Voice of the Food Bank

Twenty years of feeding Calgarians, one bus at a time                                        

Stuff a Bus, a unique partnership between Calgary Transit and Calgary Co-op, brings food to Calgarians experiencing a temporary need. Every November, Calgary Transit buses are parked outside the front entrances of  Calgary Co-op stores across this city. The driver opens the doors, and instead of welcoming passengers, welcomes Co-op customers offering donations of food and money. When the buses are stuffed, each driver begins the journey to the Calgary Food Bank, where the donations are unloaded into the Food Bank’s vast warehouse.

In 2011, about $150,000.00 of food was collected (close to 39,000 pounds) and approximately $69,000.00  in donations were received during the one-day event; enough to feed about 2,900 families of four to five people for a week.

When Stuff a Bus was in its early days, four or five buses were dispatched to Calgary Co-op locations. Twenty years later, there’s a bus at every store. Thirty-one year veteran Calgary Transit driver and relief training officer Ed Chamberlain took over coordinating Transit volunteers 11 years ago. He has made it his mission since then to have enough volunteers to drive the buses, greet Co-op shoppers and load groceries onto the buses at all 21 Calgary Co-op locations.

“It’s never been a problem to get enough people. I need about 120 volunteers for this one-day event, to cover all the shifts and locations. I put the notice out on our Intranet and Transit employees fall over each other to volunteer. We have bus drivers who bring out their families to help,” says Chamberlain.

“For many years now, a gentleman from the Rocky Ridge area goes into his neighborhood Co-op and buys a dozen frozen turkeys and gives them to Stuff a Bus. I’ve seen people coming out with two or three full shopping carts, and donating it all, except for the one cart they take home,” adds Chamberlain. “But someone’s $10.00 means the same as the next guy’s $1,000.00; it’s not the size, it’s the donation that counts.”

Chamberlain recalls a story a Transit volunteer told him a few years ago, “There was a young mom with a small child, and they did not seem that well off,  from the amount of groceries in their cart, yet she asked him to go pick up two of the prepackaged Stuff a Bus Food Bank items that Co-op was selling for $10.00 each.  They checked out with just a small bag of their own items, but the little boy helped carry the Food Bank bag up to the bus. He was so happy to be helpful. It was so cute to watch. It was nice to see how this young mom and her son were so unselfish and happy to help, despite their own difficult circumstances…..”.

Behind the scenes at Calgary Transit, it takes many hands to make this annual one-day event the success it is. Buses need to be cleaned thoroughly, fueled and given a maintenance check-up. Before the event begins, the buses need to be warmed up at the bus depot, and then shut down, warmed up again and only then do they leave for their designated Co-op location.

“There’s a great amount of work that goes on behind the scenes at Calgary Transit by many of our employees to ensure the annual Stuff a Bus program is a success for people who need assistance,” said Calgary Transit spokesman, Ron Collins. “We are very pleased and proud to be part of this extremely worthy venture.”

As volunteer coordinator, Chamberlain creates a detailed plan that organizes shifts of volunteers at the 21 Co-op locations; but there is a particular element that makes his task more challenging. Calgary Transit bus drivers, like airline pilots, are limited in the amount of time they can legally spend behind the wheel, even in a voluntary role. But bus drivers are only one of the positions Chamberlain must fill. To be sure things run smoothly throughout the day, volunteers are also needed to greet donors and load donations. Compounding all this are the schedules of everyone he recruits! While the event runs for seven hours, some volunteers can only commit to four hours, because, like you and I, weekends are often their only opportunity to spend quality time with family or knock off a pile of chores.

“I grew up seeing my parents struggle to make ends meet, it was tough for them at times. I have a soft spot for people struggling, especially single mothers, and I want to help,” says Chamberlain.

Calgary Co-op Communications Manager Cindy Drummond says, “As a food store, this event makes a lot of sense for us. We are helping Calgarians get their basic needs met and that includes food.  It’s really seamless for us, it’s really Calgary Transit’s event. We provide the venue and talk it up to customers ahead of time, and help out by feeding the volunteers. We’re grateful as an organization to be a part of this.”

What has become clear over the years is that many Calgarians wait for this event – this is when they give to the Food Bank. In 2009, a Co-op shopper gave a cheque for $25,000.00 to one of the bus drivers. Since 1999, over $1 million in donations have been made to Stuff a Bus.

Stuff a Bus donations are easy to make -  Co-op pre-packages items into small bags called Pre-Packs that sell for $10 each and contain a selection of items the Food Bank guarantees will be placed n each Emergency Food Hamper.  Won’t be in town for Stuff a Bus? Specially marked Stuff a Bus boxes are also placed in each store well ahead of the event for early donations of non-perishable items.

Stuff a Bus takes place this year on Saturday, November 3 at all Calgary Co-op stores. As the winter season begins, and seasonal employment slows down, Calgary can see a rise in unemployment. This factor and others can mean a temporary crisis for some Calgarians. This is the time of year when the need for food donations becomes more critical. No one should ever go hungry. In a city with as much abundance as Calgary has, that should go without saying.