CEO's You Should Know x The Maryland Food Bank

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am John Dinkle, founder and CEO of Dnkele Business
Development and former president and publisher of the Baltimore Business Journal.
This is Iheartradios CEOs you should know, and I'm here
today with Carmen Delgretio, President and CEO of the Maryland
Food Bank.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Welcome Carmen, and thanks for being here.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
I appreciate it. Thanks.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
Yeah, looking forward to catching up to you. It's been
been a little while, I know exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Yeah, yeah, I thought we'd get started by just maybe
getting to know the organization a little bit. For those
who are familiar, could you tell us a little bit
about the Maryland Food Bank.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, I'm happy to the Maryland Food Bank. For the
last forty five years, we've been the hub of the
food assistant Stafety Net for the state of Maryland. W'ere
the organization that sources you know, through donations. They're purchasing
food as much healthy and nutritious food we can and
find ways to distribute it to as many people as
we can, all across the state. We've shifted or expanded

(00:59):
our focus, I would say, over the last few years,
realizing that you know, by doing this for forty five years.
The issue of food and security still is pretty significant
in our community. So in addition to providing access to food,
we're starting to really begin to find ways to address
the root causes of hunger and hopefully ending hunger for
good for more malenders.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
So that's what we do in a nutshell.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
That's great, Well, thank you. Could you talk a little
bit more, maybe in depth about some of the various
programming like including like the workforce development projects you're working
with and things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Yeah, no, happy to you know, starting on the food
distribution side, and we distribute almost enough food for almost
about fifty million million meals a year, John, So yeah,
people don't kind of you know, people we love having
people come in our facility in Healthrope they kind of
see the operations behind the scenes. There's a lot that
goes into doing that. But what we have done is
to try to expand our programming over the years on

(01:51):
the food distribution side, realizing that different communities across the
state better. Certain programs work better in some communities than others. Right,
So then one community, because of what we know about
what's going on there, we might rely on a school
program so we have relationships at over two hundred schools
where we have pantries in those locations who most of
the schools service community centers, if you will, right, trusted

(02:12):
advisors to the community. We have seven hundred and almost
eight hundred partner what we call partner organizations a partner network.
These are organizations on the ground and the communities all
across our state, schools and other types of organizations who
are who we provide food too, so they in turn
conserve their local communities. Then we have programs like what

(02:34):
we call pantry on the go. It's a mass distribution
into a location where we may not have strong partner
network already in place, and allows us to come there
either every other week or once a month, depending on
the organization, with large quantities of food to serve larger populations.
And then we have programs that cater towards smaller populations
on what we call our mobile market.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
If both folks who aund what a.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Bookmill bill look like or in the old days, similar
model where people come on to our truck and shop
for food is appropriate for their families. So those are
the kind of examples some of the things we're doing
on the food distribution side. Then there's things like workforce development.
We have a culinary training program in our facility to
Health Rope. It's a twelve week program both online and

(03:21):
in person, and it's a program that we say is
both life skills and knife skills. And so we try
to use the opportunity when we're together with our students
to ensure that we are helping them address other barriers
that they have in terms of support you know for
those solutions is from a social casework standpoint. And then

(03:43):
we have a work We have you know, job placement
specialists to help them with the resume writing and their
interviewing skills and just you know kind of shown up
on time and being ready to work and all those
kind of things to put them in the best positions succeed.
That program in healthrop has been going on for thirteen
or fourteen years, and we just started one in Salisbury.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
About three years ago. That neat.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, appreciate going over that, kind
of curious to how are you guys funded?

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Yeah, that's a great question, especially relevant these days.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah. Yeah, So we receive.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
At a little over sixty percent of our funding from
private funders. That's you know, those are corporations, individuals, foundations,
and then about twenty five between twenty five and thirty
percent of our funding comes from public sources, both the
state and federal level. And then about ten percent of
our funding comes from reimbursement programs things that we do,

(04:40):
you know, where we get reimbursed for We're we're broughding
meals after school meals and things like that. So that
government government funding piece has actually grown over the last
couple of years, and certainly it's on there a little
bit of stress right now.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Yeah, Yeah, I've talked with quite a few nonprofit leaders
out there about that and the impact that's having or
even just the it might not be impacting them yet,
but the scare level, I guess, yeah, of some of that,
that's I think that there's a lot of that out there.
And are there from your perspective just as a nonprofit
leader as are I imagine you all are having conversations

(05:12):
or obviously around that, but you know, social enterprise and
and you know, changing the funding model moving forward to
be less dependent on you know, the government. But that's
got to be such a big shift to turn.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
It's a major shift to turn to your point, and
then so, yeah, clearly we're having discussion about ways in
which we can kind of diversify further and further release
or reliance. You know, it's something I'll be honest with you.
When I came here eight years ago, I wanted to grow,
and we successfully did so because I thought, you know,
I think we did a good job of demonstrating to
legislators at the local and federal level or impact.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
But now we have Now there's the backside of that, right.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
The risk of that when change administration or other budget
challenges that you know we're certainly facing here at the
state starting to put some of that at risk, and
those those are big dollars when you lose you know,
when you lose that kind of funding, you know, it's
it's it's some We're but we're continuously planning and we're
having a lot of discussions about what that, you know,
in anticipation what might be coming on the pike so
we can respond appropriately.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
Yeah, yeah, I appreciate you sharing that.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:14):
How can the business community support the Maryland Food Bank?

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, I mean I think we're going to be relying
on the business community more than ever because you know,
some of these potential cuts are going to you know,
we're going to need to kind of replace that funding
some way. But we have a unique proposition, I think
for the business community, John in that we are a
significant volunteer based organization. We have upwards of thirty six
thousand our volunteer hours in our.

Speaker 4 (06:37):
Organization every year.

Speaker 1 (06:39):
That's that's you know, nearly ten thousand visits. And so
when you what we find is that organizations, many of
which are still wrestling with working from home type of
environments in their workplace and continue to maintain some level
of employee engagement, some community building that we have more
and more interest on corporations to potentially host an event

(06:59):
at our volunteer event at our facility in a way
to not only get back to the community but also
provide some opportunity for engagement and camaradie amongst the team.
So we think we are really well positioned to be
an organization that can help companies do that while also
you know, hopefully resulting in some monetary support as well.

(07:20):
And so there's a little bit of time and treasure
there and then talent. Many corporations offering their some of
their leaders to the board members and participate in helping
nonprofit solve problems and so hopefully tapping into business community
that way with regard to their to their talent there.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (07:38):
Yeah, yeah, and I can uh, you know, I guess
personally recommend that having a team that I took some
TVJ folks ever to the Maryland tubang for an exercise
and the team the only thing and it was awesome.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
It was great, the team, Your team was awesome. So yeah,
I wouldn't recommend that it was a lot of fun.
What would you say or.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
Was one thing and maybe even one or two things
that like accomplishments that you and your team you know,
are most proud of over the past fiscal year.

Speaker 1 (08:10):
Uh, yeah, I think that's a that's a great question.
I think there's a there's a there's a lot we're
really excited about in terms of what we've been able
to do. I would say, if I were to kind
of narrow and on one thing, John, I think it's
the willingness for us as an organization to kind of
take a bit of a pause, not in a pause
from the standpoint responding to the needs. Because we distributed

(08:33):
more food last year than we did the previous year,
but pause in terms of our internal activity, our niches
are projects. I felt strongly that as an organization, one
of the things that I was trying to promote and
we've I think we've been successful is create a culture
of innovation, uh, a comfort of trying new things and

(08:54):
to be kind of agile in terms of responding to needs.
And so we've introduced a lot of new things programmatically
into our organization. And I think what we heard from
the organization team members to say, can we just slow
down from it and give us a chance to catch
up to some of these things going on. And so
our willing is to hear that and listen to that
and respond. And so the theme for our fiscal year

(09:14):
is finish what we started. Is a way to really
demonstrate that we're the inbox is empty. We're not bringing
anything else new into this organization right now. We just
want to work the things we have to try to
figure out what those you know, figure out what role
those things will play in our future business model.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
So I think, you know.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
That's a tough thing to admit is sometimes the leader
that's kind of organization saying, hey, give me a raake
a little bit I think was critically important for us
to do it is send a strong message to our
team that we heard and we listened, and that we
did we're willing to take that pause. And so I
think for me, I feel excited about that. One of
the big products in there was a huge technology project.

(09:52):
There was six platforms, including our primary program, and we
just went live in February third, So we're building it.
While we're doing that, we're building a foundation and for
the future for the organ stations at the same time.

Speaker 3 (10:02):
Yeah, that's great.

Speaker 2 (10:03):
And actually, you know, given the time and the imagine,
actually good timing for you to take a pause on
new things because the climate has changed so much it
actually it'll probably good timing on your bard to do that,
so you can, you know, shore up what you have
do though, make su you're doing those things really well.
And then now it's just a little bit of a

(10:24):
different climate out there now. So he puts yourself in
a better position to attack that. So yeah, so I
think that's that's great.

Speaker 4 (10:32):
Agreed.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I wish I could tell I had that foresight, but yeah, agree,
I just turned out.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
It turned out perfectly clim Agreed, you did. I'm sure
you did.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
That's my story. I'm sticking to it.

Speaker 3 (10:40):
John, I wanted to switch gears a little bit.

Speaker 2 (10:44):
I wanted to see if you wouldn't mind like telling
us a little bit about your personal background and your
decision to UH to step down after eight years as
the CEO.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean it was a difficult decision for sure,
but I really felt like it's been there's been a
lot that we've dealt with over the last eight and
a half years in terms of word this organization was
financially and reputationally and how far that's come. You know,
we've obviously gone through a pandemic, so you know, if
I'm really being honest, that there's there is a bit
of a kind of fatigue factor from from where I sit.

(11:15):
But I think the thing that gave me most comfort
in terms of the timing it as too, is this
as a as a leader, I think you know, you're
always concerned about, you know, long term sustainability of the
organization and leadership transitions. You know, to the extent that
I could create an environment where we can control that
in a very organized way as opposed as something that's
reacting to an event.

Speaker 4 (11:37):
UH.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Anytime I can do that, I think is a good
thing for the organization and I for me, coming out
of finish what we started, I think was really felt
like a good time where this for for a transition
to occur. So, you know, as I began to look
at the horizon of things that we were going to
we want to do as an organization, I had to
be able to prepare it to say, listen, I this

(11:58):
is needs somebody with the U level of energy and
commitment and dedication the Calth Caurier organizations for the next
three or five years. And you know, if I was
being honest with myself, wasn't sure I was the.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
Best person to do that.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
So a little bit about where I was and a
little bit about where the organization was and kind of
this perfect world coming together. I'm not going anywhere. I'm
not looking for the next opportunity right now. It's just
I thought was the cleanest time to for this transition,
and I planics to be involved as a volunteer.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, yeah, I think that's It's interesting. I look at
some organizations out there, whether the for profit or nonprofit side,
and you can see when the organization needs like a
leadership change and the leader is not aware that they
probably should. No, No, not that they're doing a bad
job or anything like that. It's just sometimes you just

(12:47):
need fresh ideas and fresh center or for whatever that
case is. I would I did the same thing myself.
I was with the this term for sixteen years and
eleven as a publisher, and it was time for me
to let somebody else take over the reins and try
a fresh you know, new starter, different things.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Yeah, so yeah, I got to appreciate that perspective.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
I'm glad.

Speaker 1 (13:07):
It gives me confidence that maybe this is the right
thing to do. And again, it's it's our obligation of
the organizations we lead right to say what's the best
for this, what's the best with this organization going forward?
And if it's and again, if if we look ourselves
in her and say, am I dea, If I'm the
best leader for it at this time, then I should
stick around. If I think this an opportunity for someone
else to take it to another level, then we didn't.

Speaker 4 (13:26):
That's great.

Speaker 1 (13:27):
First we're probligated to make Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, speaking of a thank you for sharing that. Speaking
of leadership, how would you describe your leadership style?

Speaker 1 (13:37):
You know, for me, I think it's important for leaders
to be able to flax sifty will in terms of
exerting a different style depending on the situation.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
I mean, it might be times that you have to
be very kind of I don't.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Know, authoritative and decisive and say listen, we're just going
to do this, you know, and not really engage in
debate or dialogue. There's other times where you need to
be collaborative. There's other times where you might de gate
that other other places. And so I think good leaders
situationally are able to kind of pivot, if you will,
or kind of spread across the spectrum of those type
of leadership approaches. I'm not saying I did that particularly well.

(14:11):
If I were to say from my perspective, I probably
leaned most towards, uh, you know, kind of more of creative,
a very collaborative environment within the organization. You know, we
often talk about as our senior team that we operate
in a as a round table. Everybody would a vote yeah,
And I felt like that was an opportunity to really,

(14:31):
you know, get the best ideas out and create for
some good healthy debate and led us to I think,
the best decisions. And so I think for me that's
the place I tended to probably I would default to,
if you will, as my core style, my main style.
You know, I think about servant leadership too, is probably
not the same, whether they're related or not, but just

(14:53):
you know, making sure that we're focused on what's good,
what's good for the most.

Speaker 3 (14:57):
It's great, great, thank you. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
One thing has come up when I've talked about this
in people as leadership styles and conversation around that, and
seems the buzzword these days is resiliency. So you know,
these are kind of interesting times for both nonprofits and
for profits. So when you think of resiliency, what comes
to mind? What do you think about?

Speaker 1 (15:17):
Yeah, that's a great question. You know, when I think
about resiliency is to individually as a leader, you know,
are we able to lean on the network around us,
the support systems around us that I think that builds
resiliency as the people that you've got a good team
around you that could share that burden, that give you
the energy and ability is to continue to kind of

(15:40):
plow through the challenges you're facing. I think that's critically important.
I think resiliency also shows up as it relates to
self care. I would say that this is something I
probably don't talk about and many people probably didn't talk
about now probably pre COVID in terms of kind of
mental health and physical health, and creating space for you
to think, creating space for you to get away from

(16:01):
the day to day, creating space for like a peaceful
place for thinking. And so I think that helps to
build resiliency for leaders to ensure that they aren't just
so caught up in the grind that they day to
day grind, and making sure they can kind of get
above that a bit and to look out over a
balcony in terms of saying, Okay, where are we, what
are we trying to solve for, and just to think

(16:23):
through that, because if you get caught up in the
day to day and every challenge that comes at you,
you know, that's easy to kind of just get totally
burnt out and discouraged and feeling like you're you're not
making any progress. And so I think resiliency is making
sure you've got a good team around you help build
resiliency and that you're taking care of yourself in terms
of of work life balance and and just time to

(16:44):
just time to think and breathe.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, I love that, especially the part about the team.
I haven't really heard much of that talking to other leaders,
but that's huge, oh man. In order to keep yourself
resilient and your team and the leader ship team and
the rest of the staff for that reason that you
have to be surrounded by good people, you have to
uh share the burden, like you said, and like I

(17:08):
love that.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yeah, I mean it's in terms of sharing the burden.
I mean, it's not as if you're trying to pass
it off. But you know, so this is a time
where you can pick each other up, right, I mean,
so there's times where I'm I can't lean in. I
just I just physically not I can't do it. I'm
dealing with a personal issue, whoever that might be. And
some of your team kind of picks can pick you
up and vice versa. And so I think I think
about resiliency not only as a leadership in the individually,

(17:29):
but also as leadership team. So I think it's important
to do that. But otherwise, you know, our tendencies and
our rules is sometimes to carry a heavy burden, and
we should. Yeah, I think that doesn't doesn't bode well
long term, No, doesn't.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
I love that any any would you, you know, stepping
down at the end of June, and any partying advice
you would give to other nonprofit leaders in this this
kind of time.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Well, yeah, resiliency, how about that for advice and just
build it.

Speaker 4 (18:00):
Yeah, I mean, this is a time where folks are
just kind to lean in. It's gonna be it's going
to be ugly. There's going to be the.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Things that you can't anticipate and that you have to
try to, uh, you know, do the best you can
to respond to and just to recognize the fact that
that's that's that's a journey we'll be on for a while,
and that kind of prepare yourself for that and prepare
your team for that. But lean in and try to
control what you can control proactively, try to address what
you can control, and not just you know, lay back

(18:25):
and let it come to you. I think there's times
where we're just going to have to be more bold
and more assertive. The other thing I would say, John, actually,
and this is something I've always telt strongly about, but
I think it's going to play out more now than ever.
One of the things I've talked tried to talk more
about during my time here was now the industry as
a whole, the nonprofit isstry, is extremely fragmented. Right, everybody's

(18:46):
kind of in their own particular lane. Oftentimes are competing
for for limited resources, doing things mission wise to try
to differentiate me from you, right turn, my turn, my
mission a little bit sideways painted blue, and that's why
I'm different John, So fund me and not John. And
I think what we need to do as an industry,
and especially now, is create more collaboration, more openness to partnering,

(19:10):
more using you know, business terms, more joint ventures, more
those type of relationships, because I think collectively we can
have a bigger impact, We can tell a better story,
and I think funders will respond positively that, whether it's federal,
whether it's you know, public or private. I think that's
an opportunity for us as an industry to set aside
our egos, set aside our concerned about impacting our donors,

(19:34):
and to align ourselves with other nonprofits who complement our
work in a way that again, working together could make
much more effective and again have a much better story
to tell. I think that's going to be critically more
important now than ever.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, that's that's great.

Speaker 4 (19:46):
Advice.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
Actually, some of the work we do now is around
strategic alliances and yeah, you know, whether it's partnering on
it event or content or you know, or sharing information
or you know, things like that to help both of
you organizations. And you don't, yeah, you don't see a
lot of that on the nonprofit side. But that's that's
great advice. And it's because it's an important part of

(20:07):
any or any for profit business to align with like companies,
non competitive but going after the same target market. But
how can we align our you know, all of our resources,
uh and and and both wins you know.

Speaker 3 (20:24):
So, yeah, that's that's great advice. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
I mean today, you know, today we work with Meals
and Wheels, Mobile Feast, United Way, these organizations that you know,
years ago we probably didn't do, we didn't work together.
I mean, now we're kind of creating these opportunities to
kind of leverage each other's strengths and again increase our impact.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
And I'm convinced.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
That donor community will react, the investor community, if you will,
being donors and all the supporters will react positive that
as as they would in a for profit environment.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think you're right. I think you're right.
That's great advice.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (20:54):
As you're looking forward and you know kind of you know,
working away. What excites you about the future of the
Maryland Food Bank as you're kind of looking from your
perspective now.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
Yeah, I believe the organization has is you know, we
distribute more nutritious, more nutritious food than we did in
any time in our history of organization. Our reach in
terms of programmatic response is broadened as deep as it's
ever been anytime in its history. I think our reputation
is strong, our financial position is solid, and so we
are well positioned to really embark on a to be

(21:31):
even more bold and innovative in terms of how we
approach this issue of ending hunger for good from our malenders.
And so I'm stepping out of time when the organization
is about to embark on a new strategic plan again,
another great entry point for a new leader to really
begin to focus in on those activities that we think
are that we can we're best suited to lead and

(21:55):
can have the greatest impact. And so I'm really excited
about what's on the horizon for this organization, and too,
in the environment that we're trying to create that really
to bring some bold and innovative thinking into the organization
in a way that again I mentioned earlier about we've
we've brought on a lot of new initiatives, a lot
of new programs, and frankly we may be too broad.

(22:16):
You know, We've probably we've got ten programs of which
we all of which we do okay or we do well.
But can I can we shrink the five and do
those extremely well?

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Right?

Speaker 1 (22:25):
And it kind of even be more effective as an
organization by focusing on those that we think.

Speaker 4 (22:29):
Are the biggest impact.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
So those are opportunities in front of the organization that
I think is really has great potential to have long
term impact and really uh and really you know, elevate
even further than it already has as an organization, and
I think set the foundation for that both again financially,
people wise, from as well as you know, technology and

(22:51):
those type of things that they can really go any
direction they choose in a way that really could be
very exciting to watch them.

Speaker 3 (22:58):
Yeah, that's great, that's exciting. Thank you, Thank you, And well.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
Well kind of wrap things up, you know, is there
anything else that you'd like our listeners to know about
you and the Maryland Food Bank.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
Well, I think I think we cover a lot of ground.
I mean, I think again, as from the Maerican food
banks perspective, you know, we often talk about the fact
this is work we cannot do alone, and and so
we rely heavily on a host of support, whether it's
again volunteer activity, whether it's financial support, whether people are

(23:29):
dedicating their talent, their talent in terms of advice and
and so, you know, the challenges that we have ahead
of us near term are real. You know, we're going
to we anticipate that we're going to be faced with,
you know, rising food costs. We buy about twenty two
million dollars worth of food now we used to buy
about six We're going to have program supports that will
go away. You hear a lot about snap cuts happening.

(23:50):
Snap provides nine meals or a meal we provide, so
any cuts there are going to have dematic kind of
impact and demand and then funding, so food banking. My
point is the food bank needs people's help more than ever.
Whether you're able to donate your time or your or dollars,
our buying power goes a long way.

Speaker 4 (24:09):
So hopeful that that.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
People who have support us what continue to do so,
and people who haven't supported us will consider doing so.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
So that's yeah, very bad.

Speaker 2 (24:20):
And what's the best way to get more information about that?
And just to your general programming for the Maryland Feedbank.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
Yeah, right, go to our website.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Could directly our website and they can, you can, you
can go all sorts of different ways. We got places
where people can if you're if you're food and secure
or just concerned about where you're your next contrition meal
is going to come from.

Speaker 4 (24:39):
We have a fine food.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Page there, which is actually an interesting that we didn't
talk about. That's a that's a great leading indicator for.

Speaker 4 (24:44):
Us, John.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
We're seeing right now the amount of volume and traffic
on that site, on our website is up one hundred
and twenty five percent, and so that's the leading indicator
and such that if you are already food and secure
and working through our network, you wouldn't have to quot
to our site to figure out, you know, how get food.
These are people who are trying to figure that out
for the first time. So anyway, I went down that
little rabbit hole day, but that's one you know where

(25:06):
you're looking for food, whether you're looking for ways to volunteer,
looking a way of fun that were just learning more
about organization.

Speaker 4 (25:12):
You can get all that from our website.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Awesome, awesome. Well, first of all, thank you for taking
the time to be able to show today. I really
appreciate that.

Speaker 2 (25:18):
Secondly, congratulations on your let's just call it quot unquote.

Speaker 3 (25:22):
Retirement from the food Bank.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
Thank you, and most importantly, thank you for gosh all
your leadership over the past eight years with the organization.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
It's grown incredibly.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
I mean, you're obviously extremely well respected out in the
business community and the nonprofit community for all that you've done.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
So so thank you for that and and really appreciate
your time today.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
John, Thank you for the opportunity and those kind words.
I really appreciate that means a lot. To learn more
about the Maryland Food Bank. Log onto mdfoodbank dot org.
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs. You should know