Practicing a Virtuous Politics: Bill Bolling and the Atlanta Community Food Bank

• Author: John Clayton Thomas
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12810
• Published date: 01 November 2017
• Date: 01 November 2017

Practicing a Virtuous Politics: Bill Bolling and the Atlanta Community Food Bank 933

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 77, Iss. 6, pp. 933–941. © 2017 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12810.

W. Henry Lambright, Editor

John Clayton Thomas

Georgia State University

John Clayton Thomas is professor in

the Department of Public Management and

Policy in the Andrew Young School of Policy

Studies at Georgia State University. He

has written four books and more than 60

articles in the areas of citizen–government

relationships, performance measurement

and program evaluation, and other aspects

of public management. He is currently

working on a book on administrative

leadership in public service.

E-mail: jcthomas@gsu.edu

Administrative

Prof‌i le

Abstract: Bill Bolling created the Atlanta Community Food Bank ( ACFB ) in 1979 and, as its executive director from

then until 2015, transformed a fledgling effort in a church basement into the “equivalent of a $100 million com-

pany.” This article tells the story of how Bolling built the ACFB from scratch, arguing that his accomplishments can be

traced to his effectiveness as a political leader. The article explains how Bolling practiced a virtuous politics in building

informal sources of power and in developing and applying political skills on behalf of the ACFB . In the process, the

article challenges the traditional critical scholarly view of political leadership, offering Bolling as a case illustration of

an emerging theory of a benevolent and effective form of political leadership.

Practicing a Virtuous Politics:

Bill Bolling and the Atlanta Community Food Bank

B ill Bolling created the Atlanta Community

Food Bank (ACFB) in 1979 and, as its

executive director from then until 2015,

transformed a fledgling effort in a church basement

into the “equivalent of a $100 million company”

(Davis 2015 ). In 2014, the ACFB distributed more

than 50 million pounds of food through a network of

more than 600 local and regional partners covering all

of Georgia ’ s 159 counties (Davis 2015 ).

Few, if any, observers would dispute that Bolling

is the reason for the success of the ACFB. He is

widely recognized as one of the

principal leaders in the Atlanta-

area nonprofit sector and in the

city more generally. As a recent

newspaper profile noted, “In

Atlanta, if big-time charity has

a face, it is Bolling ’ s” (Davis

2015 ).

Bolling ’ s efforts have won

him recognition beyond the

Atlanta area, too. In 2012, he

was named Georgian of the Year by Georgia Trend

magazine, the first nonprofit sector leader to be so

honored. Bolling has also been a leader in the national

food bank movement, playing an active role in the

development of the nonprofit Feeding America

(formerly Second Harvest). In fact, when a survey of

food bank executives from around the United States

recently asked for names of leaders in the national

movement, “One person [other than Bill] was named

twice. More than 10 people named Bill” (Davis 2015 ).

Many factors figure in Bolling ’ s success and the

broader success of the food bank movement. Timing

could have been important in that the food bank

movement, having begun in the late 1960s, may have

been primed for growth when Bolling signed on in

the late 1970s. This article argues, though, that much

of Bolling ’ s success can be traced to his effectiveness

as a political leader in building informal political

power and developing and exercising political skills.

In addition, as a counterpoint to the widespread

pejorative connotations of political leadership, this

article also argues that Bolling has practiced a virtuous

politics focused on promoting

the public good in an ethical

manner.

After first tracing Bolling ’ s

history from childhood through

the building of the ACFB, this

article examines scholarly and

practitioner perspectives on

political leadership, starting

with the common pejorative

view, before turning to an

emerging scholarly argument for a positive and

ethical brand of political leadership. The core of the

article then profiles Bolling ’ s political leadership as

a case illustration of positive or virtuous political

leadership, focusing on how he gained informal

political power and developed and exercised political

skills in building the ACFB. The article concludes by

considering lessons of the Bolling story for how to be

an effective, but also virtuous, political leader in the

public realm.

 is article argues, though, that

much of Bolling ’ s success can

be traced to his ef‌f ectiveness

as a political leader in building

informal political power and

developing and exercising politi-

cal skills.