How God Provides: Miracles In A Food Bank With Mark Anthony
You might already know about the biblical tale of how God mysteriously worked to feed 5000 people with only seven loaves of bread and some fish. Today's guest has a similar story. Mark Anthony is the President/Founder of Southeastern Food Bank, an organization that provides daily sustenance to neighbors in need. He joins host Chad Burmeister to share the multiple instances of how God maneuvered for him to continue his purpose of providing food for the many, from donations from a stranger to donations at the 11th hour. He also explains how more than just feeding them, he also aims bring people to Christ through his evangelism. Be inspired by his story and his commitment to his service in today's episode.
---
Listen to the podcast here:
How God Provides: Miracles In A Food Bank With Mark Anthony
I'm with someone who is from the East Coast in Florida. He is the CEO of the Southeastern Food Bank. Mark Anthony has been there for many years. Mark, thanks for coming on the show. I think you're in a position where a lot of us want to be and that is living in contribution. Early in our careers, we try to put food on the table and feed our families. The further through life we get, we want to get to a place of contribution and you're there. I'm excited to dig into your journey. I like to start by going back. We’ll rewind the tape. That is the very first thing we do here. That is you're 6, 7, 8, 10 years old. What do you remember? What were you passionate about when you were a kid?
As a kid, I had old ladies for friends because I had this thing about old ladies. It's now coming to fruition a little bit on our programs. It was being with the old ladies.
Where were you? Were you in Florida?
I grew up in Orlando. I'm from Orlando. I'm the first generation.
What led you to hang out with older ladies?
These ladies are like 60 to 80 years old and they're from church. I don't know what the attraction was other than they were nice and kind or something.
Now you're helping people in a similar way. That's interesting because there always seems to be a tie between what we did as a kid and what we're doing now. Had you thought about that before?
Not until we had this conversation. I just like the old ladies.
It sounds like you were in and around church at a young age. What was that about?
My grandparents and my parents went to church and we’re mentored. I didn't get saved until I was seventeen but I'm in church all my life.
I love the saved piece. I remember my daughter, we were going to a church in North Carolina. We've always thought we were doing the right thing and bring them to church. Until one Sunday, she actually signed at the back of the card, "Today I found Jesus." That was such a compelling day. We had to turn the card in because they want to capture that, but I took a picture of it. It was a neat experience.
When you get to choose, "Now is the day that I accepted," it was a big deal. My son came around about 1 or 2 months after that. That was pretty cool. Everybody has a challenge in their life and many of us have many challenges. If we could count them on one hand, that'd be amazing. For a lot of us, there's more than that. Is there a big challenge that hit you in life that felt like a gut punch at the time that you can talk to us a little bit about and how did you overcome that?
That's probably when I was a kid. When I was a kid, my parents fought a lot. They got married and divorced each other twice. I learned from that and have been married for many years. I'm hanging through it. I saw my dad cut his wedding ring off, which was very emotional for me as a kid. It had to be a God thing because two weeks later, I was walking in the neighborhood yard and I found a wedding ring. My dad fit and stuck it on his hand. We don't know where it came from. Try to learn from the negative things that had happened to your parents and try to live better.
I know another person who was divorced from his wife and remarried to her. Now I know two people that have gone through that and that is a lesson. I'm sure there are times in a lot of marriages where they go, "Is this all worth it?"
We had some challenges for six months. We eloped. The in-laws weren't happy with me for six months, but then they loved me. They then moved across the street from me. At first, they hated me and then they moved across the street.
I was with some people from work and we're married now for many years. My ring fell off and I lost it for an entire night. I was staying on the boss's couch that night. The next morning, I go home and I’m like, "You're never going to believe what happened." My wife’s like, "No, I don't believe it. What's going on?" We called into the golf course because it was at this golf course event, this concert, and there was trash everywhere. I was standing there and it must've fallen and landed on the trash pile. As God would have it, the next day, I get a call at about 10:00 or 12:00 and they said, "We found your ring." I gave them a $300 donation that day to say thank you. That was a scary 24 hours. That was younger age. What age was that when all that went down?
When my father did the ring thing? I was probably 6 or 8 years old. It was very traumatic. He was an electrician, so he got a pair of cutters. That's how he was able to cut it off.
He sounds like a rebel like me a little bit. When did they get back together?
They got together when I was in my early twenties, and then they got divorced a couple of years later.
How did you get through those tough times?
You just live through it later on in life with prayer. As a kid, you're not doing much praying other than thank you for your food.
"That's what I was taught so I better do it," than actually having a connection. When do you think you learned that you could have a connection, that prayer does have meaning to it?
I would probably say eighteen. I thought when I was 30, I was living a spiritual life. I felt like it was on a different plateau. I don't understand that, other than the worship was different. I came out of a Presbyterian Church that had a Charismatic movement in the ‘80s. Because of that, I experienced some praise and worship versus the typical mainline service. I don’t know how to explain beyond that.
I don't know if I've ever been to a Charismatic service. I go to services with drums and bass guitars. What's the difference between Charismatic, Presbyterian and everything else?
They've calmed down now but I feel like people do sing praise music and they think, "We're just singing these songs." I've heard comments that said, "They're singing the words over and over." Before I had this experience, I wasn't slaying the spirit or anything like that. I went to the altar and I want Jesus to be closer and prayed for tongues, a little bit of prayer language. After that, I went for about fifteen minutes at the altar. I had people coming to me and asked me. They thought something was wrong with me. I would listen to Christian groups. With that, I was able to experience the Holy Spirit in a closer way. We went to truth concerts. Not only was I receiving spiritual upliftment, but I was also receiving messages. I was writing messages that had nothing to do with the music. I don't know if that answers your question. There’s a big change in my life.
There are people that I know that haven't had this breakthrough yet and they could be 60, 70 years old. Some of us are lucky enough to have this when we're 18, 20 and 30. What advice would you give to someone that said, "I'd love to have a relationship with Jesus but I've never tried." What could they do base on how you came around? What happened for you?
The first is, are you showing that you're saved or not saved? I don't know. Are you just reflecting that you're saved?
I know some people that do believe. They know there's God, but they don't have a relationship with God, "How could I have a relationship with my creator?"
The first thing is for people to understand that Jesus is the way and to acknowledge that you're a simple person, that you want to follow Jesus and you're sorry for your sins. That's the beginning of salvation. From there, find Bible-believing churches. Unfortunately, the majority of churches nowadays are falling away. Find a church that preaches the real truth. You can get to heaven without going to church, but I need Christians around me praying for me that care. I need to get the message from a pastor and the music feeds me. What I moved towards to was the gift from the Holy Spirit to be more connected spiritually.
I don't know how to explain that. The first step is salvation and the second step is being baptized in the Holy Spirit. I was not baptized. I did speak in tongues. A little prayer language. I got the gift of healing for quite a while and I was praying for people. This was all in that Charismatic movement, which is a Pentecostal in steps. You expect worse as a Charismatic because it just happens, if that makes any sense. I've had some real encounters with the Holy Spirit and I would want more of them but if I’d had them every day, it would be nothing special.
Food Bank: You can go to heaven without going to church but you need Christians that really care praying for you, you need to get the message from the pastor, and you need music that feeds you.
How did you get into the food bank? What directed your footpath?
I ran a lawnmower shop in Lawn Garden. I tell people, "You can see the direct parallel," which is a joke. I wanted to serve God full-time. I had my story of eighteen years and I wanted to serve God full-time. I didn't know how that was going to happen. I want to give out food. I used to pick up from the farms, food and the vegetables. I would take them to nonprofits and drop them off. One was in Edgewood Ranch in this area. The other one was another nonprofit Food for People and Human Crisis. From that, I want to serve full-time.
How did you do it? You found someone who'd already done it or did you just jump in head first?
I did a little bit at Human Crisis. I had to sell my store. Through a Christian, I found another Christian man that took my store over. I thought I was ready and almost nine years later, because God has a sense of timing and a sense of humor, I don't know which it is sometimes, that I waited. I don't know if you want me to tell this miracle or not. I had a man that helped me out and I was working full-time. I served the church and I was in the choir. I had sleep apnea. I didn't even know it until I was burning the candle probably in three places and both ends.
This man had been in prison nineteen times. I didn't know this was his past. He was a businessman and he wanted to help us distribute food. He helped us do that in Mascotte, a town West of Orlando. He helped out. He called me on the phone one day and said, "I'd like to send you a cheque." At that time, I was bringing in $300 a year. That was a big bumper year for me. He sent me a cheque for $5,000 and got my attention. I told my story to him on the phone. He said, "What are you doing on Friday? Can I take you to lunch?" I don't know what's going on here, "Yeah, sure."
I went to lunch and he said, “If you can do this full-time, how much would it cost for you to remove from your job?” This time, I was a manager at the John Deere Store. I said, "With benefits and everything, about $46,000 a year." He said, "Okay. I'm thinking about giving you a cheque for $50,000." It didn't quite click in my little brain. He said, "Tomorrow, we're going to go look at properties and warehouses. You need a warehouse and you need something to do your ministry." I'm going, "What is going on here?"
We drove around that Saturday. We went to Mascotte and we looked at a building and called a realtor. I'm in a daze. We came back to our area, Winter Garden, which is West of Orlando. It's where I live. He said, “What about this building?” I'm still like, "Duh?" We drive up in the driveway at my house and he said, "I know you're called to do this. I can reiterate that $50,000 as the Lord leads you." On Monday, he called me on the phone. He said, "I'm serious about this. Do you want a cheque for $50,000?" I'm dying on the other end of the phone. I said, "As the Lord leads you." That’s what he said before.
He said, "I'll tell you what, I'll write you a cheque for $12,500 a quarter." That was the plan. I said, "I can do ministry full time and I have time to paint my house." He said, “I could even paint your house.” The real story was he gave us $59,400 the first year, $50,000 the second year, $45,000 the third year and $13,000 in the fourth year. He only said it's a two-year commitment. What he had done is hurl me into ministry. Hurl means the first eight weeks. If you take a piece of paper, it’s almost filled with all the miracles that God did, another truck, forklift, semi-trailer, refrigeration, pallet jacks. It was crazy.
There's no way it happens at all. Period. End of story.
It was a God thing. I can't even write my own name. If you see my writing, I should've been a doctor or a pastor because I write that bad. That's how I started. We've had a few moments of challenges. I had $0.85 in our account one time by myself and all warehouses here, and the warehouse will give it to us. That was a God thing. We took it down and put it back up here in West Orlando. I had the man drive up with a pickup truck. Before that, I was praying. I just picked a number. I said, "God, I need $10,000 because of the bills and all this."
This man drove up in a pickup truck. I never saw him before and never saw him afterward. He said, "Whatever you're praying about, God is going to do exceedingly and abundantly more than what you asked for." I got a cheque for $12,500 or something crazy like that. There was another time that we had to do payroll. We had $1.85 in our account and we have ADP for payroll. They're good people. Now I have overhead. I have employees. Maybe our overhead at that time was about $19,000 a month. We don't have enough money for payroll. At 12:00 the night before they're going to push the button for payroll and they're going to take money on our account that we don't have to pay the employees.
I know God moved in the 12th hour and I had this faith. I said, “God, I don't know but you're going to have to move." At 11:15 that night, most normal people were sleeping. My wife and I came back to the warehouse. The $2,500 that we needed for payroll came in through PayPal. That's how God made that happen. This is my life. Even ordering the last billing order with that money has been a God thing. That's how God works. It's just amazing how God still push on me every day and use me.
I love that because, at the end of the day, we're all sinners. We're all not perfect. We're never going to be perfect. I have two kids and when they mess up, I love them the same as I did before and after. Your creator has the same thing. No matter what, he loves you and he takes care of you. I was in a similar payroll situation. I was like, "How am I going to do this? The kids are going to college now and what's going to happen?" A company I worked for fifteen years ago went public. It's above and beyond what you could ever imagine.
There was an interesting talk that I attended in Sarasota, Florida and this CEO talked about bricks. He said, “When they built New York and New Jersey, New York was better at laying bricks. They defined what the brick was. They built buildings bigger and better. They both had a probably similar vision, but New York executed it differently." He encourages founders and CEOs to define what their individual brick is in whatever it is they do. I wonder if you were to think of your individual brick for what you do at Southeastern Food Bank, is it here's how many meals we served? Here's how many people came to Christ in the last year? What's the main outcome that you're striving towards or the brick, if you will?
We are about gospel and groceries. The only reason I do this is because I know there are needy people, but my passion is bringing people to Christ. We have evangelism training. We encourage evangelism programs. It is evangelism. We were a part of 610 salvations. We've been a part of over 10,000 salvations in many years that I've been doing this. That's probably about 30 million pounds of food also. It's to help the whole person rather than just feeding them because you’ll get hungry tomorrow. Change lives, duplicating the kingdom through evangelistic programs here and doing hopefully, a little more in the country too.
There's a friend of ours named Robert White who wrote a book called Living An Extraordinary Life. His company's called Extraordinary People. One story in the book is they do these mindset, life-changing events. The group of people were instructed, "Go out and talk to someone." They ended up finding this guy that was living under a bridge. He was a homeless person. His name was Art and they brought Art back to the class. Art sat through the entire mindset class. Art was a good person and it turned out Art became one of the top trainers for this organization.
All it took was that level of conversation where someone reached out to him while he was homeless under a bridge. It seems to me that the work you're doing with 10,000 salvations, plus or minus, the ripple effect of what it is you do for God, that's amazing. I've had people telling me, "Why set a quota? Why set a goal? Don't limit God's ability to do things." It seems like that's the lane you're living in right now. That's really cool.
I am praying for 1,000 salvations in 2021. I don’t know how that's going to happen. We've gone as high as about 1,350 a year. COVID weeded out some of the programs that needed to end anyway, and we've got some new partners.
If you think about what's going on right now, and I think we may have answered that question, but if you could wave the proverbial magic wand and something changed, what would you wish changed in your life and your business?
The only thing that I saw a vision of that I wished would happen in 2021, but I got to be careful not to get ahead of God, and that is to create an international division. I saw this vision for a ministry separate from the US because we are local, we are regional, and we're starting to do a little bit international. Bigger organizations can help us with transporting the food. I would think international. I've got a team that wants to go right now to the seventeen islands in the Caribbean. Our first program is in Jamaica if they let us there. I met a man that has given a plane, a missionary, and he goes to all of those countries. May this door open, but that's something beyond my capabilities.
My favorite prayer is "Your will be done" at night because it's my vision and dream, and that's okay. As much as I can hand over the keys to the car, the bigger things happen 10 times out of 10. If you could go back to your twenty-year-old self and tell that person something, is there anything you would tell yourself?
I was married at twenty and had worked in the business. I know that military-wise, I probably would have gone to the Navy. I'm being more case-specific. I was a National Guard in the end and running my brother's business. I don't know how to answer that other than being more connected with Jesus at that time and being more mature. Some churches help you move a little faster than other churches, it seems to me anyway and learning to increase your faith, if that makes sense.
It’s a hard question because it's something you can't do. I like to go do this one. I go twenty years into the future and see myself there. I try to have a conversation with myself and see where I am, what is it I'm doing, what's the feeling of my life. When you can live in the future and then come back to the past, which is now, it's a powerful thing. When you're talking about the international work and you said, "I would have had 18 or 25 countries. We thought 1,000 a year was big but now we're seeing 10,000 salvations a year,” that's amazing. When you can do those future state conversations, it's pretty powerful stuff. We've talked about this one already a little bit, Mark, and that is about faith. For our readers, what role does faith play in your life? It's obviously a big role, but can you be specific?
I love my wife. I love my family, but I love my God. It's my everything. Otherwise, I don't know why I'm here other than leaving a legacy after I leave. I tell people, "I do not want to run a food bank and face people. I need to get them something else, another dimension of the gospel and it's very important." Otherwise, I could sell John Deere tractors as I used to and I wouldn't be waking up different hours a night writing things down, and praying off and on. I'm sure you have some of those challenges yourself because you're at the top, and you got at least two things going on besides your family. Maybe three.
If people want to donate to the cause or maybe they have the food they need to donate, how can people get involved with Southeastern Food Bank?
Our website is SoutheasternFoodBank.com. There's a dot-org that we're not connected with in Virginia. Some people don't trust the internet. We've had some challenges like the rest of the world. Our mailing address is Post Office Box 770009. That is in Winter Garden, Florida. The Zipcode is 34777. If they're coming to Orlando, and half the world wants to come to Orlando, we are in West Orlando in a town called Okoye. I wish they would come and see because we want to be very transparent. Seeing is believing because a lot of people are skeptical with nonprofits these days anyway. If you're a prayer warrior, pray for us because I'm always looking for direction, where I need to go and what I need to do. I get ahead of God a lot.
If they live in Central Florida, they can come and volunteer for us. We do have a couple of signature events. We have a seniors program every month and we have a program called Food for Families. Public food stores and public supermarkets send two semi-trailers. We sort, pack and deliver to about 1,200 families three times a year. Those are our two programs. Beyond that, we are sorting and packing food for organizations here and putting it back out. We are also looking for a food partner. We're looking for companies to donate food and we can pick it up at least in the Southeastern United States. I might have to expand it out of that area because of the cost of freight unless somebody is coming to Orlando.
What I'm wondering is I will be there in Sarasota. It looks to me that it's a two-hour drive. I may need to swing by and check everything out. The fact that your Zipcode is all of my lucky numbers and it ends in 777 and the app is called 77 Pray. I'd love to come by shake your hand and you can even put me to work for a couple of hours. I'd be happy to roll up my sleeves.
It would be great to meet you. We are transparent from financials to everything on clutter on my desk, in my desk, on my internet. There are no secrets and that's the best way to be. That's why I fall asleep at 8:00 or 9:00 every night. My wife thinks I fall asleep earlier than that. I run 150 miles an hour. If you do come to visit, you can affirm that we are the real deal. We're doing this for a real reason. I'm consistently making my paycheck less because I'm killing that thing that I want to make more money or whatever. I'm probably one of the lowest-paid CEO but very blessed. I'm not concerned about that.
How about the guy, the nineteen times in and out of prison that helped you in the beginning? Where did he go? Did you talk to him anymore?
Food Bank: Running a food bank isn’t just about feeding people. It’s about getting them to another dimension with the Gospel.
Yes, occasionally. He came from Ohio. We still love Ohioans. The guy that got him into drugs also got him onto the altar, which is cool. That guy came and we had a location near Tallahassee in a town called Quincy. He came out and painted the whole building inside and out. Tim has been a dear friend and brother-in-Lord. We catch up once in a while. That was in December 1991. I'm serving full-time and that's because of God through him. He came from being in jail nineteen times to a self-made, God-made millionaire that owes no money to anybody. He was waiting for years for the Holy Spirit to move him to what he's supposed to be doing next in life. Me at three weeks, I'm sort of crazy. Anybody that can do those for 4 or 5 years, they're special people.
I am happy to have you on the show, Mark Anthony, Founder of Southeastern Food Bank. I look forward to meeting you live.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
We'll catch you on the next episode. For now, Mark Anthony, visit SoutheasternFoodBank.com. Don't go to dot-org. That's the other company in Virginia. If you feel your heart tugging, send a cheque. I'm sure they can always use a donation. Thank you for your time, Mark.
Thank you for having me.
Important Links:
About Mark Anthony
As Founder and President of Southeastern Food Bank, formerly known as Bread of Life Fellowship, it has always been my vision to be a free food source for the disadvantaged in in our community. Through our distribution partnerships with various other non-profit organizations such as ministries, children’s homes, senior’s homes and rehabilitation centers, we have proudly served Central Florida (and beyond) for over 27 years. In 2018 alone, we served over 132,000 families, 103,000 children and 5,000 seniors/elderly as far north as Dothan, Alabama.
Over and above the distribution of food, however, is what I believe to be even more pertinent to the lives of those around us: spiritual food, i.e., The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Through our partnerships, more importantly, individuals are being offered food that lasts, satisfies and bears fruit to eternal life.
