Bill Bolling is co-founder, board chair and senior advisor of Atlanta nonprofit Food Well Alliance, a collaborative network of local leaders working together to build thriving community gardens and urban farms across metro Atlanta. The organization provides resources and support to local growers at more than 300 community gardens, urban farms and orchards.

Prior to co-founding Food Well Alliance in 2015, Bill founded the Atlanta Community Food Bank in 1979 and served as its executive director for 36 years. Under his leadership, the Food Bank distributed more than half a billion pounds of food to feed the hungry. As a charter member of Feeding America, the national network of food banks, Bill played a key role in launching food banks across the country. He was also instrumental in starting the Georgia Food Bank Association, through which he helped establish eight food banks serving more than 2,600 hunger relief organizations in every Georgia county.

Bill serves on the boards of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Inspire Brands Foundation, and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. He has facilitated the Atlanta Regional Housing Forum since founding it in 1984. Most recently, he co-founded and serves as board chair of the Atlanta Civic Circle, a new organization addressing civic journalism.

In 2022, Bill was honored with the Dan and Tally Sweat Community Leadership Award and was named a Georgia Trend Living Legend. In 2018, he received an honorary degree from Emory University. He was inducted into Georgia Trend Magazine’s Most Influential Hall of Fame in 2015 and was named Georgia Trend’s Georgian of the Year in 2012.

Bill lives with his wife Haqiqa, in Decatur, Georgia.