By Chiara Coddington
Bob Barry was an accountant before he became the FoodBank’s CFO in 2006. Bob worked at the FoodBank for a little over 11 years.
“I was amazed at what was going on in the FoodBank,” Bob said. “And with Kathleen’s support, I was able to form a group of other food bank CFOs across the country.”
One thing that Bob found compelling about the FoodBank was its low administrative costs. He saw that the organization wanted to make sure that the dollars that came in would go back out to people who needed it.
“I worked alongside Kathleen every day,” Bob said. “Meeting Kathleen was a gift, and working with Kathleen was an even bigger gift. After leaving the FoodBank, I became the CEO of another organization. But I channel a lot from what I learned from her in my role as a CEO.”
Bob recalls how Superstorm Sandy in 2012 turned everything upside down at the FoodBank. But, he says, there was a culture at the organization that made the employees want to volunteer themselves. On one Sunday, Bob remembers, the staff came in on their day off to sort food. And Kathleen was also there, working just like everyone else.
Bob remembers another crisis when the FoodBank’s services were urgently needed, too: the 2008 recession.
“In 2008, when we had the economic turndown, I went to CFBNJ’s Egg Harbor Township location to work there for a day or two to help at the Community Assistance Pantry. I got down there at 9:00 on a Monday morning in November, and there was a line of around 60 people waiting for food. I remember I saw two men in line, maybe a little younger than myself, in suits and ties. I went up to a man who was in his late 30s or early 40s and asked him what happened. The man stated he lost his job because of the economic crisis, and had three kids: ages six, three, and one. And there was no way he was going home that day without food for his family.”
It was a humbling moment because it begged the question: “What does hunger look like?” Bob responded with, “Look in the mirror.” Any one of us can become food insecure at any time. That encounter changed Bob’s commitment to the FoodBank.
When Bob retires, he hopes that he and his wife will move somewhere closer to the FoodBank so that he can volunteer there more. Bob feels that he has gotten so much more back from the FoodBank than he ever put into it.