The Carr Brothers Show - Jeff, Jack, Jody
A discussion of current events by brothers Jeff, Jack and Jody from New Brunswick, Canada. They have 34 years of combined service in elected provincial politics.
->Jeff was the Member of the Legislative Assembly for New Maryland-Sunbury and former Environment and Local Government Minister 2014-2024.
->Jack is a former MLA, reporter, comms director and currently CEO/Team Lead of the Jack Carr Real Estate Team (elected 2008-2014)
->Jody is a lawyer and was elected for 19 years and is former minister of the departments of Education, Post-Secondary Education, Labour, Immigration. (Elected 1999-2018)
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JACK: www.JACKCARR.com
JEFF: https://legnb.ca/en/members/current/34/carr-jeff
JODY: https://www.facebook.com/jodycarrlawoffice
The Carr Brothers Show - Jeff, Jack, Jody
Ep128: Alex Boyd (Fredericton's Greener Village) Rising Food Bank Needs and Community Support
Ep128 w/ Alex Boyd of Greener Village (F'ton Food Bank) and special guest Jason McCaw - 11th Annual Oromocto Turkey Drive.
Discover how Greener Village is reshaping the landscape of food aid during the holiday season with innovative solutions. Our guest, Alex Boyd, takes us through the journey of transforming their food bank operations with a drive-thru model that champions privacy, comfort, and efficiency for those in need. We promise to unravel the complexities of rising demands and changing demographics, including a 131% increase in need from 2021 to 2024, while challenging the misconceptions about food bank users and advocating for accessible, stigma-free services.
Listeners will gain insight into the multifaceted support systems at Greener Village, from monthly food assistance to specialized holiday hampers catering to diverse dietary needs. Alex highlights the collaborative spirit among organizations, working together to provide credit counseling and other essential services to help individuals regain financial stability. We share stories of community-driven initiatives like Jason's annual turkey drive, emphasizing the incredible power of local solidarity and generosity, especially in challenging times.
As we conclude, uncover the exciting developments at Greener Village, including their ambitious $8 million capital campaign to establish Canada’s first perishable food rescue center, significantly reducing waste and enhancing food distribution quality. Hear about inspiring campaigns like "Make the Season Kind" and David Miles' heartwarming "Singing for Supper" concert series, all contributing to the fight against food insecurity. Join us in this heartfelt discussion as we explore the ongoing commitment to ensure everyone has access to nutritious food and how you can be a part of this impactful journey.
THE CARR BROTHERS SHOW:
A discussion of current events by brothers Jeff, Jack and Jody from New Brunswick, Canada. They have 35 years of combined service in elected provincial politics.
-Jeff was the Member of the Legislative Assembly for New Maryland-Sunbury and former Environment and Local Government Minister and former Minister of Transportation since 2014.
-Jack is a former MLA, reporter, comms director and currently CEO/Team Lead of the Jack Carr Real Estate Team.
-Jody is a lawyer and was elected for 19 years and is former minister of the departments of Education, Post-Secondary Education, Labour, Immigration.
Also, broadcasted every Thursday night on CHCO-TV, facebook and Youtube.
Plus your favourite podcast provider.
JACK: https://www.JACKCARR.com
JEFF: https://legnb.ca/en/members/current/3...
JODY: https://www.fb.com/jodycarrlawoffice
CHCO-TV: https://chco.tv
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@thecarrbrothersshow
FB: https://www.fb.com/thecarrbrothers
Welcome to the Carr Brothers. With Jeff Jack and Jody Carr. They talk about current events, politics, community and business.
Speaker 2:Take it away, boys. Welcome to the Carr Brothers Show. It's episode 128. I'm Jack and I'm Jody, the third of the three Carr Brothers, and you notice Carr Brother number two, jeff, is not here this evening. No he couldn't be here. He's got a sinus, cold Sinus, so that's too bad. He sends his regrets. It makes me reminds me of the commercial with the St Bernard that's going through the woods to get him some medicine, some medicine yeah.
Speaker 2:We just hope that he gets better for our next show, because you know we obviously miss him, so it'd be great to have him. But we have a guest on with us from Greener Village, otherwise known as the Fredericton area food banks. Great to have Alex Boyd join us.
Speaker 1:Yeah thank you for having me. It's great to be back on the show.
Speaker 2:But it's almost been a year since you were on last time. That's right, wow. And where does the time go? And right now, this is probably one of your busiest and most needed time for the year.
Speaker 1:Absolutely time for the year Absolutely.
Speaker 2:It's 100%.
Speaker 1:The busiest time that any food bank sees is these kind of few weeks leading up to Christmas, but also leading up to year end and all the things that go along with that. It's an intensely busy time.
Speaker 2:Now, I drove by this morning in the Greener Village and the lineup of cars were like right out to the main road.
Speaker 3:Wow, yeah, and that's a big parking lot. Yeah, absolutely Plus the parking lot. Yeah, absolutely Plus the parking lot's full as well.
Speaker 2:So what's going on? People coming, people going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a little bit of people coming and going. So people coming to make donations drop off turkeys or drop off food donations or come to make a financial donation but then also a lot of people coming to get that support that they need. So they're coming for their regular December food hamper or they're coming for their Christmas hamper, or they're coming for their Christmas hamburger, or they're coming for both and getting those resources they need to get out to their families to support those families. So it's an intensely busy time, as I mentioned before, and when I left to come here it was the same thing those cars were right out to the road. So we're working hard to make sure that that process is efficient so it doesn't get too cumbersome, but it takes some time to process people and with the cars lined up.
Speaker 2:Is it kind of like a drive-thru?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've actually adapted our model completely to a drive-thru model, so cars actually drive in. Our staff can meet them right out of their car with an iPad, they can take their complete order and then submit that order. And that order flies inside through the Internet and then staff can start building that order while they drive from one door to the next, and by the time they get to the next door we're wheeling the cart out with their food supplies in it so they can get going. So we did that during COVID for safety reasons, but it became so efficient and the clients so appreciated the ability to stay in their own space and have that security, some privacy as well. It's really helped, for some of the challenges that food banks have been facing across Canada is security issues, with people who are experiencing agitation because of the situation they're in. We aren't experiencing that same thing at Greener Village and I attribute it to the drive-thru, because people have a little bit more security, privacy and just their own comfort space.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and you just wouldn't think about that. But that makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah about that, but that that makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I mean it's. It's hard for people to reach out for help and, to you know, get out of your car, walk into a strange building, not know exactly how everything's going to work and then have to interact with other people. This is a way for people to have a little bit more comfort wow, that's really, and you've so on a number of different fronts.
Speaker 2:That's been working really well for everybody.
Speaker 1:It's worked extremely well, so much so that we're going to hang on to it and until something changes, we'll probably keep doing that drive-thru for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 2:So every family's registered for the regular program and you have a registry and then everyone's registered for the Christmas program, which may be additional families at this time of year Correct.
Speaker 1:Largely the people that we serve come in once per month and so they can come in December obviously to get that normal grocery support. And then we also have a registration program all through the fall for people to register for additional Christmas support. So when they register for Christmas support, if they're a client of ours, they already have their file with us, and if they're someone who's coming and saying I really need help at Christmas, then we do an additional intake with them as well, so that they're getting that kind of dual support happening right now and that's what you're seeing with that drive-thru and then the monthly.
Speaker 2:You said that they you do an order right there at the, at the pickup. They actually, on their, on the ipad, take an order. Is it a specialized order? Is it a?
Speaker 1:menu. So it's a bit a bit mixed.
Speaker 1:So some of the elements are pre-packed, so for instance, standard kind of yeah, some standard kits if you will put together, because in Greenville Village today we'll probably serve 200 families through the drive-thru. So you can't just do everything from scratch when you're doing that, because it would just take too much time. Too much time. There's not enough time in the day. So what we do is we pack a non-perishable food hamper, we pack a perishable food hamper, we pack a halal hamper and a gluten-free hamper and a diabetic. A bunch of different standard kits. So when the person comes in and says I need a hamper for my family, we have issues with gluten intolerance, they would say that right off. We could put that right in the order on the iPad and then we have a list of choice items. Would you like coffee? Would you like peanut butter? Would you like beans? Would you like canned meat? Like certain items that are not.
Speaker 3:Not everybody likes them right, they're not, they're not necessarily automatics.
Speaker 1:They're like hey, do you want them? You're right, everyone's welcome to have like peas yeah but you don't want it.
Speaker 2:You want to be efficient right like them. You're not gonna to kind of waste it, exactly Okay.
Speaker 1:And it gives them the choice right, and part of what we want to do is to create as much choice in the system as you can. It's hard to do when you have a high client volume to have complete choice, but we want to have as much choice as we can possibly give to people who are in that situation so that they feel the dignity of saying yeah this is what I like, and this is what I don't, so I'd take the stuff I like.
Speaker 2:I don't, I don't. So when the food comes in, do you inventory it into the system so you know how much you've got left?
Speaker 1:absolutely yes so we have actually had a summer or not summer student, a student placement through Eastern College all fall who's been building? And actually a complete digital date inventory system for us. Yes, historically, the interviews in the inventory system rather has been inically the inventory system has been in the minds of the staff. Now we're getting it out into a digital format where we can say okay, what's our stock on tomato soup? On tomato soup, we currently have 10,000 cans in stock. 10,000 cans is a lot of cans, but when you're doing 2,100, 2,000 a month, it doesn't take long for you to burn through tomato soup if you're putting two in every box, right? So you have to kind of watch that trend to make sure that you don't get to the point where you're like, oh shoot, we have 10 cans of tomato soup, we have to go buy some. We're buying when we're at a level where if we don't have a full month.
Speaker 1:We're buying three or four months work to make sure we're always ahead. Stability for the food hamper is key for us. We don't want next month's food hamper to be bad compared to this month's food hamper. So it's reliable, it's consistent, it's stable. It has to be for the client.
Speaker 2:Right right, right Wow.
Speaker 1:Keep that consistency and stability.
Speaker 2:It probably helps as well, then, if people ask what do you need, you kind of have an idea, a more accurate idea, of what you need, absolutely. We keep that updated on our website.
Speaker 1:So if anyone's ever saying, hey, I'd like to give to the food bank, but I want to make sure what I give you is what's most beneficial and what's needed for the client, then we can say, yeah, go right to our website. There's a list of things that we keep current, of the most needed items that we have at any time, and that's a website address. Green Greenervillageca, greenervillageca, that is great.
Speaker 2:So how long have you had it so that you can really delve into the numbers, and is it still fairly new the inventory system.
Speaker 1:The inventory system is pretty new to have that digitized. We've been doing it very successfully in people's minds for a long time.
Speaker 2:So we haven't had stockouts where we just don't have this product for a very long time but very interesting to be able to in the future, when you get some record, is to analyze it to see what's used when and what's more popular, what's beneficial and health-wise.
Speaker 1:It's really interesting. So peanut butter is a great example. We used to put peanut butter automatically in every hamper, figuring everyone would like peanut butter. And then we said let's just test it for a month where we make it a choice item yeah and what we found out was that 45 percent of client families did not want peanut butter.
Speaker 1:Wow, so we were basically putting out 2100 jars of peanut butter not being used in a lot of them and 45 percent of them, the person didn't want them or they had some at home already, or whatever it may be. So then all of of a sudden, it's like well, that's a lot of money and peanut butter alone, if it's just buying that one product, if you don't have to provide that because people don't want it, but then you still give it to people who do so.
Speaker 1:It's interesting how, when you start, to do some of those little experiments, if you will.
Speaker 2:You realize, oh man, some of the things we're doing aren't necessarily exactly what the client needs, so how do we adapt it? You mentioned a second ago that you will have 200 cars today? Yeah, about 200 cars will go through today, and when's the normal pickup time for the?
Speaker 1:month, so spread it all throughout the month. So, we don't do appointments. So actually because of the drive-thru system and the efficiency we've built into it, a client can come any time in that month. So for instance, if the 1st of November they needed their food hamper, they could come on the 1st of November and if things were going okay and they didn't need their food hamper in December until the 10th or 12th, they can come later. We try to do it inside that month.
Speaker 2:Okay, Okay.
Speaker 1:So there's some flexibility for the client side to say, hey, I, I don't need to wait X number of days, I don't need to come on a specific schedule, I can go when my family needs it. Likewise, if November was okay and they were good to the 15th or the 17th and then December 1st I mean I'm really struggling they could come right. We do it by the kind of calendar month, yeah, and so that works out pretty well for the clients and because they don't have to struggle to find an appointment or what works, they can just come within our open window hours and come at any time.
Speaker 2:What do you? I know? Last year, when you came on, the numbers were increasing. What have you experienced here for this full year of 2024? Is there an increase?
Speaker 1:Where are we at Same sort of 2024. Is there an increase? Where are we at Same sort of increase? So this year I think the last assets are about 21% over the same period last year. Wow, Because last year was a huge increase. Last year, I think, was more than that. I think it was still 35%. So we've seen a little bit of a leveling in the demand increase, but only when you compare it to 35%.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, by any to 35 percent yeah, by any standard, 21 percent year over year growth is what most businesses would say great, but in our business we say, no, that's not good. Well, and you take the growth over two years yeah, yeah, I did the math a few days ago and just from, just just because I was curious from 2021 to 2024, and we're up 131 percent. Yeah, so it's. It's like that's a scary level of demand change. Yes, and the reality is it's shocking, but it's not surprising, considering we talked about the cost of living the cost of everything.
Speaker 1:You go to the grocery store and the price that you paid a couple months ago is not the same price you're paying today. It's certainly not the same price as yesterday or yesteryear or the year before. It just keeps climbing and people are struggling. So the largest demographic shift we're seeing are people who are full-time employed, who are still accessing the food bank because they just can't make the end of the month with how quickly costs are accelerating.
Speaker 2:The money is running out before the end of the month. Absolutely, so you're able to track then the household income approximately.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we do a fair bit of information gathering. It's part of the client intake process to inform us.
Speaker 2:Yeah because it's not about eligibility or anything like that.
Speaker 1:People often get that confused. They think, oh well, they're asking these questions to see if I deserve help or not. If you come to Greener Village and you say you need help, guess what You're getting help. That's what we're here for. But what we want to understand is what's the whole picture of a client experience? What are they facing? What demographics are being affected?
Speaker 1:Because when we go and talk to provincial, federal, municipal government, we say this is what we're seeing on the ground, this is where you can invest in to have an impact for the people who are struggling the most. So we do a fairly robust intake to try to understand those nuances, because they're not evident automatically.
Speaker 2:No, no. So we want to delve into that, for sure, in a few minutes, maybe in our next segment, we'll delve into those numbers and the trends and some suggestions of for improvement as well for the policymakers. So how how many regular do you go by households?
Speaker 1:how many regular, yeah, we typically go by households yeah so so what we're talking about when we say is a is a hamper, is a food or grocery box provided to a family? That's supposed to be that their monthly food bank support. Now, food bank support's not the whole month's worth of food, as I'm sure you guys understand. It's meant to be a five to seven-day supply of food, maybe more depending on how the family uses it and what they can do with budgeting and menu. That's something we can probably talk about later on too. But it's meant to be an assistance for their food needs, not their whole food needs, and they come typically once a month. So we're seeing about 2300 families. In october, 2364 was a new record for us, um, which is a mind-boggling number considering just very recently ago, we were talking about 1200 or 1300 and saying that's really bad, but now we're at 2300 23 and that was in october that was in october 2300 and so november thankfully wasn't quite in the 23 I think it was 22 and change, but we're.
Speaker 1:This year we've consistently seen over 2100 families each and every month.
Speaker 2:2100, yeah, and it's because some of those families, if they choose this month, I'm okay, they don't have to come back that month, but they may in the next month.
Speaker 1:Exactly so. There are families this year who came and you know, not every month, that's not the same 2,100 families each and every month. This particular month, maybe 10% of those families didn't bother coming and a different group of people came forward and it switches back and forth and some people come and they come once. Listen, you know, I blew a tire. I didn't expect to have to repair that tire. Now I've got no money for food, or my transmission went, or my heating bill was outrageous because the march was colder than I thought it was going to be, or I had to get dental work done. There's a whole host of things that end up sidelining people. They don't have a reserve that can carry them through that in that situation.
Speaker 2:And the food bank is a way to offset some of that. So your Christmas hamper program, which is over and above the regular program, how?
Speaker 1:many are you serving there? So we've got the. Last I looked, we had 1,300 registered by the end of November, and so what we do is the end of November is a cutoff so we can start to garner the resources. And so we've had a number come in and I don't know what that number is since the end of November, who we've said okay, you didn't meet the registration deadline. Now you're on the wait list, come on this date and we'll, and we'll take care of you with what we have after the registration, after the group that registered by the parameters of the program are taken care of. So I expect we'll probably do somewhere in the $1,400, $1,500 range by the time it's all said and done, but that still remains to be seen, depending on how things shake out.
Speaker 2:So we're going to talk about some more of that. We're going to talk about trends, as we mentioned, some budgeting and some of your programs there, and also some events that are coming up this week as well as part of the Greener Village and the Greater Fredericton or Mukdo area for fundraisers. Yeah, absolutely so, alex Boyd. We're with Alex Boyd, the CEO of Greener Village, otherwise known as the Fredericton Area Food Banks, in case some people still don't realize that the Greener Village is the Fredericton Area Food Bank. We'll be back right after this brief break here on CHCO, roger Shaw, and on Bell and on our Facebook page as well, with the Carr Brothers. Hi there, welcome back to the Carr Brothers. It's episode 128 and I'm Jack and I'm Jody, and Jeff is not here tonight because he sends his regrets. He's got a little sinus infection, that's right. So we're I'm sure he's watching We'll.
Speaker 2:We wish him speedy recovery so we can have him back next show, because we, you know, we really do miss him yes so, but what we have at hand right at the moment is alex boyd, from the greener village known as the fredericton food bank otherwise. And, alex, thank you very much for joining us. We've had a good conversation so far, and more to come. It's been enjoyable. Yes, yes, and we were talking about, uh, increasing Christmas time, your programming and the trends in one question was the trends in household income or the type of client you're seeing at the Gruner Village?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, so we've seen a few interesting trends, so you know. One of them is the proportion of people who are coming who are fully employed. It's been historically a thought that people who are coming to the food bank are unemployed or underemployed, and that's why they ended up at the food bank. Maybe they're on social assistance or they're on disability. There's reasons why they can't actually get that income from working, but the reality is we have a growing proportion of our numbers that are from people who are fully employed or, in some cases, more than fully employed, meaning they have a full-time job and a side job as well to make those ends meet, and they're still having a hard time making those ends come together. So that's something that's not just being seen at Greener Village.
Speaker 1:I'm fairly connected with food banks all across Canada and they're seeing the same sort of trend right across the country, and that's why there's a lot of advocacy work happening within the food bank network now to say there needs to be support for folks who are working who are not able to pull in the income they need to feed their families, and so Food Bank of Canada is advocating for a groceries and essentials benefit right now. In fact, I was in Ottawa just a couple weeks ago to talk to some legislatures on the Hill to advocate for changes that need to happen from the federal government that can support people who are struggling. To give people more income yeah, access to the resources for those essentials that they need. What's your response?
Speaker 2:to people when they if they say, or when they say, look at these increase in numbers people that are working full-time. Maybe a suggestion from the public that might say that they're abusing the food bank. What's your response?
Speaker 1:to that. It's something that we get a lot, actually, interestingly enough. And I have a couple of challenges with that One. We almost never know someone else's situation. It's very easy to judge it from a distance, but actually knowing what's going on behind the scenes is very difficult. But actually knowing what's going on behind the scenes is very difficult.
Speaker 1:And the second one is how do we balance making a useful system for people who need it that's not so cumbersome that they can't get access to it because you've basically created a million hoops that have to jump through to get access to it. And we see that sometimes even in the services we have in our society, where people can't navigate the system that's set up because the system's so Convoluted to try to avoid abuse that people who actually need it can't get access to it. So what we try to do is make a balance there. We don't want people abusing the system. Obviously, we see very small percentage of that. We also have to have a very deep understanding of people's complete situation, have a very deep understanding of people's complete situation before we can even have the conversation about whether that person actually needs help or not. We have the opinion that if someone says I can't get enough food that we believe them.
Speaker 1:We have no reason to doubt that that person is incapable of getting enough food to feed their family.
Speaker 1:Now, there could be a host of challenges behind the scenes that's bringing them to that situation, whether it's medications that are expensive or it's a debt that they took on that they thought they could handle, but then their job situation changed and they can no longer handle.
Speaker 1:But what happens if you bought a car, for instance, and then you, your job, got downgraded and you can't afford the car anymore, but your equity is all in that car, and to get rid of that car means you'd have to find a used car, but you don't have any cash for a used car. Yeah, or you have to buy a new car, but the payments on a new car is more expensive than the old car. So all these pieces are very difficult to navigate and people don't necessarily have the financial training. They don't have the financial literacy. So we have to work hard to connect people with the right people so they can get the information they need to make informed decisions. I have heard people say, oh, they should just sell their car and sell their house to buy food. Get off the smoke.
Speaker 1:Whoa, whoa, whoa hold on Stop the mingling those things are potentially could help today, but they may end up long-term. If the house is where you had the equity you sell, all that Right, that could actually end up hurting you in the long run more than helping you. So we have to be really cautious with the advice we give which is why we are very cautious with how we give advice.
Speaker 2:Financial advice especially is a big deal, so you probably partner with other organizations, do you Absolutely?
Speaker 1:So we would refer clients to credit counseling services at.
Speaker 1:Atlantic Hand or other organizations that have expertise and training and how to counsel people on the right things. You know, we try to make sure that we have the ability to help people as far as we can, but there always comes a place where we can work with other partners on problems that are outside of the skill and ability of our staff, whether it's mental health advice or it's spiritual advice. We connect to different churches, different faith groups. So if someone, if someone says you know, I'm really struggling and I just need someone to talk to and they're coming from a muslim background, we can connect them with the mosque, we can connect them with whatever group they need to give them that support. Um, so green village is very much a connector in that way. We can't be everything to everyone. We have to do what we do well and let other groups that are in the community already do what they do well.
Speaker 2:So what you try to do is or what you do do is have a nice soft place to fall nonjudgmental Right. They come in and then hopefully during conversations you can get to know them this and that, and then, if it's credit counseling, oh yeah, we know people that can do that, or if it's well, actually you have a cooking program, a kitchen.
Speaker 1:Yeah about that. Another thing that we do ourselves because we just feel like it's something that's fits well within our staff compliment if it's well within what the place we hold in the community. So our learning kitchens, a great example of that. We have a Red Seal chef on staff who can teach people how to take almost any food product and make an amazing meal. That's awesome. Like when's awesome, like when he cooks, it's good.
Speaker 2:And are are these courses open to the public?
Speaker 1:Like yeah, so so we have a kind of dual system going on. So if you want to learn more about cooking so, for instance, last night there was a collective kitchen and anyone could sign up at the collective kitchen we have an event break link that went up on our social media.
Speaker 1:And people could just click on the Eventbrite link and they could sign up. There was a small fee for the collective kitchen. What they did was they cooked meals together under the supervision of the chef. He was giving tips and tricks and then they all got to take home portions of the meal and so you know there was a portion of the dessert or a portion of the lasagna or a portion of whatever the different recipe was, but they cooked it themselves. Recipe was, but they cooked it themselves. We didn't cook it for them. That's the whole.
Speaker 1:Point is that you're going to get the hands-on experience for that. So we do that as a kind of an after-hours connection thing with the community. We also have specific classes that are for food bank clients who say who is like? Okay, so you are a food bank client, you're registered, you've gone through the process to become a client. Now here are some extra resources available.
Speaker 1:So we have some clients said I don't really need the food hamper anymore as long as I come to a collective kitchen. That gives me enough to get me through. So I don't need the food hamper. I can gain the skills from the collective kitchen and the community part of it, and I gain enough meals to get me through. And we have some clients who say you know what the collective kitchen means, that my food hamper that used to be a five-day hamper is now a two-week hamper Because they're leveraging, because I'm leveraging this part and that part, I'm taking the leftovers and I'm making another meal out of it.
Speaker 1:I'm connecting all the pieces. I learned how to grow a little thing in my garden because Green Village taught me that in their gardens and now I grow some food and I can put that stuff in my. It kind of all starts to cycle together when it relates to food. So it's been kind of fun to watch those programs really get more and more engagement. And so I was in the boardroom in the Greener Village which has glass doors into the kitchen and I was watching two clients who I know well cook away and they're just, they're just over the moon.
Speaker 1:It's being there with chef even talking and cooking and they're just having a great time and it's just, it's just so encouraging to watch people food's a good connector, right I mean you think of some of the greatest memories.
Speaker 1:You think about walking into grandma's house or walking into someone's house and they're behind the stove and they're cooking and they're talking and everyone's laughing and everyone's having a good time. And that's what we want to build at greener village is that community for people? Because poverty is an isolating thing, makes you feel apart from everyone else and we can pull people back together. That's part of that hand up side of things and you know the couple other things.
Speaker 2:It's food, music that can bring people together, food especially, that's it's so great to hear about that, joe, did you have?
Speaker 3:anything, what's? I don't, I was on a roll there. Yes, you were. Yes, you were.
Speaker 2:Well, tell us you must have some real good examples of clients that have either used the budgeting referral to the credit counselling or the kitchen, the menu program and the kitchen menu of just some success stories.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the ones who I automatically think about are the ones I mentioned who I saw cooking yesterday. Their name are Mo and Donna. They've been through some extremely traumatic health challenges over the last say, 10 years Heart events, cancer diagnosis, massive medication bills. And when they tell us their story they say we were broke on the verge of divorce and just defeated as people. And when they came to Greener Village to get food bank help and they realized there was all this other stuff that helped them connect to the community, they say now that they got their lives back Wow, and it kind of choked you up a little bit. But the reality is that story's not unique. There are a lot of people who they just need that helping hand. They just need someone to say hey, I got you, don't stress, don't feel shame, don't feel guilt. Life is hard. Let's walk through it together. We'll stand beside you. And so they're an amazing, amazing couple and they come to as many collective kitchens as possible because they just love to talk to people.
Speaker 1:They love to connect with people they love they love to cook together and they're smiling and they're laughing and and like they, they're like the, they see you across the parking lot and they're waving because they're just so happy to be part of the greener village community. Oh nice, and so that, like, those kind of success stories are not, uh, unique. Um, we had actually a client came in just last week and dropped off 11 turkeys and said you know, a couple years back we were in a health crisis and we needed help, but now we're doing better and we wanted to make sure that we could pass the blessing on.
Speaker 2:Nice.
Speaker 1:And those are the kind of things that are so meaningful and everyone loves to hear, because nobody wants to be stuck where they are the thought of things getting better and saying you know, this is a hard period of life but it's not the end. It's not the end, we can still move forward and we can still overcome. And I think that's kind of what Greener Village means to a lot of people, is just that hope. That's excellent. Yeaher Village means to a lot of people.
Speaker 2:It's just that. Hope. That's excellent. Yeah, got to give them hope, give them a light at the end of the tunnel, and we're with Alex Boyd. He's the CEO of the Greener Village, also known as the Greater Fredericton Food Bank. So we're going to talk some more of some events that are taking place annual events, turkey drives and things like that and how important those are, and also the fundraising campaign that you're doing. But right now, what we want to do, joe had a chance at the Ormukto Food Bank. They're doing their drives as well, and I had a chance to talk to Jason McCaw earlier this week, who is Jason.
Speaker 2:Well, jason McCaw owns the Mark for Life Tattoos. We've had him on the show a couple years ago, a few years ago this is the 11th year that he's doing um a turkey as a business, as an individual in the community. He's doing a turkey drive turkey drive on restagush road, and I caught up with him and uh did a five minute interview. So that's our oramakto component. Okay, and we'll, we'll, uh, we'll um throw it to the to that interview and then when we come back, we'll talk more with Alex Boyd, okay, good, okay, well, we're at Marked for Life Tattoos in Oromocto on Restagouche Road and I'm with Jason McCaw, the owner, and let's talk about a campaign that you've got going. This is the 11th year. Tell me about that, jayay uh, it started out.
Speaker 3:A buddy of mine showed up here one day in the food bank needed, I think, 58 turkeys and they were short. So a buddy of mine was he's military. He was military at the time and he's like can you help me? He said I don't have time to go up the chain of command and do this, I just need somewhere that can get it out there. So we did it that year and we just continued to do it after wow, and how many did you raise that year?
Speaker 3:I think it was over a hundred. I think Wow, yeah, and usually I mean most of the time. Until COVID hit and the price of turkeys went crazy, we would donate, usually right around a hundred turkeys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But it's more cash donations now and then we just go to the superstore. I deal with Ann down there. It used to be Danny, but Danny's not there. But now I deal with Ann and I just tell her this is the amount of money I have, this is what the food bank needs and give us the best bang for the buck. Usually we can fill like two half tons the back and the back seat and the whole back of the truck.
Speaker 2:Wow, and it's all turkeys.
Speaker 3:No, it's turkey. Like people will bring in turkeys, yeah, for the baskets. And then it's like pancake mix, jam, peanut butter syrups, past pastas, pasta sauce, all all that, yeah, all that kid snacks for school. The last couple years we've actually been able to get a big load of stuff at the super store before christmas for all the hampers and stuff, and then after christmas we get another big load too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, so that's helpful too, because after christmas they still need food. After christmas, yeah, yep, absolutely, and sometimes it's I'm assuming that it'd be more challenging challenging after Christmas because of the bills racking up and trying to get the Christmas gifts and all the extras too, right, yeah, 100%.
Speaker 3:After Christmas last year we did like a big order of like kids' school snacks. Oh nice, fruit cups, gummies, all that, granola bars, all that kind of stuff. Yeah, yeah, for school snacks, yeah.
Speaker 2:And in this so all your donations go to the Ormukto in area food bank. And this is the 11th year. Anything different this year compared to other years, or just the challenges are greater, I would say.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, everybody's struggling. So whatever we can bring in, we can bring in, yeah, you know, and that's what. So, whatever it is, and then we donate. So we will. Everybody here will give like $100 gift certificate for a prize, so anybody that donates gets their name in the draw. So there's $100 gift certificate from me, susie Scott and then Norm from Norm's Diecast donates a basket usually and we'd raffle that off. And Luke McLaughlin Auto Service he going to give us a free oil change to donate wow, yeah so. And care around his barber shop they're going to donate a couple free haircuts, stuff like that. So, and my massage therapist up here at the sour grape building porsche, she donated something too. So it's pretty good that way.
Speaker 2:It gives people incentive to donate well, yeah, and people, people chipping in um anything interesting over the last 11 years of people donating or highlights or something.
Speaker 3:COVID was really weird, like I didn't know how we were going to do it, because you weren't allowed to have a bunch of people in here. Blah, blah, blah. So we, I started taking e-transfers and then that way, and people donate from everywhere. Then you know you don't have to come in and drop something off, so they can send money that way, and it turned out to be a big success then too, which really helped.
Speaker 2:How can people contact you?
Speaker 3:They can either come into the shop and drop stuff off or send an e-transfer to our email address. It's tat2z at rogerscom and make the password turkeys, and then we just keep track of all that and then, like I said, we just go down to the Superstore and make it happen and you're also on Facebook. Yep, we are. I'm on Facebook, but it's easier to message the shop page, the Mark for Life page, coordinate it from there.
Speaker 2:That's right. Well, anything else? Well, actually, what I want to know is why do you do this year in and year out?
Speaker 3:It's just good to help people. It's just good to help people. Yeah, you know you got to give back. Yeah, and people are struggling.
Speaker 2:And you've seen it, where yourself, like you've started trying to run your business and ups and downs, and even in your past as well, struggling and overcoming that. That's right. So you want to help other people? That's right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, if you can help help Anything else, you'd like to add Just everybody, have a Merry Christmas and thanks for everything over the years and donations.
Speaker 2:Well, on behalf of the Carr Brothers, we want to say thank you, jason, for giving back in the community year after year, not only here at Christmastime for the Irmaqton Area Food Bank, but in other events that you do throughout the year, here at Marked for Life Tattoo, so you can drop off your turkey or even e-transfer. And, jason, we just want to thank you for everything that you've done.
Speaker 3:Thanks.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it. Sounds good, sounds good. Buddy, have an awesome day and a Merry Christmas. Well, you too. So drop your donations off here at the Mark for Life Tattoos on Rescuer's Road and all donations go to the Ramucto and Area Food Bank this Christmas.
Speaker 2:And welcome back to the Car Brothers show. It's episode 128. I'm Jack and I'm Jody and unfortunately we don't have Jeff with us. As you can see, jeff has a sinus cold, so we're hoping the speed of recovery for Jeff and that he'll be back on our next episode. But we're very pleased. We've had a great conversation with Alex Boyd, the CEO of the greener village, otherwise known as the Greater Fredericton Food Bank, and, alex, we've really appreciated you coming on and give us some insights, tell us, you told us about the need that it's, over the last few years, has been an increase of a hundred and thirty one percent of a need and 21% increase from last year. So the need is growing and even more vital for people if they can give, to give and after all, this is the season it's to give rather than to get, if you can. So absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think it's good for people to remember that greener village doesn't stand alone helping people. We are the tool the community uses to help the people who are in need, and so it is with people support, whether it's through food drives or financial donations or volunteering, or by what we're doing today talking about the problem and making sure it doesn't slip from the forefront of our minds. These are all important ways that we have to work together as a community to affect change Now.
Speaker 2:Another thing that's happening tomorrow of bringing people together is CBC's formerly known as feed. The family campaign is now called make the season kind. Yes, tell us about that.
Speaker 1:It's happening Friday, december the 13th yeah, so the campaign has been happening all month so far. Okay, so it's a campaign in Fredericton that supports all the the food banks in District 3. So it supports food banks from Dogue Town to Woodstock, to Ormukto, fredericton, stanley, chipman, minto, a whole bunch of different food banks. All come under the Fredericton Make the Season Kind campaign and it's to help us to raise money for the resources that we're actually expending right now on those turkey campers. So it'll help us to recoup those depleted coffers and depleted foodstuffs and make sure that we can continue to operate into the new year. So it's a great campaign and it culminates tomorrow with a big event at Pickeroons.
Speaker 2:Wow, and that's from 6 until 8.30 in the morning, and I believe Mike and Josh Bravner will be sort of the co-hosts, and then there'll be a lot of other people showing up and people with their donations and organizations, and there's a song book too. If people want to sing along, there's a choir.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think they've got a live choir that's going to be singing at Pickeroons and all kinds of fun stuff. So it's a great campaign and very helpful. Okay, you couldn't do it without that, could you?
Speaker 2:No, it's absolutely a huge part of the year and we want to thank CBC and all the work that they do to be able to provide this year after year for the greater Fredericton region. Now let's talk about David Miles. We'll have to get David on sometime.
Speaker 3:We will have to get David on. You know, we know his mom.
Speaker 2:His mom is a teacher of ours at Ormukta High School, formerly. Anyhow, but David and you know, david, yes, so anyhow he does. I think he said today on the radio it's his 15th year singing for supper. He was just in I believe it was in St John tonight or today Moncton yesterday and tomorrow is in Fredericton at the King's Place Mall.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and again tell us how this. And I saw the concert down at King's Place Mall. All of the proceeds that happened from that concert go into that Make the Season Kind campaign from the.
Speaker 1:CBC while it was performing on its feet of family. So great concert. I don't know if you guys have ever been to, but if you go to king's place while you're in for a treat with david miles, he's a great performer, it's a great crowd, everyone's really excited and it's all to help people in need. So what more could you ask for an enjoyable concert that also helps people? It's just the best of both worlds.
Speaker 2:so that's tomorrow, which is friday, at friday december, the, because we do reruns here. Uh, so it's friday, december the 13th at noon at king's Place with David Miles and he was saying on the radio this morning when he first started 15 years ago he'd have a couple people out. He raised maybe $1,000 total, which was amazing in itself, but after all these 15 years he's hovering right around $30,000 total of what's raised in the three cities.
Speaker 1:So just a great one.
Speaker 2:Over the 13 years he's raised that much.
Speaker 3:No, this year alone it should be around.
Speaker 2:Last year was around 30 and it increases every year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so if you add it up, he's probably raised several hundred thousand dollars for the Food Bank Network.
Speaker 2:And he has a great song out. It's called and I heard it. I never heard it before this. He he wrote it and it's a Christmas song and it's about why haven't I gotten a banjo for Christmas? If people look that up, david Miles. Why haven't I gotten a banjo for Christmas?
Speaker 3:that is catchy yeah, it's good, very talented one of New Brunswick's own very successful too, so that's great.
Speaker 2:And then what else is going on? Uh, we could. You've got uh ability to donate online to greenervillageca yes, absolutely so.
Speaker 1:If you're looking to support greenervillageca yes, absolutely so. If you're looking to support Greenervillage, greenervillageca is the place to go. You can find our donation form right on there. Obviously, you're going to put your email in. You're going to be able to get your tax receipt right via email and you can e-transfer or use a credit card.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely so. You can do that all with the form. But if you want to do an e-transfer, you can also go at donations at. Greenervillageca is the email address for e-transfers. As you know, it's a little harder to send that check in the mail. So if you're looking to connect with us and make those donations, you can also go to our station right up at the Regent Mall.
Speaker 2:Yes, you're at the Regent Mall, you're at the donation station.
Speaker 1:So you can either come and make a donation, but also, if you're looking for a gift for the person who has everything, we have three postcard-sized donation amounts where you can write the person's name right in honor of them. You make a donation to Greener Village and you tell that person hey, I made a donation in your honor for Christmas.
Speaker 3:Let's be honest, some of us don't need more stuff.
Speaker 1:It's just going to end up in the attic or it's going to end up in the basement, Whereas if you give that $50 gift to someone saying I made a donation in your honor, that $50 is going to go helping a family in need and that person can put that on their bureau and know that, hey, my family thought of me and thought of helping others as part of that.
Speaker 1:So that's a way you can engage right at that donation station. It's right beside our Angel Tree booth at the mall as well, which is right by the food court. So if you're going to the food court, if you smell good food, just turn around and you'll see the Angel Tree and the donation station right side by side. Well, tell us about the Angel Tree. The Angel Tree is a program we've run for the better part of 30 years, so it's specifically designed to help food bank clients to make sure they have Christmas gifts for kids. Okay, it's a hard time of year for for families that can't afford to give gifts for their kids. Their kids are go back to school and the kids are there, would you get for Christmas?
Speaker 1:and you know that's a hard conversation. Yeah, so what we do is we start the registration process early in October, where families come in who are registered clients and say, okay, I've got. These are my kids, these are their ages, these are their interests like they're interested in Lego or Lego Batman, or they can be very specific on what the kid wants. And then we we collate all that information, we put it on an angel and we put it up on the mall and then a wonderful donor goes up there and picks that angel off the tree and says, okay, I'm buying for Jody, he's age five and he loves Bluey Books. And then they go into Walmart or they go to Toys R Us.
Speaker 1:They actually go and they buy that gift themselves. They bring it back to us. Right there at the mall there's a nice bin set up and we put the angel on the gift, we put it in the bin and then it comes back to our shop. We've got a whole volunteer group working at Toyland. We call them Santa's Elves and they're basically matching those angel tree gifts with the families, building out the full package for the family, and then, once the package is built, we call the family. The family comes and picks it up. They're able to wrap it, so the mom and dad know exactly what it is and it's not like a shock to them what the kid's getting. So this year we have 4,800 angels.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 1:Which is about 30% up from last year. So 4,800 angels and we're getting closer, but we're not there yet. So if that's something that's near and dear to your heart or something you want to teach your kids, I know we take our kids every year and they pick angels off the tree so they realize that there are times when people need help and if we are in a position to help, that's what we should do. So actually, my daughters are older, in their teens, and this year they're like we're going to angel tree.
Speaker 3:We've had our part time job and we're going gonna pick the kids and we're gonna do it all ourselves, so it's a good way for us to teach about how we can give back.
Speaker 2:So there's still a number of angels on the angel tree absolutely.
Speaker 1:Region mall for the uh greener village to absolutely for people. That for kids at christmas to be able to get a christmas gift absolutely.
Speaker 2:Well, that is, that's an excellent. I knew about it and hear about it, but that's good.
Speaker 1:I'm glad that you explained that it's one of the most heart-lifting programs you can be a part of. You literally are being Santa and making sure that kids get that. And when the parents come in and they pick up their bag of gifts, it's not uncommon to see a teary-eyed parent to say thank you, because you've made Christmas special for my kids and every parent wants to be able to make the holiday special for their kids, and if we can support them in that, that's just amazing.
Speaker 2:And you'd have a lot of different shoppers with their different backgrounds and reasons why and things like that. Some have heard different stories that maybe they've lost their child and they want to be able to help that member.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, help another child or in the memory of their child and give that child a great little Christmas with the Christmas gifts we see a lot of surrogate grandparents were saying hey, no, grandkids gonna go without a Christmas gift at Christmas and they're and they're up at the angel tree and they're and they're picking them off.
Speaker 1:It's not a terribly difficult process. I was there last Friday and a lady had her two children with her and they grabbed three or four angels and within 15 minutes they were back from the store. And here we go. We found all of the things that people ask for in these angels. It's just a really fun kind of Christmas tradition that families can adopt.
Speaker 2:And how close do you work with the New Brunswick Food Bank Association?
Speaker 1:Very close. Yeah, so that's the FDA out of Moncton Food Depot Alamantere, I should say and so they're the kind of oversight body. They're the direct connection with Food Banks Canada. So Food Banks Canada FDA and then the local food banks, and so they bring food to us every week food donations that they've either purchased or received or has come through the Food Banks national system and they come down to us. So that's a good partnership that helps food banks to get more resources that we can give out to people in need.
Speaker 2:So our show is the Karm Brothers. We're broadcasted throughout New Brunswick now on Rogers, on Bell and on Shaw, so essentially every household that has cable has access to the Carb Brothers show Awesome and also, of course, on our Facebook page and on YouTube. So throughout the world of course you can watch that. But I guess what we would do is just encourage any New Brunswicker to if they live outside of the Fredericton region or outside the Fredericton or Muckter region is contact their local food bank as well and donate
Speaker 2:and just give what you can A lot of food banks are doing programming very much like ours.
Speaker 1:Some parts are unique, but some parts are very similar, because when we see a need, as food bankers we get big hearts. We say that need needs to be filled. We're going to find a way to fill it and that's why a lot of our programming has developed organically over the course of years. Because a need gets expressed and there's nothing filling that gap, and so we say it's not really ours, but we're not going to let that gap stand because people are needing that support.
Speaker 2:What is it that you're? Obviously we can get the vibe you're passionate, alex is. It's a calling, it's not a job for you. I can sense what is it that really gets you up in the morning? Can't wait to go to bed at night to get back up in the morning and just tackle this issue that we've got.
Speaker 1:You know, I started this my first year at university.
Speaker 2:It's going to be the paperwork and the taxes. Yeah, that's right, it's going to be the paperwork and the taxes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, it's the grant writing I started in my first year university. I volunteered in two places. I volunteered as a police auxiliary constable and I volunteered as a food bank volunteer interviewing clients actually doing client intake While you were in university. While I was in university and so when I was younger, I spent time overseas, in Africa and South America, working with orphans, working with kids who whose moms went to prison and they might go to prison with mom, and those sorts of things deep poverty.
Speaker 2:Yes, and my first year university.
Speaker 1:I came home and was doing this university volunteering at the food bank and saw the same deep poverty here and I was like whoa, because as a kid I didn't recognize it here, right, but saw it overseas saw it overseas but didn't recognize that it was existing right here, and so that kind of I caught the bug the food bank, food banking bug to say that man that I can invest my efforts here and so that's kind of what, what that's the bug that we talk about in the food bank network all the time.
Speaker 1:oh, they got the bug. It's hard to. It's hard to graduate beyond being a food banker, because when you see the impact your work has, it's hard to to take yourself away from having a direct impact. People will have supper tonight because the volunteers and the staff at Greener Village invested their time at Greener Village today and if we didn't do it today, people would not be eating supper tonight or they would be scrambling something together that would not meet their dietary needs. So when you think of it that way, it's pretty easy to be excited about the improvements you can make. And I'm a change guy. I love change. I love looking for ways to Process improvement yeah, improve and improve and improve that digital inventory.
Speaker 1:Oh, like how can you digitize this? How can you, how do you do it without that? How can you take technology that exists for something else and apply it to your situation? I love that stuff.
Speaker 2:Very quickly, because we're again now quickly running out of time. What about the future for the Greener Village? What's some next things?
Speaker 1:So we're nearing the end of a capital campaign. About a half a million dollars left to raise.
Speaker 2:We call that near the end.
Speaker 1:Well, it's about an $8 million campaign.
Speaker 3:So it is nearing the end.
Speaker 1:So we're nearing the end of a capital campaign that's going to create and we've actually learned Canada's first perishable food rescue center of its kind. That's amazing Specifically to make sure that, as our society, we're not wasting food. Okay, because if we're wasting food and people don't have enough food, there's something there's something dramatically wrong making sense so right now we've actually completed one internal renovation project to prepare us for that.
Speaker 1:Over the course of the winter we're completing a second renovation project to our learning kitchen actually, and to do some site upgrades to get ready for that new building and then next year we'll be building that building. So we're close enough to just say it's going be building that building. So we're close enough to say it's going, we're going ahead and we're starting to get the contractors lined up and all that stuff. We have our engineer plans, we have our kitchen equipment ordered. We're ready to to rock and roll with that and really with the intent of making sure that the food that we're giving out is as high quality, as fresh and as local as we possibly can make it, because that's the best kind of food that you can give to somebody.
Speaker 2:That's right. You're going to divert food waste and put it to good use it should be an increase in your food availability increased volume in our food availability.
Speaker 1:We're going to start to distribute food through fda in monkton to all the food banks in new brunswick. We'll actually gain food from our perishable World Food Rescue. Centre. It's not just a greener village project it's actually going to support.
Speaker 2:So you'll be able to distribute out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so right now, what FDA does is run empty food trucks back through. And we're going to basically be filling the empties on the way to Moncton, as a hungry person at Frederick or a hungry person at Minto is still a hungry person. If there's something we can do to be helpful to the Minto Food Bank and its work.
Speaker 2:Well, it's great to see you guys all working together, because it's very easy not to work together, but it's great because there's a lot of crossover, I'm sure people too.
Speaker 1:right, we have to be collaborative yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome inspiration. It's going to be a busy another few more weeks, but especially the next couple of weeks, but really thank you a lot, alex, for what you're doing at the greener village for for people in our community, in our province, and thanks for giving up your time to be here today. Well, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for telling about us and telling our story. Like I said, it's one of the four important things you can do to support a charity like ours.
Speaker 2:Talk about us and tell that story Well, we certainly will, and we want to thank our viewers for watching the Carr Brothers show here at this Christmas season. We just want to encourage everyone watching to donate to your local food bank and any other organization that's in need for this Christmas to help people, help our fellow New Brunswickers and Canadians. With that, we'll say goodnight and thanks for watching. We'll see you next time. Goodnight.