Editor’s Note: This story was originally published in December 2021
It’s not so much the significant events that determine the success of a person’s life. Often, it’s the small things, the seemingly insignificant day-to-day events, that, over a lifetime, carve out a destiny.
I’m thinking this as I watch a Fredericton Food Bank volunteer carry a good-size food hamper out to a family who just pulled their car up to the food bank’s main entrance. As I walk past the car towards the entrance, I see two small children wearing adorable Christmas hats talking excitedly in the back seat. They can’t wait to see what’s in the hamper.
I’m here to meet Alex Boyd, executive director of Greener Village, home of the Fredericton Food Bank. He’s going to give me a tour of what goes on behind the scenes during the food bank’s busiest time of the year.
When I first meet him in a modest boardroom just off a spacious ‘learning kitchen’ that any restaurant would be proud of, I tell him I’m amazed at the number of cars waiting to pick up food hampers in the line-up. I also tell him I like his sweater. He’s wearing one of those multi-coloured, don’t-you-dare-not-notice-me Christmas sweaters that always make me smile.
“I want everyone to know I like to celebrate the season,” Boyd replies, grinning. I like him right away.
Greener Village started as the Fredericton Food Bank in 1983, becoming one of the first food charities in the Greater Fredericton Area, he explains as we begin our tour. “In 2012, we moved into this much larger location here on Riverside Drive on the north side. Our operation now includes a learning kitchen, community gardens and the Unique Boutique.”
Despite the varied services Greener Village provides each month, it’s still a food bank providing stability to more than 3,000 people experiencing hunger in the Fredericton community and beyond.
“It’s always busy like this just before Christmas,” Boyd tells me as we walk through the primary packing and receiving area where volunteers scurry around packing hampers unloading pallets and loading the van for deliveries.
“Our deadline for the food hampers is coming up in a few days. After that we shift to distributing turkeys. What you’re seeing today is people picking up their food hampers. Next week, the week before Christmas, many of them will be back for turkeys.”
“What drives you, especially during these hectic weeks at Christmas?” I ask.
“I was raised with the idea that we have to give back to the community,” he tells me. “Our family lived in a modest house in Devon and I grew up attending the Baptist church there. Through the church I had a chance to travel to South America and do mission work. That experience had a big impact on me.”
I can feel Boyd’s empathy and his positive spirit. No wonder he’s effective at marshalling Greener Village’s full-time staff of six and the many volunteers it relies on to accomplish its critical work. In 2019, before the pandemic, they volunteered more than 25,000 hours in various capacities enabling Greener Village to serve the community effectively.
You hear a lot of talk about leadership these days. Some of the most effective leaders I know work in the volunteer sector at the ground level. And so it is with Greener Village and the hundreds of other organizations and their volunteers throughout New Brunswick making life better for all of us.
Leaders like Boyd recognize that serving the greater good means taking a holistic approach. Greener Village is greater than the sum of its parts. For him, his staff, and its many volunteers, it’s a gestalt thing, all about empathy and thoughtfulness, a collective effort, as is its success in serving the community.
Empathy and thoughtfulness are what it’s all about, I think as I walk across the parking lot to my car after thanking my host and wishing him and a couple of volunteers at the door season’s greetings.
The car with the two adorable children is long gone, but I bet those two kids are enjoying all the goodies in that food hamper. I’d also bet that thanks to the kind and open hearts at Greener Village, next week they’ll be back for a turkey. I hope so, anyway.
