community and

across the country thanks for
coming out to a detector thank you and.