By Scott D. Johnston

Just before Thanksgiving, Ocean Shores Food Bank Executive Director Leon Brauner has announced his upcoming departure from that position.

As he prepares to take on a new challenge of organizing area food banks into a regional alliance, he passes the baton locally to Sandra Harley, who has been the Assistant Director for most of this year.

“I have enjoyed my time as director – in fact, it has been one of the life experiences I wouldn’t trade for anything,” Brauner said. “While I have been the food bank’s director, in reality it has been a team effort.”

Brauner cited “our indefatigable Operations Manager, Michael Lull, and our terrific Outreach Liaison Manager, Barbara Patton.” He also noted that Harry Yanigimachi, head of the Food Bank’s garden project, along with Terri Wilson, “have set a high bar for making sure our clients have the best fresh produce possible.” He said the Operations Committee, “our management team, including Mike, Barbara, Harry, Terri, Lee Kloeppel, Margaret Thompson, Mike Patton, and Sandy Harley has helped keep the food bank running smoothly and most importantly, people fed.”

Brauner is confident these people, and more than 50 volunteers, “neighbors who selflessly give of themselves so that our neighbors in need have better lives,” will continue operating at a high level.

“Sandy has been working alongside me as Associate Director since early this past winter. She has a good grasp of the organization and will be a great addition to the team as well as an asset to our community,” he said.

Prior to moving to Ocean Shores in 2014, Harley and her husband, Bob, lived in Auburn. She served on the board of their local homeowners association and also was president of their church council. She retired in 2010 as a senior vice president of a securities broker/dealer in Seattle, and continued to serve on its board until 2015.

While in Ocean Shores, she has been active as treasurer and board member of Ocean Shores Woof-a-Thon, a non-profit charity that provides funds to organizations that benefit animals. It was through Woof-A-Thon founder Wilma Spike that she first met, and was impressed with, Brauner, and became involved with the Food Bank.

When a Food Bank board position became open in 2014, Bob applied and joined the board. Early the next year, “with my responsibilities in Seattle winding down, I decided I’d like to volunteer,” she recalled. “My first job was sorting green plastic bags and picking out rotten onions!” Brauner eventually asked her to join the Operations Committee.

“Leon has done all the ground work and has everything set up and running smoothly,” Harley said. “I just need to keep it going.”

“It is a big job, and I sometimes do wonder what I’ve gotten myself into. But I do have that sense that this is what I’m supposed to be doing at this time in my life.”

She knows her professional experience is relevant, with many similarities in organizing and running a small business with about 50 employees and 50 volunteers operating the Food Bank.

Harley is excited about the challenge of “matching people and their skills with the tasks that need to be done here at the Food Bank,” because “the volunteers are amazing and the community support is just outstanding!”

She will officially become Executive Director at year’s end. Brauner, meanwhile, is embarking on what he believes is a next logical step in the “food bank big picture,” at least in our part of the picture. “I’ve got a project for the coming year to create a coastal coalition of food banks. There a lot of small food banks – 38 in Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties, just hugging the coast.” He hopes they can find ways to work together to generate more attention to their collective cause and more help for their clients.

And Brauner will remain a part of the volunteer crew at Ocean Shores Food Bank, treasuring the interaction with volunteers and those in need:

“I will continue to be a neighbor helping another neighbor in need … so that no one in our community goes hungry.”