Calgary Food Bank: Meet the longest serving and most dedicated volunteer
Volunteers outnumber staff 3 to 1 at food bank
Meet Terry Deets. He's been at the Calgary Food Bank five days a week for the past 33 years — the longest serving and most dedicated volunteer.
"I started when they were in the old Safeway store behind city hall." he said.
Deets is part of the backbone of an organization that thrives on volunteers.
Just as Alberta's economy is dependant on oil, the Calgary Food Bank runs on volunteers. In the last year alone, about 6,000 people donated a total of more than 100,000 hours of their time.
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Deets has seen and done a lot with the the Calgary Food Bank over more than three decades. He's been there for every move, including to the current address at 5000 11th Street in the southeast.
He's been there so long, Deets is considered the official unofficial mayor of the Food Bank.
"Nenshi is the mayor of the City of Calgary,… they call me Mayor Terry of the Food Bank," he said.
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Deets started at the food bank as part of a program to develop job skills. But since he was so good at volunteering, he was asked to stay. He sees his most important job as greeting people, whether it is clients, volunteers or staff.
But Deet's favourite thing to do at the food bank is to help clients during the distribution of the hampers.
"I help them with the loading of the hampers onto tables," he says.
Relative newcomer has volunteered for 10 years
In volunteer years, Bob Corner is a youngster compared to Deets. He's been helping out at the food bank for the last 10 years.
Every Friday at 8:15 a.m. you can find him on the preliminary sorting line.
"You take the food off the wall, put it on the lift and put it on the belt, it goes down the belt and then people sort it into different containers depending on what kind of food it is." he said.
He's seen every type of food you could possibly imagine even "things you've never seen before in your life."
Corner says these days the food bank volunteers have to work harder.
"I think they are under more pressure now than ever because of the slowdown in Calgary's economy, but they are trying to do a good job and they are doing it."
Both Deets and Corner like the sense of community they get at the food bank, whether from the clients who come for hampers, to the staff and other volunteers.
"We are kind of like a family at the food bank." said Deets.
