Giving $10,000 To People In Need

He stopped and he said, I want to tell you because I've never said this to anybody else. And he said, I wanted to be here tonight for a reason. He said, I. And.

His voice was cracking and everybody was almost in tears because we were like, okay. He said, I need to tell you that I needed to use the food bank when I was needing it. You guys were there. And he said, I always said I would give back. And he said, this opportunity came and he said, I want it so badly to be here to let you know. But I will tell you that I have never told anybody that I've ever needed to use a food bank. My colleagues that I work with, nobody has ever known this until now. Now, because I want you guys to know what a difference you made in my life. And you were there when I needed.

Recognizing the positive impact of being able to give within your community.

Regardless of where you are, across the country in your community, there are families, there are people who are in need, and the local food bank is just one of several organizations that play a part in having a positive impact on people's lives. And we are privileged to be joined today by Gert Rayner, who has been the executive director for the Leducan District Food Bank. Now, Leduc, Alberta, just so happens to be the community that my family and I reside in. And having been the executive director for the Ladue and District Food bank for the past 16 years, we're going to have an expanded discussion on what a great opportunity it is to be able to contribute to your local food bank. Now, whether that's through volunteering, whether that's through cash donation, food donation, it all makes a difference. And I want to preface this episode by sharing and talking a little bit about the importance of giving. Now, I'm not talking about giving back because we're not taking anything. We're giving as part of our philosophy and our approach to doing business. Because, Rich, you and I were chatting about this before the episode and before we welcome Gert to this episode. We know that the media does a really good job and politicians tend to jump on the bandwagon as well, portraying successful business owners and entrepreneurs as somehow being the bad gal or the bad guy wanting to avoid tax and be this rich villain focused on consumption and having the nicest homes and cars and watches and, you know, bank accounts overflowing with money. That's not my experience in the entrepreneurs that we are privileged to serve every day. And being entrepreneurs ourselves, our philosophy of giving is that on a quarterly basis, we take a look at our profit pool. So we prioritize profit first. And the reason we do that is to look inside that pool once every 90 days, and we take 50%, 5, 0% of that profit pool, and we give. And it just. It feels so good, and it creates more abundance because everybody on our team has the ownership mentality and is leading from a place of serving others. And it just has this amazing effect on everybody inside the organization. And so, Gert, it is such a pleasure to welcome you. And this episode was born from. And I'll let you share the story because we had made a donation and you had contacted one of my team members, questioning whether or not the number was correct. Maybe share a little bit about the story that led all of us to, of course, be with each other here today.

So, as a nonprofit.

We promote online donations through Canada Helps, because otherwise it gets a little bit expensive. We don't have a lot of people who. We don't do a lot of electronic transactions. But Canada Helps is a great tool for us to use. So many non profits will be registered with them, and people can go directly online. They can make a donation. And us, as a nonprofit, can. We can list the different programs. We have what's available, and the donor can choose where they would like their money to go to. So for a food bank, we have our Tools for Schools program. We have a number of different programs. And so donors will go online and they will choose sometimes where they want their money to go, and they can print out their own receipt. We at this end, see who's giving us the donation, if that donor wants to be recognized, and we can respond back and thank them. And so a few weeks ago, this wonderful group of people went online and they made a donation. And the donation. And you're okay if I. Oh, yeah, please. Was for $10,000 towards our tools for Schools program that we work with 40 schools within our region. So we supply school school supplies with backpacks to families, to all of the kids who are in school, and they get what is they require to start school. So they're on the same keel as all the other kids. We don't take used. We only give them new stuff. And so I looked at this donation and I thought, oh, my gosh, I think somebody made a mistake. It's $10,000. And I felt really bad. And so I went online. I said, thank you very much, but I just need to make sure that this isn't a mistake. Because if it is, we will work to correct this. Because sometimes people put an extra zero and they don't realize it happens. Right, right. So I quickly sent an email just saying, I just. I really want to make sure that this is right, because, you know, if it's a problem, we will work to correct it, because it's a. That's a big difference. And so I immediately got this email back saying, I can assure you this was not a mistake. I go, well, that's wonderful. But I. I just felt really bad that. I really felt that there was a. You know, we're not used to getting donations like that online, so that's how we got. It kind of got connected.

Yeah. It was kind of a funny story, but, yeah, I just didn't want to take advantage or make sure that there was a mistake that had been done.

Oh, gosh. And we feel incredibly blessed and.

Privileged.

To be able to contribute and to make a positive impact and plan to do more of that. And in your years of experience in working with an organization like the Leducan District Food bank, so what has been over that time, the impact that you've seen and maybe share, give our viewers and listeners a glimpse into that. Because within their own communities, they may be wondering, how can I help? How can I create that positive impact that Gert described?

And they may not know we all have heard about the food bank, but they may not actually recognize what are all the different types of programs that are provided and how do they actually serve in their community?

Yeah, and I think that's where I would start, is that there are over 100 and some food banks, food banks just in Alberta. There's thousands across Canada. And we have a provincial association here. Actually, it's just down the road from us that has been set up that we work really closely with, and they. They share our vehicle to distribute to other food banks in Alberta, however, we all do the same thing, but we do it differently. And it depends on our community, because every community is different. The kind of support you have or the need within that community is quite different most times. And in our case, we service seven municipalities within the county of Leduc. So we just don't do the city of Leduc. We do from Warburg all the way to New Surreptus. So it's a. And just before Ellerslie and then just before Millett, because Millett is in Witchasquen. So we as food banks, we all have some boundaries that we work within, that we.

We have clients within, so that we're not duplicating services. So they're not hopping from food banks to Food banks to food banks because that's not really fair to everybody else and we just couldn't afford to be doing that.

Right.

So the programs in that community are really based on what the need is and how you can fill that gap or that need. And every food bank does it differently. So about 60% of food banks in Alberta actually are volunteer run. They don't have any staff at all. The bigger the food bank gets like ours, then you will at least have an executive director or somebody there on a regular basis. It's a huge commitment to only run a food bank with volunteers. You don't have that consistency. It is challenging. The bigger you get. Some of the smaller ones, it's not as much. Sometimes they're only open one day a week, maybe two days a week, half a day because their area that they service is smaller. So they don't have as many hampers that they. They would be putting out or servicing. In our community, we have about 80,000 people that we have in our region that we service. So it's a fairly big food bank. So when I started, well, we were the best kept secret.

And although we are a nonprofit, you really have to run it like a business to be able to make sure that you can be sustainable. Right. And so one of the things about food banks is that we were started in the 80s during the recession just to help people out. Like now, you know how Covid hit, right. And everybody had to step up. Well, that's how food banks started with the recession in the 80s and they started in Alberta. 1983, I think is the Edmonton gleaners. We were started in 1984 and our board member is still on our board. He's an honorary member and he started in his garage, he worked at the airport and so he started collecting stuff at the airport and then into the community. And then they moved into the hospital and then they moved into.

Another business outlet and then into the next one, which is about 3,200 square feet. And we've now moved into three bays about in 2018, September 2018, that is 10,000 square feet. And we are at a maximum already. With the expansion came the ability to offer more programs and to be able to accept more. Now we're able to collect for more stores, we're able to get more, we're able to distribute more, we're able to work with other food banks at the same time. We have Millet and Britain who are on our borders who don't have the capacity. We collect from three big municipalities. We have Way more food coming into us than they do. So one of the things it's in our code of ethics is food banks share. So if we have a little bit of extra of something we'll share with somebody who doesn't. And if they had that little bit extra this, they'll share that.

And what are you seeing from the, from the business owner community at large in the way that they step up to support the organization and maybe speak a little bit to that too. What's been your experience over these past 16 years?

I'd say it has been quite humbling.

I'm the only full time staff basically and we have many programs. I don't have the time or the capacity to fundraise.

We depend totally on the community. But I can tell you that food banks have stayed in operation because of people who needed to use a food bank. They are your biggest donors and they are businessmen. There are every walk of life. I have to tell you the story because it really hits home. Two of them actually we had.

So we're part of Food Banks Alberta and we have every year an agm, right. And sometimes we'll look for entertainment. So we had this entertainer who came in and it happened to be that we were sponsoring it here in our area. And I had a local businessman who gave me a building and he sponsored the meal for all of these food banks who came to this AGM. So it was really nice. And we had MLAs and more politicians than you can imagine had attended this. And this gentleman did that. Usually it's an hour, whatever, an hour and 20 minutes or whatever that they'll do their entertainment and then they're done, right? Well, he kept going on and we were really quite surprised. But he was very, very good. Then he stopped. This is going to get a little emotional. I'm sorry if it does. He stopped and he said, I want to tell you because I've never said this to anybody else. And he said I wanted to be here tonight for a reason. He said I. And.

His voice was cracking and everybody was almost in tears because we, we were like, okay. He said, I need to tell you that I needed to use the food bank when I was needing it. You guys were there. And he said I've always said I would give back. And he said this opportunity came and he said I want it so badly to be here to let you know. But I will tell you that I have never told anybody that I've ever needed to use a food bank. My colleagues that I work with, nobody has ever Known this until now. Now, because I want you guys to know what a difference you made in my life. And you were there when I needed you. I was in a dry eye.

But it was like it came out of the blue. None of us knew this. None of us expected it, but he. There was dead silence. And it was like, you know, we're all very humble because we don't do it for the accolades. We do it because it needs to be done right. We don't want to make people feel like they owe us or anything like that. Right. That's not why we're here. And so that was very humbling to us. And a few years back, we had a conference in Halifax and they had a professor from Dalhousie, and he was talking about the economy and how important food banks were to the economy. And, I mean, we're all sitting there and he goes, you guys don't understand the important role in the economy that you guys play. And I can tell you that nobody can do what you do as well as you guys do. You won't find a business, you won't find anything. What you guys do is quite unique, and it is a whole part of the economics.

We're just kind of, once again, very humble and never. It's not that. It's not the mentality that we go in doing this. Right. We don't even think that in that manner. But it was interesting to have a professor who delves into this and has actually seen the importance of what we do in the whole system, how important we are in that system, and how nobody can do it as well as we do it.

It's like a pebble. Pebble in a pond, basically. It was. It's the ripple effect.

Yeah. And it was kind of, I guess, when you sit back and we think about it. Yeah. We. We glean. We. We do an awful lot of things. And. And yes, there are a lot of things food banks do better than.

And how can people in the community volunteer? What's the approach? Do they just reach out to somebody at their local food bank and say, hey, I'd love to step up and volunteer some time? And is it that simple?

Yeah. Most food banks will either advertise or kind of just look into your community. Leduc has a volunteer. Volunteer leduc now program. Sometimes we advertise in the local newspaper, but food banks are quite well known in that, you know, they know what we sort of do in the community. But I don't think I've ever had people in here once they're here and they see what we do. It's not what they thought we did. It's not just about giving out food. There's a whole other amount that goes around it. I just want to step back a little bit. When you asked about businesses that is a huge, huge, huge driver of food banks. We would not be able to operate without that support from local businesses. They have to be one of the biggest drivers of food banks and the biggest supporters of food banks. I don't even know how I would begin to explain the difference that has done here for us. And most of the time, people are willing to help. They just need to know you need it. So as a food bank, we have to be active in making sure that people out there know what we need and when we need it and how we need it so that they can be there. They can be that support for us as best as they can be and when we. How we need it. Right. Because I really have to say it's. It's that my philosophy has been, and I've seen this happen so many times, I just, if you needed to ask for it and somehow, by God's grace, it's going to show up. And it has happened so many times, I don't even question it anymore. I just tell my staff, if you need something, just put it out there because it's gonna show up. It just does. Although I hadn't thought of the choice to schools one, but I'm really appreciative of you guys.

Oh, hey, we, again, we're humbled.

Every year is kind of like, okay, we're humbled.

And much like you shared earlier, I mean, we, similar to us, you know, Rich can attest this. I mean, we, you know, we're not standing on the rooftop and waving a banner of, hey, look at us. You know, we're not why you're doing it, we're donating money and you know, come pat us on the back. And, you know, what led us to this conversation was just that interesting story of one of our teammates, Jen, who reached out and said, you're not going to believe this, but we got contacted and asked, is this legit or do we need to make a correction here? And so we just thought it would be so good to share the message of the impact that you can have in your community through an organization like a local food bank, and that it is so much more than just giving out food. You're helping with programs to help people, to give them a leg up and to help get them on the right path, so that, as you mentioned earlier, Gert, that they can learn to do for themselves so that there's. We're not creating a dependency on the food bank where it's a bridge. It's a bridge to a better way forward. And once. Once you cross over that bridge, you're well on your way. And we just, again, we feel very humbled to. To be in a position where we can give. And it's an honor to do that, frankly.

And I have to tell you that it's very difficult for people to. To access a food bank. They always think there's somebody worse off, especially seniors, because they've lived through some really hard times. Yeah. And they always think there's somebody worse. So sometimes it's really hard to get seniors to. To come and get the help that they sometimes need. It's also, if I have had a penny for every time a client has said to me, I have always given to the food bank. I never thought I'd need to use the food bank. And especially in a recession during COVID everybody's one paycheck. I mean, everybody's told you're one paycheck away from needing help. Right. And definitely that is very, very true. And I can tell you food banks are also like the canary in the mineshaft. We see what's coming down the line before anybody else does. Yeah. We can tell you that how fast that recession is coming and where it's at, because we can tell by our.

Clientele and so many people suffering in silence right before and waiting.

We have this discussion with people all the time, and they'll say, well, you know, I'm going, okay, so here's the thing. You don't wait till the last minute when it's so bad because we give you enough food, it frees up money to help pay those other bills to keep you from drowning.

Faster. You know what I mean? It'll help sustain you a whole lot more than if you just wait till you absolutely can't stand it anymore and you have nothing left in the cupboards. And 90% of the time, that's what people do. And so the message I think I would like to do is if anybody's listening, and if ever they are getting to that point. Point, don't wait till it's so desperate. Go and get the help you need now, and that will help keep you afloat much longer and sustain you. And food is also fuel for the soul and fuel for the body. So if you're not eating properly, it affects everything down the road. And I say we're kind of the canary in the mine shop because there are two major things that people need and it's food and shelter. And so we are that canary. We can tell you what's happening, we can tell you where the economy is, we can tell you how long you think this is going to last because we just, we do a full intake when we have a client come in. So we see the income coming and going, we can see right, right there. Where, where their struggles really are and are there any other programs we can connect them to that can help sustain them and not get them keep falling through the cracks? Right. Because sometimes that's.

The issue. So I had a 74 year old person come in to see me last week who had always worked his whole life, who had never got a cent in pension, he'd never applied for his pension, who got laid off because of COVID and then he got sick and then he had a job and he was supposed to move and that job fell through. So he was living in a trailer on his relatives farm and call to see if he could get a little bit of food because he had no income at all coming in. And so we had that discussion and like have you done your paperwork? Because it's going to take a long time for him to get his pension because it's going to take months. Right. But meanwhile has he contact income support? Because income support will do that bridging like within five days it can get some money into your account. So, so you know, you need gas money, you need, you, you need money to pay for the propane that's heating your, your place, right, Your trailer that you're living in. And he never, he didn't, I mean, cause he's never, he's always been self sufficient so he's never had to ask for help. So it's like he had no clue that any of these things were available to them. So that's part of the process when we do an intake is, is to find out exactly where they're at and what's available to them and give them that information or connect them to whether it's housing, whether it's income support, whether it's mental health. So we're able to give them all of that information because we have it all. We know what's out in the community, we partner with all of the agencies, we work together, we get them connected so that they can have as much support as they possibly can going forward.

One of the key takeaways I'm hearing Here, Gert, is that it's really all about resources. And just because it's called the Food bank, that's kind of like the gate, the gateway, that's the entry point. But that's really not what it's all about. You're professional resource delivery folks and you're helping align and connect people to the right resource. It's not unlike what we do here at our business, is that we, we provide a lot of resources for our clients and we try to help them get to those different resources that they need because their situation is different than someone else's situation. It's the same kind of thing. So even though we're in two different spaces and areas, there's some similarities. We help teach people how to become their own bank. You stockpile things in a, in a reservoir, in a storage facility, which is what a bank does. Stockpile, store it, and then you distribute it. It goes out into the marketplace and then you refill it, and then it goes out in the marketplace and you refill it. So you know the similarities between, you know, what we do and what you do. I think there's a lot of synonymous there. And we're just so grateful to hear how you are helping people. Earlier in the call you had mentioned the donation mechanism of Online Stuff of Canada helps. So is that a website? Is it that we can maybe share a resource to people so they can see the different ways they can get those donations? So really there's a whole number of different charitable causes that really across the country, wherever they're located, wherever our listeners are, they would be able to access that site, see where local food banks are, the different programs that are listed underneath that kind of like a subdirectory. And then you can choose to give through that mechanism if it's monetary dollar basis. But the giving doesn't stop there. There's so many volunteer opportunities. There's physical donations of food and other goods, and then allowing you guys with the demonstrated prowess and professionalism to make sure those resources are delivered at the best possible way where they need to go.

I think that if you are a donor and you are looking at making a donation, do your due diligence in making sure you're researching that nonprofit and that the money is really going where it's going to and the programs are what the programs are. I think that's a really important part of a donor. Also, I have a friend who owns a large business here who is a staunch supporter of the Food Bank. As a matter of fact, they've sponsored most of our vans here.

But he is very.

Very cautious of who he puts his name on. He actually didn't even want us to put his name on. I insisted on putting them on because that's not why he was doing it. But he's also very conscient, is that if the name is going to be there, he wants to make sure that that nonprofit is.

What would be the word.

Doing what they said they're going to do.

Yeah, exactly right.

And they're fully appropriating the money you're.

Thinking that you want to make in the community.

Yeah, exactly. And this canadahelps.org site, you know, within your local community.

As it relates to the food bank in particular, not very difficult to find, especially with the help of Uncle Google. So within your local community, you can easily locate contact information for your local and district food bank. And we would invite all of our viewers, all of our listeners, dig into your wallet, dig into your purse, an extra 5, 10, 20, 50, $100 makes a world of difference. And reach out and join us, join us in being inspired to give. This episode's being recorded Friday before the Thanksgiving. And what a time of year to be able to be giving thanks and expressing gratitude and just, just digging a little bit deeper. And you just never know with that, that extra resource, that, that extra bit of food and sustenance and the impact that that can have on someone and the rest of their life. And so let's do this together.

Wonderful. Gert, thank you so much for being with us today, sharing your story, sharing your message, how you're helping people, how others can help more people. We appreciate it a great deal and honored and blessed to have the ability to share this message with our listeners and the many who may see it.

Wow. We haven't even delved into our programs yet.

Now where can we find. So where can we find for folks who are just so happen to be maybe in the leduc and surrounding areas? So where can we find access to all of those resources?

So we do have a website, so it's ldfb, CA that anybody can go on. We do have our annual reports there. So it does have our statistical information and breakdown from regions. It talks about some of our programs that we do offer. Talks a little bit about our kitchen learning center that has become a huge catalyst not only for our clients but for mental health who we partner with. So we have a lot of mental health. We work with brain injury, we work with fetal alcohol adults. All of our programs are free and but they can go onto the website and click on that. And now we have a virtual auction. It's closed on Monday. We haven't been able to do much in the way of food drives the last couple of years. So this was a way to try and generate some income, but also as a way to try and help promote those businesses that have been supporting us so we can generate some traffic to their website and to their location because whatever they donate to stays in their shop and it's displayed in their shop. So people see that they're actually giving back to the community. So you talked about the business. This virtual auction was just as much about how do we let people know that you're operational, that you're still there and that you're still supporting the community even though you're struggling yourself. And how do we get some traffic to you? So there's a link to them. You go see all about them. And some interesting. Some very creative.

Donations have come in. So we have everything from private concerts to, oh, two flights, swoop and fire. We have an amazing amount of stuff. So there's something for everybody. Great Christmas shopping for anybody who wants to go Christmas shopping right now. But the, the website, definitely, and. And then if anybody wants to know anymore, they're welcome to call. And definitely right now we are closed. So we're not doing much in the way of having people into the building that is kind of locked probably till into 22 depending on Covid. However, we are always.

Looking to be creative and filling the gaps and sometimes you might have something that we would just definitely be able to work with our clients and do. Much like London Drugs, who called us a few weeks ago who had two pallets of seasonal makeup and they would have been throwing it out and just wanted to see if we would take it. And absolutely. I never say no because there's always somebody who can use it. And so we will be doing some programs with our clients and with some of our agency clients and working in that end of things. So, yeah.

I have to tell you that one thing about food banks is we're not the same as any other organization. And we have to be very flexible and pliable to be able to meet the. Whatever hits your door at that particular moment. Because it could be anything under the sun and there's always somebody out there that can use the help or use that product, an agency, whatever. So we never say no because we know that that is going to come in handy and be great for somebody else's program or. Or our clients.

Well, I think I can speak on behalf of our viewers and listeners, when I say thank you. Thank you sincerely for all that you do. And the same applies to anyone in a similar role within a local and district food bank in communities across the country. Thank you. Thank you sincerely for all that you do and for all of your team members and volunteers as well, and for all of our viewers and listeners. If you look right up here, you're going to see a recommended playlist of additional content that we would continue to share with you and encourage you to continue your journey of learning. But today's episode is the first of many that'll be very special as it relates to giving. And so, Gert, thank you sincerely for being generous with your time and for being with us here today. And Richard, as always, thank you for being amazing co host. And I want to wish you, Gert, and yours a very happy Thanksgiving and looking forward to ongoing. Providing ongoing support in every way that we can. So thank you again.

No problem. It was great being here. I appreciate you having me and having the trust that maybe you should talk to me on a podcast. My first podcast. Hey.

All right.

There you go. Congratulations. Your first time for everything.

Just to let everybody know who is out there. Food banks would not be operational if it were not for the community support, both business and individuals. So really, the food bank is about the community. It's not about an individual or an organization. It really is the community. It is you people, you, business owners, you individuals, churches, all of you who actually make it possible for us to do what we do.