Erin Barger was born in North Ridgeville, Ohio and grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, graduating from North Buncombe High School in Weaverville, North Carolina. She attended Florida College, and then finished her degree in English at Western Kentucky University. She planned to be a teacher but after working with adults with disabilities and resettling refugee families, she decided she wanted a career in nonprofit and human services. Erin joined the Peace Corps where she spent two years in China, then got a masters degree in Social Work and certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. She helped run Our Daily Bread and then was project manager of Envision Athens before becoming the CEO of the Food Bank of Northeast Georgia in August 2021. She serves on the boards of Family Connection-Communities in Schools and LEAD Athens, and teaches exercise classes at the YMCA of Athens. Erin lives off Tallassee Road with her husband Brian and sons Lazarus (11), Atticus (10) and Moses (8) and their dog, Haymore.
What do you love most about your work here?
I love that we are collectively pursuing a problem that can be solved. I believe that food insecurity in northeast Georgia is something that we can actually end in my lifetime. After spending some years trying to address a lot of priorities and challenges across a spectrum of categories and industries, the idea of coming to an organization with a long history, a legacy, and clear vision was really attractive. The Food Bank was founded by extraordinary people. Richard Boone was the key founder and an amazing person, and just having the legacy of compassionate, generous people behind us is really meaningful. I’m so grateful for the opportunity to work with this remarkable team of humans who come to work with great energy and for the right reasons. Each and every day they show up to share compassion and extend their talents on behalf of other people, and I see this compassion extend to people who are under stress, and the Food Bank is here so that something in their lives is easy and feels like kindness. Our goal is to not only end food insecurity across our fourteen county region but to also ensure that our guest’s experience is one of hospitality and grace. There is opportunity to both address a clear and solvable problem and to continuously improve what we are doing along the way. I am really excited about that.
When you are not working, what are some of your favorite things to do in Athens?
We love Athens so much! Pre-covid, we loved live music. The last show that I attended pre-covid was Shovels and Rope at The Georgia Theatre. That was such a good show! I remember the first time I heard Shovels and Rope I was like, is this a band of eight people because there is so much going on and it’s two people. I love that, the surprise element of people who are just so extraordinarily talented. So, live music. I love supporting the local businesses and eateries of Athens. Anything that Peter Dale does I love. There are just so many remarkable people that have established great businesses that we love to support. We love the Athens YMCA. We are there six days a week and our boys do that after school. I teach spin and other classes there. We love to go outside, so Bishop Park, Sandy Creek, Ben Burton; we spend a lot of time just enjoying the outdoors and all the great spaces in Athens.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
This actually probably reveals more than I realize. My instinctive response is China. It is a place that we have been and I would go back because we established roots there when we were Peace Corp volunteers for 27 months, just after we married. We did some work in local orphanages and that was, just as the commercial says, the toughest job you will ever love.It really is. The most wonderful thing about some of the work and opportunity that I have is that it has been rooted in love and it has borne fruit in relationships and these face to face connections are really difficult to leave behind. When, for whatever reason, certain worlds and opportunities come to a natural end, there is a sense that it is time to move on to the next thing. It is a twenty-seven month appointment, then you finish and move on. But part of your heart is forever connected. So, I would go back there.
Do you have a favorite book, or a book you find yourself rereading, referencing or gifting most often?
For a non-fiction book, a book that really impacted my life and how I understand the world is Factfulness by Hans Rosling, and it is just about how you determine what is real and what to be concerned about and how to manage information. Some fiction that I love, I am a fan of the classics, so George Elliot’s Middlemarch, Jane Austin’s writing, I love all of that. As a person of faith, I spend a lot of time reading Richard Rohr and C.S. Lewis and the holy book, the Bible. I spend a lot of time on the latter, especially since my time to read is pretty limited and so when I have it I try to reserve it for things that I know will give me life.
Do you have a favorite movie or remember the first movie you saw in a movie theatre?
My first movie was E.T. It was a little creepy with an intense childhood imagination! I was five I think. I watch a lot of Marvel, due to the Brothers Barger that we are raising. I love the show Gilmore Girls, just the witty banter and the mother daughter relationship. I also love older movies. I enjoy Carey Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and some of the old classics.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would you put?
Love Your Neighbor.
If you could give advice to your younger self, what advice would you give?
Don’t be so hard on yourself. God created you to be magnificent and will meet you where you are…just enjoy the trip!
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
I don’t know why but my automatic instinctive response is Peter, the Apostle Peter, at a Mediterranean Cafe. He has such a unique story and perspective of what it was like to walk with Jesus, to deny him and then to regain that relationship through Godly grace, and be reconciled.
If you could see any band or show anywhere, what would you see and where?
My automatic response, probably because of covid, is My Morning Jacket at the Red Rocks. They are my favorite and I haven’t seen them in a couple of years. Another would be Maverick City Music at my local place of worship [Calvary Bible Church]. I just saw them at State Farm Arena with my son, Lazarus, and I celebrate and am inspired by their way of bringing cultures together for the good news. They are amazing. I would love to just worship with them in an intimate, smaller place.
What is something interesting about you that most people may not know?
I think something that surprises people is the blend of friendliness and loving human connection with a willingness to have hard conversations. I don’t love confrontation, but I am willing to engage in challenges in order to get to peace and progress. And if an important value is being challenged, I don’t mind being uncomfortable if I can love my neighbor in the process, and more importantly, make life better for neighbors who don’t have the luxury of the conversation.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word “home?”
Sons, compassion and joy. (And I see my husband’s face with Jesus walking beside us).
