I want to thank residents of the Conejo Valley for letting me care about your neighbors for the past three years and for recognizing the sincerity and compassion I’ve put into doing so.

The board of directors of Manna food bank and I have decided to go separate ways over the future direction of Manna, but I want to thank them as well for letting me run Manna more like a ministry than a business while I’ve been here.

The board wants to make Manna more corporate-sponsor and grant-based, for lack of a better way of putting it, and that’s never been my forte. My strength is in establishing relationships with the community itself and being a good caretaker of those relationships.

I’ll continue in my work and wish Manna all the best in the future. I’m meeting today with a group of civic-minded individuals who want to back me in establishing Conejo Valley Cares, a nonprofit one-stop shop for social services to help our residents get back on their feet in these most troubling of times.

I’ve been deeply committed to the Conejo Valley for more than 40 years, and I still believe there’s room for a grass-roots independent charity much as I’ve been running Manna.

While I personally disagree with the direction of Manna, I don’t doubt the sincerity of the Manna board in its decisions, and I pray the basic fabric of such an important organization stays the same.

I hope my words and my works have established a trust with our neighbors enough to support Conejo Valley Cares as I work with area organizations and groups to fill in the gaps many larger agencies simply can’t keep up with.

Hopefully the balance of both types of agencies will help everyone get back on the road to recovery faster and improve the quality of life we all deserve to have and feel comfortable with. John Gorham Thousand Oaks