When Nancy Johnson was a young housewife and mother in her mid-twenties, she can remember saying “Dear God-I don’t care what my life is, as long as it is not boring.” Nancy Johnson’s life has been many things, but never boring. From 1990-1998, Nancy served as the Director of New initiatives with Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Columbus and Franklin County. She created and implemented a plan to recruit and train 600 volunteers each year to mentor children ages 6-16. In 1998, Nancy started working for the Columbus Museum of Art as the Administrator of Volunteers. Nancy worked at the museum until 2011 when she became the Executive Director of the Dublin Food Pantry. It is a part-time job, but takes full-time hours.
After Nancy was named the director, she did a complete overhaul of the food pantry’s layout and client service and the operation now moves flawlessly with families receiving food in a very efficient process. “I maintain relations with community leaders, donors, volunteers and clients to keep current of community needs and issues relevant to the fulfillment of our mission of assuring that no one in our community goes hungry. I work with volunteer leadership to oversee the management, recruitment, retention, and training of volunteers and promote the Pantry via media outlets, public speaking and have an on-site presence. I also work with volunteer leadership to introduce new initiatives that enable us to continually upgrade our program and meet the ever evolving needs of our community.”
Nancy has found that every job she has worked has a learning curve that is unique to that job and must be mastered in order to achieve the vision you have for that job. “Like everyone in my situation, I have had to analyze and understand the basics of complex operations and relationships in order to move forward with a vision for the future. Having the patience to move at the correct pace and to take the time necessary to build critical relationships are obstacles I have had to overcome, as was keeping faith and confidence in myself.”
Nancy has a strong support group in the volunteers at the Dublin Food Pantry because they all believe so strongly in the mission of the Pantry. “My Agora church group is also a very strong support system because they have actively supported me from my very first days at the Pantry….some of which were very difficult as I climbed the very steep learning curve.” Of course, her family has always been on hand to encourage Nancy and give her advice and suggestions.
The advice that Nancy would like to give to others is to do what you love and you will most likely be successful and the money will follow. “If the money doesn’t follow you are still ahead of the game because you will be happy doing what you love instead of miserable trying to do something you don’t like and wishing you had followed your heart.”
For ways you can help the Dublin Food Pantry, please visit www.dublinfoodpantry.org.