Mike's Letter

Dear Friends,

 

Five years ago, just after the Food Bank’s 25th Anniversary, I began to see that Golden Harvest would need fresh energy and new leadership to continue its great work. Each morning I prayed, “God, please send a faith-filled person to be my successor at the Food Bank.” Golden Harvest is vital to God’s work in the Church and for the needy of our region that I wanted to be sure that the Food Bank’s focus and strong mission would be continued. Hundreds of ministries and charitable outreaches depend on the food supplied by Golden Harvest. Each year, thousands of families are helped with Golden Harvest’s grocery products transported throughout our 30-county service area in Georgia and South Carolina.

 

In February 2009, I found myself needing to take a break, a retreat day to pray and be with God. I invited my friend Travis McNeal, associate pastor for worship at Warren Baptist Church and in church ministry for 20 years, to come with me for the day. It was a very good day of silent prayer and also of sharing our respective journeys with God. This man had a heart for the poor; that was evident. He was a person of prayer. He had been obedient in walking through doors that God had previously opened to him. God showed me that Travis McNeal, my new friend, was indeed the one He picked to be my successor at Golden Harvest Food Bank. God had answered my several years’ worth of prayer!

 

I wrote the outline for a three-year mentoring program beginning with the hiring of the prospective candidate by August 2009, with the person sharing my office and being trained in the culture, spirit and practicalities of Golden Harvest and of the food banking movement in general. The Board of Directors approved the plan and an interview was quickly arranged with the Executive Committee. The Committee voted unanimously to bring Travis alongside me as the candidate for my successor. I knew the power of God’s call and that Travis, being a man of faith and of prayer, could hear and obey.

 

Travis has been a part of multiple turning points at the Food Bank since coming to Golden Harvest. The Master’s Table capital campaign was successful and the new facility erected; the economy took a nosedive, as did the Food Bank’s contribution levels; staff reductions took place while actual food demand from needy families soared; and our staff, with fewer numbers, accomplished record levels of distribution volume. Travis has joined me at conferences on a state and national level as we’ve navigated the Food Bank in the past few years. I could never have dreamed up a more rigorous testing-period than Travis has been through.

 

Dr. Anthony Robinson, Assistant Professor of Marketing in Augusta State University’s Hull College of Business, has volunteered to Chair the Transition Committee that will guide us in these next six months before the change in Executive Directors.  The Committee includes Golden Harvest’s Chair of the Board and Incoming Chair, two donors who have successfully managed their own businesses’ transitions, and the Food Bank’s senior staff. Please rest assure that every aspect of this leadership transition—even to my writing you this personal letter and its timing—has been thoughtfully engaged by the Committee.

 

Now here we are, February 2012, in the Food Bank’s 30th Anniversary year, and six months until Travis will be given leadership of Golden Harvest and the title of Executive Director on July 30th. Between now and then, I will be handing over the duties and decision-making of the Executive Director position to Travis. You will see him more and more in the public eye. He will assume a supervisory role in the day-to-day operations. You deserve to know that I am handing over the leadership of the Food Bank to a person in whom I have great trust and confidence. He has learned well and is worthy of your support. As I always have, Travis needs your support and counts on your prayers.  At the end of July, I will move offsite and work out my home fulltime, for one more year, as an Advisor.

 

What a story of God’s faithfulness do I see as I look back on the last 30 years! God has seen your love for the poor and I know He has blessed you. As the passage in the Book of Ecclesiastes says, “There is a time for everything under heaven,” this is the time of wonderful change at the Food Bank.

 

 

Sincerely,                                 

             

Michael J. Firmin             

        Executive Director