Latest / Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam / A Coffee with Sheri Ratsoy from Parkland Food Bank

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A Coffee with Sheri Ratsoy from Parkland Food Bank · Coffee In The Park with Jennifer and Cam

• 0:10
  Well, hello, everybody, and welcome to episode number six of the ABA Coffee In The Park.
• 0:16
  My name is Cam Milliken.
• 0:18
  I'm your host, and I'm here with my co-host, the extraordinary Jennifer Herrick, the executive director of the Acheson business Association.
• 0:26
  Hello, Jennifer.
• 0:27
  Good morning, Cam.
• 0:28
  How are you this morning?
• 0:29
  I'm doing just fantastic.
• 0:31
  It's a great morning, and I'm glad we're doing a podcast.
• 0:33
  I am too.
• 0:34
  And for those listening today, I just want to let you know that we are coming to, as we always do, live from the Wall Coffee Roasters in beautiful downtown Acheson.
• 0:48
  That's right.
• 0:48
  And we are here at the Wall Coffee Roasters, and so we want to make mention of that because if you hear coffee noises in the background, there's lots of people in here this morning, and that's kind of cool.
• 1:00
  And they're also doing some construction work.
• 1:02
  I'm not exactly what they're doing.
• 1:04
  So if you hear kind of this buzzing noise in the back, somebody's drilling something somewhere.
• 1:08
  Oh, you know, Cam, it is the summer season.
• 1:10
  And they have to do construction while they can.
• 1:12
  That's right, because you can't do it in the middle of January.
• 1:15
  So yeah, so if those noises that you hear in the background, it's all live, folks.
• 1:19
  It's real.
• 1:20
  Nobody's making any of that up.
• 1:21
  And we encourage you to come on by if you've never been to the wall coffee roasters.
• 1:26
  This is a fantastic coffee shop you need to come on by right here in the heart of downtown Acheson.
• 1:32
  Jennifer, who's our sponsors?
• 1:35
  We would like to thank our gold corporate sponsors, the MyShak Group of companies, Genics, and of course, Parkland County.
• 1:44
  these individuals are huge supporters of the Acheson Business Association and help us do so many things, including this podcast.
• 1:53
  That's right.
• 1:53
  So we'd like to thank them sincerely.
• 1:55
  So we're very thankful for them.
• 1:56
  And thank you everybody for listening.
• 1:58
  Man, I'm really excited about our listenership.
• 2:00
  Is that a word?
• 2:01
  I just, if not, I just made it up, but it's pretty awesome.
• 2:03
  Our listenership, our numbers keep going up.
• 2:06
  And so we want to encourage you to not only listen to the ABA Coffee In The Park, but tell your friends, your neighbors, your enemies, whoever it might be about our podcast and get them to download and listen to it too.
• 2:16
  Because I think episode number six, the last five episodes, we've had some amazing guests and we have an amazing guest this morning, Jennifer.
• 2:26
  We do.
• 2:27
  I am so happy that we have Sheri Ratsoy, who is the executive director of the Parkland Food Bank.
• 2:35
  Sheri, welcome to the ABA Coffee In The Park podcast.
• 2:39
  Good to have you.
• 2:40
  Thank you so much.
• 2:41
  And you guys do such a good job at that opening.
• 2:44
  I could just sit there and watch you guys all day.
• 2:46
  I don't even have to do anything.
• 2:47
  Oh man, oh man.
• 2:48
  It's awesome.
• 2:48
  And it's so awesome to have you here.
• 2:50
  That's the best part of the podcast.
• 2:52
  And we are glad that you accepted our invitation because we think you're a pretty special person and we think what you do is pretty special.
• 2:59
  And so we want to talk a little bit about that today.
• 3:03
  We do.
• 3:03
  So maybe to kick it off, Sheri, just tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
• 3:10
  I know that you currently reside in Spruce Grove, where the Parkland Food Bank is.
• 3:15
  Did you grow up in Spruce Grove or are you a transplant?
• 3:18
  Oh my gosh, no, not a transplant at all.
• 3:21
  I am a born and bred Spruce Groveian, as is my husband.
• 3:27
  I know we've been around since it was the, I think, gosh, my husband was almost around for the village of Spruce Grove.
• 3:36
  His mom actually worked for the Spruce Grove Village Hall at one point, when the population was under 700.
• 3:43
  Wow.
• 3:45
  Yeah, really.
• 3:46
  Under 700 people lived in Spruce Grove?
• 3:50
  My husband's grandparents actually built, they bought the Spruce Grove Hotel, which you have no idea what that is, because it doesn't exist anymore.
• 3:59
  But there was a hotel in the parking lot where the Cossack is now.
• 4:02
  Yeah.
• 4:03
  And the Cossack was, so it was the Spruce Grove Hotel.
• 4:05
  They built the Cossack in behind.
• 4:07
  They leveled the Spruce Grove Hotel to make it the parking lot.
• 4:11
  And that was my husband's family.
• 4:13
  So they were one of the kind of founding, downtown Spruce Grove families way back in the day.
• 4:21
  So that's pretty interesting.
• 4:22
  And the interesting part about that too is at that time, it was the only bar in Alberta that men and women could be in the same bar together.
• 4:29
  Come on.
• 4:29
  So it was the hot spot for Edmontonians to come out to.
• 4:34
  I had no idea.
• 4:34
  I know, right?
• 4:35
  This is what you learn on the ABA Coffee In The Park podcast.
• 4:39
  I had no idea.
• 4:40
  That's pretty incredible.
• 4:42
  What year would that have been?
• 4:43
  Oh, that would have been probably early, sorry, early, early 50s in there.
• 4:51
  So Spruce Grove was just teeny teeny and it was basically one or two streets.
• 4:55
  Yeah.
• 4:57
  My family came in in the 70s.
• 4:59
  They were Edmontonians and their family thought they were crazy because they moved all the way out to Spruce Grove.
• 5:07
  All the way.
• 5:08
  Yeah, it was all the way.
• 5:09
  In 1973, it was a big deal to move all the way out to Spruce Grove.
• 5:15
  And so my dad worked for the Edmonton Fire Department and they didn't want to live in Edmonton and raise their kids there.
• 5:20
  So they moved out a few years before I was born.
• 5:23
  And that's where we've been ever since.
• 5:26
  So my husband got out of town for a few years.
• 5:29
  He lived in Edmonton for a few years and went to college in Calgary.
• 5:33
  I like that.
• 5:33
  He got out of town and went to Edmonton.
• 5:35
  I like that.
• 5:36
  He was the standard Spruce Grove-ian who grows up in Spruce Grove, leaves in there in the late teens, early 20s, and then they move back when they have a family.
• 5:45
  I just skipped the whole moving out step.
• 5:47
  I just moved from my parents' house to the house my husband and I, the first house we bought.
• 5:52
  We lived there for 20 years, and then we bought another house in Broxton Park and we've been living there for five now.
• 5:58
  So, we figure out 20 years in each house.
• 6:01
  So, I should be three to four houses in my lifetime, just to make it a nice even number.
• 6:06
  Wow.
• 6:07
  Well, that's amazing.
• 6:09
  I have learned, Jennifer, I have learned things this morning.
• 6:12
  I've lived in Alberta, well, I was born and raised in Alberta, lived away for a while, but I never knew any of this about Spruce Grove.
• 6:19
  And you know what?
• 6:20
  Neither did I, Cam, and I lived there.
• 6:22
  So, Sheri, thank you for that.
• 6:25
  And just folks, just to put it in context, when Sheri says 700, I believe that the population has just reached 40,000.
• 6:32
  yes, that's right.
• 6:33
  Absolutely.
• 6:33
  It's actually, I heard, one of the fastest growing municipalities in the province.
• 6:38
  So, it's really booming, so.
• 6:40
  Yeah, I mean, like I said, grew up there, we lived there.
• 6:43
  You can still drive around town every once in a while.
• 6:45
  And it's like, when did that subdivision show up?
• 6:48
  Like, how does it just pop up overnight?
• 6:50
  It's incredible.
• 6:51
  So, tell us a little bit about Sheri.
• 6:54
  And you went to school in the Grove.
• 6:57
  Went to school in the Grove.
• 6:58
  I even managed to do my college in Stony Plain and in Spruce Grove.
• 7:03
  So, there was the westerra campus of NAIT back in the day, where the high school is now in Stony Plain.
• 7:11
  So, I did a year of college there, and then decided that sitting at a desk, I took office administration.
• 7:19
  Sitting at a desk wasn't my thing at that point.
• 7:21
  So, there was a beauty school in Spruce Grove, so I went there.
• 7:25
  And that was my career for the next 15 years, as I got married and had kids.
• 7:31
  I can relate to this.
• 7:32
  Not me, personally, my wife, my wife, no, no, no, no.
• 7:37
  Cam has a secret life we didn't know about.
• 7:40
  Not only was he a pastor.
• 7:41
  No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 7:43
  I had no secret lives.
• 7:44
  Let's make that clear right now.
• 7:47
  No, my wife was a hairdresser for a number of years.
• 7:50
  She's not anymore, but like you, she was for a number of years, yeah.
• 7:53
  Yeah, yeah.
• 7:54
  So did that for a number of years, stayed home for a few years.
• 7:58
  And then we raised our kids.
• 7:59
  So we have three daughters.
• 8:01
  Now they're 24, 25 and 26.
• 8:04
  Okay.
• 8:05
  So it's again, the growth of Spruce Grove and the change.
• 8:10
  They haven't had to move away either to come back.
• 8:13
  They've managed to all have work and careers in Spruce Grove now.
• 8:19
  And so have their partners, which is really amazing.
• 8:22
  They've purchased houses.
• 8:24
  So they are now long time Spruce Grove-ians as well.
• 8:28
  So it's wonderful to see the community evolve into somewhere where you can spend your entire life and have a full experience.
• 8:36
  And you don't have to move away and come back like you used to have to.
• 8:39
  So that's a really great story.
• 8:41
  And I appreciate that, because I think today, there are a lot of people who don't sort of follow that model.
• 8:47
  They grow up in a smaller community, but then they do move to the big city.
• 8:51
  They get out of town, get out of Dodge, so to speak.
• 8:53
  And I think that's really great that you guys have sort of stayed and put down roots and your family has put down roots.
• 8:59
  And not to say Spruce Grove isn't growing.
• 9:02
  It is growing, as we mentioned, by leaps and bounds.
• 9:04
  But I think that that's really cool.
• 9:06
  That's incredible.
• 9:07
  Yeah, that's awesome.
• 9:08
  So, yeah, so tell us a little bit about, so you were a hairdresser.
• 9:12
  Yeah.
• 9:13
  Then what?
• 9:14
  Then what?
• 9:14
  Then you got bored, you just didn't like it.
• 9:17
  You made a mistake one day.
• 9:19
  Clients said that's it.
• 9:20
  Yeah.
• 9:21
  It was a bad cut that day.
• 9:24
  What was it?
• 9:24
  It was a combination.
• 9:25
  I mean, it was a great career to have when you have three kids, especially I had three kids under the age of three.
• 9:30
  Right.
• 9:31
  So getting out of the house every once in a while and having some income certainly was a nice treat to not be just in toddler land all the time.
• 9:40
  But it got to a point once the kids got to school, that me working evenings and weekends while the kids only had evenings and weekends off didn't make as much sense.
• 9:48
  At the same time, my father-in-law, who's well known in the community, he started having some health issues.
• 9:55
  He started a dementia journey.
• 9:56
  We had moved him in with us.
• 9:59
  So he needed a little bit more care at the same time too, and yet wasn't ready to move into another facility.
• 10:06
  So yeah, we made the choice that we would be a single-income family for a little while, make sure that the kids were taken care of, and make sure that my father-in-law was taken care of as long as we could, as best we could.
• 10:17
  We were in our early 30s at that point.
• 10:21
  And then once the kids got a little older, you know, frayed back into the employment land, and ended up finding myself at this little food bank, thinking that, you know, just be a little job, just to get back into the job market.
• 10:34
  So that was 13 years ago, and I haven't looked back.
• 10:37
  Wow, incredible.
• 10:38
  So Sheri, I just want to quickly touch on what you just said, that you moved your father-in-law in, you had young kids.
• 10:47
  I think so many people right now are going through and have gone through, they call it that sandwich generation, right?
• 10:53
  Well, you're caring for elderly parents, but you're also dealing with your own family.
• 10:58
  How did that affect, you know, your life?
• 11:02
  And it had to be stressful because I think a lot of people are going through it and it is stressful.
• 11:08
  Yeah, I think at the time it was easier because there's something about being young and dumb and you just don't know that you're through a stressful time, right?
• 11:15
  You know, you have kids when you're young and everybody's like, Oh my god, you had three kids under three years and it's like, ah, I was in my early 20s.
• 11:22
  Like, I didn't even think that it was a stressful time, right?
• 11:25
  You're just getting through.
• 11:26
  And so my husband's parents were a little bit older.
• 11:30
  So we started that sandwich generation earlier.
• 11:33
  You know, most people start that in their 50s, you know, sometimes their 60s, and they're kind of doing the grandkids and the parents that are aging.
• 11:41
  And yeah, we found ourselves with eight, nine, ten-year-old kids and an aging parent that needed more care.
• 11:49
  And at the same time, my mother-in-law had a cancer journey and she ended up passing away at that time.
• 11:55
  So in reality, my husband lost his parents, you know, in his early to mid 30s, both of them, right?
• 12:00
  And one was a slower, longer journey.
• 12:04
  But yeah, I think you just, you get through and you realize the importance of community and family.
• 12:12
  And that is one of the benefits.
• 12:14
  I mean, not everybody gets.
• 12:16
  We lived in the community forever.
• 12:17
  We had friends that we've had forever.
• 12:19
  We've had family friends forever, right?
• 12:22
  We had a huge community base that we could draw on and get support from.
• 12:27
  One thing I love about working for the Food Bank is that's not the case for everybody anymore.
• 12:31
  There's a lot of new people and they don't have that community base.
• 12:34
  And so, you know, having that experience of realizing how much that gets you through when times get tough, you have an appreciation for what that brings.
• 12:44
  And how that can stabilize you when life gets a little tough.
• 12:47
  So you went from stay-at-home mom for a little bit and then decided going back into the workforce.
• 12:54
  Started looking through the want ads or what?
• 12:56
  How did you get to the Food Bank, Sheri?
• 13:01
  What was the going to the Food Bank journey?
• 13:03
  How did that happen?
• 13:05
  I've always been very active.
• 13:07
  I've always been volunteering.
• 13:08
  I've been volunteering since I was 16, 17 years old in one way or another.
• 13:14
  So when I was staying at home, I was quotation marks with my finger staying at home, but I was very active in our church, very active in the community volunteering.
• 13:23
  And some of my roles at the church was a lot of cooking and food prep.
• 13:27
  So there was a time that if you ate a meal at Spruce Grove Alliance Church, I probably had a hand in cooking, right?
• 13:33
  I mean, whether it was Alpha once a week, you were feeding like 100 people, right?
• 13:38
  The men's breakfast, the women's breakfast.
• 13:40
  So got to have a lot of food experience.
• 13:45
  And then also took a couple of ministry classes.
• 13:47
  So it was in a ministry class that I actually met my friend Susan, who was volunteering at the food bank.
• 13:53
  And she heard about it was a brand new role that was being created at the food bank.
• 13:57
  At that point, there was two part-time staff working at the food bank.
• 14:02
  And they were creating a third part-time position as a warehouse supervisor.
• 14:06
  And she thought of me and she introduced me to the ED.
• 14:10
  And we had an interview and the rest is history.
• 14:14
  And at that time, it was...
• 14:15
  So how long ago was that?
• 14:16
  That was 13 years ago.
• 14:18
  Yeah, at that point, I think we were feeding...
• 14:22
  I don't know.
• 14:23
  I think we were like 700 families a year.
• 14:26
  We had 34 volunteers.
• 14:30
  It was a different time.
• 14:32
  So you walked into that position.
• 14:34
  I walked into that position.
• 14:37
  And all of a sudden, one day, I was like, okay, I have no idea what's going on, but I'm in charge, and so we'll make this up as best we can.
• 14:44
  I'm in charge.
• 14:45
  Let's do it.
• 14:46
  Right?
• 14:46
  I mean, we had long-term volunteers that had been involved with the food bank for so, so long that they guided it and you learn and then you grow.
• 14:55
  And then one day you suddenly realize, wait a minute, I can be in charge, because I do know what I'm doing, and I have some good ideas of how we can move forward.
• 15:03
  So 13 years ago.
• 15:05
  2011.
• 15:06
  Where food banks, I mean, and we'll get to it in a minute.
• 15:11
  We'll talk about today's situation and all of that.
• 15:15
  What was it like 13 years ago?
• 15:19
  Was the food bank in demand like it is today?
• 15:22
  Has that never really changed?
• 15:25
  Has it increased?
• 15:26
  Back then, how was it?
• 15:28
  I guess that's what I'm asking.
• 15:29
  Yeah.
• 15:30
  2011, they were just recovering from their first real big influx of client need.
• 15:37
  Spruce Grove in the early 2000s had done a big leap in growth.
• 15:42
  2008 brought on a really deep oil recession, not quite as deep as the 2015, but it was impactful, which changed the face of what the typical food bank client would have been at that point.
• 15:56
  So 2009, 2010, they were a real big change period for the food bank.
• 16:02
  So I came in 2011, things were starting to settle, but we realized right away that we had to grow.
• 16:06
  So the facility that we were in wasn't quite big enough anymore for the amount of people we were feeding.
• 16:13
  The organization as a whole was starting to shift, which we can talk about a little later, but it was really going from that small, ad hoc kind of community-based organization to something that had to have more structure, more professionalism.
• 16:28
  It was growing up, right?
• 16:29
  We were starting to go into our preteen years.
• 16:31
  Because of need.
• 16:33
  Because of need, exactly.
• 16:34
  And just community growth, right?
• 16:36
  And I know that goes with it.
• 16:38
  So, yeah, so it was, I had a couple of years of kind of calm.
• 16:42
  And then we moved right into, we did, moved right into an expansion of our facility.
• 16:47
  And then the oil recession of 2015, which really brought up a tense amount of change in a very short period of time.
• 16:56
  Yeah.
• 16:57
  So Sheri, while the food bank itself is situated in Spruce Grove, you don't only serve Spruce Grove.
• 17:04
  Talk a little bit about the huge area that the Parkland Food Bank actually serves.
• 17:08
  Because I think people will be a little shocked to hear how large it actually is.
• 17:12
  Right.
• 17:13
  I mean, it's sometimes confusing to people.
• 17:15
  They want to call it the Spruce Grove Food Bank because we are located in Spruce Grove.
• 17:19
  But it is the Parkland Food Bank because it is Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County.
• 17:23
  So yeah, all the way from the Edmonton boundaries on the east end, we go all the way to Range Road 50.
• 17:30
  So the Darwell Highway go on out west.
• 17:33
  If you go in south, you go on down to the river.
• 17:34
  And then north, you go on up to the Lac Ste. Anne County.
• 17:37
  So it is a huge region.
• 17:38
  Yeah.
• 17:38
  So for those who aren't familiar, Parkland County is a very, it's large.
• 17:42
  It's a very big area.
• 17:44
  Acheson, the heart of downtown Acheson right here, we're located in Parkland County.
• 17:48
  So it's a massive area.
• 17:50
  And there's Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Wabamun.
• 17:57
  Any other major sort of, not really, I guess, but they're big and they're growing.
• 18:02
  And so yeah, you have a big area to cover.
• 18:05
  Huge area.
• 18:06
  Huge area.
• 18:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 18:07
  Which isn't unusual for food banks.
• 18:09
  Most do serve counties, and our counties are large in Alberta.
• 18:13
  I don't know size-wise how Parkland County kind of equates.
• 18:18
  Yeah, but I think to Jennifer's point, I think again, it's just a large area.
• 18:22
  It's an extremely large area for you guys to be covering.
• 18:26
  And having three big municipalities, Parkland County, Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, and kind of managing three municipalities and dealing with three councils, it brings some unique challenges for sure.
• 18:38
  opportunities, but some challenges.
• 18:40
  So Sheri, you talked about 2015 and how things started to look different.
• 18:47
  Tell us a little bit about, because we talk about this so much on the podcast, is March 2020, when the world changed.
• 18:57
  Yeah, the world changed.
• 18:59
  How did it change for you at the food bank?
• 19:02
  How did you pivot?
• 19:03
  And how are you able to continue to serve your clients now more than ever perhaps?
• 19:10
  Yeah, that was a very interesting time period.
• 19:14
  We just came off of in February, one of our major fundraisers for the year with The coldest Night.
• 19:19
  And then March, we started hearing about this COVID thing.
• 19:23
  And at that point, we were completely a drop in food bank.
• 19:28
  And we were serving anywhere between 80 and 100 households in a three hour time period.
• 19:33
  Our front reception area, everybody's got to come see The Wall now and have a coffee, but it's probably half the size of the floor space of this area.
• 19:43
  So not a big area.
• 19:44
  And we would have 40 plus people in that area waiting for their food.
• 19:50
  So obviously, overnight, we had to change that.
• 19:53
  And we also, at that point, had to reduce our volunteer base by a third because we had to socially distance our volunteers and we had to socially distance the clients.
• 20:04
  Our poor drivers, they were in a vehicle with a volunteer picking up all the food donations.
• 20:10
  Well, suddenly, they couldn't be in a vehicle with another person in that close quarters, so that had to change.
• 20:15
  So I think we managed to do it over a weekend.
• 20:18
  We didn't close one single day during the shift for the pandemic.
• 20:24
  Again, you talk about community coming together.
• 20:27
  I mean, we had family and friends and volunteers coming in and trying to man phone systems.
• 20:33
  We had one phone line at that time and trying to contact a thousand families and let them know, hey, as of next week, we're changing from drop-in to appointment.
• 20:41
  Let's start booking you appointments.
• 20:43
  Creating an appointment system that could manage that.
• 20:47
  And not knowing how permanent and how long it was going to be.
• 20:50
  So every change you made, you kind of did this temporary, it's just a temporary thing, right?
• 20:55
  In the mindset.
• 20:56
  Yeah, we'd never been through this before.
• 20:58
  So nobody knew, right?
• 20:59
  Nobody knew.
• 21:00
  Exactly.
• 21:01
  So coming up with super cheap measures because we didn't want to spend a lot of money.
• 21:05
  We don't have a lot of extra money to spend.
• 21:08
  Trying to create barriers.
• 21:10
  So picking up clear shower curtains from Walmart and making barriers with them and all those crazy things that everybody had to do.
• 21:19
  So we really had to step it up.
• 21:21
  It really changed our entire way of functioning.
• 21:25
  You know, Sheri, I think it's amazing because we all went through COVID.
• 21:31
  Nobody was exempt.
• 21:32
  We all went through it on different levels.
• 21:34
  Everybody went through it in a different way.
• 21:37
  But you know, when you stop and think, and you just look back and think how every aspect of society was affected, I wonder how many people outside of those who had to use the food bank actually sat back and thought, how is a food bank, let's just say a food bank in general, how are they making it through this?
• 21:59
  I think it was just like any other essential service, though.
• 22:01
  I mean, grocery stores had to do the same thing.
• 22:06
  When you're providing, whether you're business or a charity, if you're providing basic needs for people, you can't just not...
• 22:13
  Yeah, you can't stop.
• 22:14
  Right?
• 22:15
  You can't just close your doors.
• 22:16
  You can't say, we're just not going to do this anymore.
• 22:19
  You just don't.
• 22:20
  And then there's the extra pressure, though, if you're the only free food source for so many families.
• 22:25
  Right?
• 22:26
  There's not like there's five different grocery stores to choose from.
• 22:29
  And I'm sure COVID added to the fact that there were people who couldn't work who...
• 22:34
  Well, that was the interesting part is it didn't.
• 22:38
  It was actually a great social experiment.
• 22:41
  I know people cringe if you hear the word basic income, and that can be a real controversial topic on basic income.
• 22:51
  But once those repayments came out, it was a real experiment.
• 22:55
  I think it was the biggest experiment we've seen as a country on what basic income could look like and what the impact could be.
• 23:02
  And so suddenly people were receiving more on CERB than they were working their minimum wage job.
• 23:08
  So did your numbers go down?
• 23:09
  Our numbers went down.
• 23:10
  Is that right?
• 23:11
  interesting.
• 23:12
  It was a very interesting experiment that way.
• 23:13
  And thank goodness that the numbers went down because we needed time to completely overhaul our operations.
• 23:20
  But it was a great experiment on that.
• 23:23
  So we came out of COVID.
• 23:25
  We all survived somewhat.
• 23:29
  And from there, the Food Bank, you decided we're what?
• 23:33
  We're going to grow and go?
• 23:36
  So 2015, we had renovated our building.
• 23:40
  We had added 2,400 square feet.
• 23:43
  Originally, when I first started the Food Bank in 2011, we were talking about building a garage because we wanted to house our big cube van.
• 23:49
  And looked at the growth and look what we were trying to do in a 3,000 square foot facility.
• 23:54
  When that's not going to do it.
• 23:55
  So we, instead of just building a garage, we added 2,400 square feet to the facility.
• 24:00
  Went through this major renovation.
• 24:01
  We thought, oh, this will do us for a while.
• 24:03
  Went right into the 2015-16 recession and went, oh, okay, we've run out of space already.
• 24:09
  That was a year.
• 24:11
  So we already started on a feasibility study and started the process of if we have to do another big build, because we can't build anymore where we are, right?
• 24:23
  Let's try and think long-term.
• 24:25
  So we did a huge research project.
• 24:27
  We looked at the last 25 years of food bank usage in the area and the growth.
• 24:31
  Tried to use that as projections moving forward.
• 24:33
  Tried to have an understanding of what is a hamper?
• 24:35
  What does that space take, right?
• 24:37
  And from there, hired SanTech to do a feasibility study to identify what we would need for facility for the next 20 to 25 years, 15 to 25 years.
• 24:48
  And so it was really interesting experiment.
• 24:51
  It's really scary when you look at the numbers.
• 24:53
  We don't need to build it all at once, but we need to be in a place where we can add on.
• 24:56
  Because 10 years, as we get older, 10 years goes by quicker and quicker.
• 24:59
  So you have a growth plan?
• 25:01
  So we have a growth plan.
• 25:02
  So now we're at a place where we're starting to either look for land or look for an existing facility that we can renovate.
• 25:09
  Going into a capital campaign and a building program.
• 25:11
  Exactly.
• 25:12
  So that we can continue to be here.
• 25:14
  So you're going to grow.
• 25:15
  Real quick, how many clients do you serve a week?
• 25:20
  A week, let me think real quick here.
• 25:24
  We're at, geez, I didn't work it out.
• 25:28
  We're about 3,000 clients a month.
• 25:30
  A month, okay.
• 25:31
  I can do that one real quick.
• 25:32
  Don't make me math this early in the morning.
• 25:34
  I've only half a cup of coffee.
• 25:39
  What demographic of people is growing at the food bank?
• 25:42
  Is it children?
• 25:43
  Is it seniors?
• 25:45
  Is it just, or it's just all kind of?
• 25:47
  It's definitely all growing.
• 25:49
  Our clientele, even though children make up 30 percent of our population regionally, they make up 49 percent of our food bank users.
• 25:58
  So definitely children are disproportionately affected more, typically because there's a lot of single families, and then that's single families are affected more, right?
• 26:07
  Single income, anybody, right?
• 26:09
  It's hard.
• 26:10
  The biggest jump, though, and the scariest, newest jump is the amount of employed people that are using food bank services, and that's Canada-wide as well.
• 26:19
  With inflation costs and the cost of living going up, more and more people are working full-time and still not able to make ends meet, which is kind of the new reality that we're in.
• 26:28
  And we've talked about it, you know, it's harder for everybody.
• 26:31
  By the time you pay, you look at your bills and the food costs, and like you said, inflation, it's tough out there.
• 26:38
  It's tough out there, and so we're seeing that.
• 26:39
  We're seeing about 10% increase in client use, and then a 10% decrease in donations, so.
• 26:46
  Sheri, you guys do an absolutely amazing job, and it's incredible.
• 26:51
  I don't think people really realize the role you play in, I'm going to say society, but specifically in Parkland County, you guys do an absolutely incredible job, so thank you for doing that.
• 27:01
  That's where I'm going to correct you a little bit, because it's not us that does it.
• 27:05
  I know we're not the 1985 food bank, but without the community, we don't exist.
• 27:12
  I understand.
• 27:13
  We're just a friendly reminder in the nudge, which reminds me, because I was listening to your podcast from your last guy, he brought you chicken wings.
• 27:20
  yes, he did.
• 27:20
  So I'm listening to this, and I'm like, damn, they brought chicken wings.
• 27:24
  How am I going to top chicken wings?
• 27:27
  You guys are smacking your fingers.
• 27:28
  We didn't know what to ask you to bring, so we just wanted to.
• 27:31
  So It would've been bad, Sheri, if we would have asked you to bring food from the food bank.
• 27:35
  Bring food from the Food Bank, that wouldn't go over.
• 27:36
  This is where I was thinking.
• 27:38
  So in my car, I didn't bring them in because they're too big.
• 27:40
  But right now, we have a corporate challenge going on.
• 27:42
  We've already got our businesses engaged.
• 27:44
  But in my car, I got two big cardboard boxes.
• 27:46
  So yeah, I didn't bring you chicken wings.
• 27:48
  I brought you boxes, and signs, and we'll be by in a week or two to pick up all the food.
• 27:55
  I know that's not as exciting as chicken wings in the morning, but...
• 27:58
  We're excited about that.
• 27:59
  That's good.
• 28:00
  I mean, speaking of community and the work, I'm going to put you guys to work.
• 28:04
  No.
• 28:05
  So Sheri, this is kind of our last question we like to ask our guests.
• 28:11
  And this has been, I think, for me, Cam, really enlightening.
• 28:17
  What is the best piece of advice that you've been given, that you carry with you today, either personally or professionally?
• 28:23
  Seriously, that's the surprise question that you come up with?
• 28:26
  Yeah.
• 28:27
  And I have to come up live, with an answer on that?
• 28:29
  To be honest, there's only like three minutes left.
• 28:31
  So it's not like you have a lot of time.
• 28:33
  So pressure, Sheri.
• 28:35
  As you can see, I'm stalling.
• 28:37
  Because here's the thing, if we give this to you ahead of time, and then you think on it and think on it, you know that's great.
• 28:43
  But who's the one person that gave you that piece of advice, and what was it, that has stuck with you for a very long time?
• 28:51
  Oh, good gracious, I can't even think of who.
• 28:54
  I mean, think just in general, life lessons learned over the years.
• 29:00
  Don't take yourself too seriously, ever.
• 29:02
  That's good.
• 29:03
  Right?
• 29:04
  Because you're going to do good things, you're going to do crappy things.
• 29:08
  And the best you can do is learn and grow and move forward in whatever that happens to be.
• 29:13
  So don't take yourself too seriously.
• 29:17
  Ted Lasso has always got a good one, "be a goldfish." When you do screw up, let it go.
• 29:22
  I love Ted Lasso.
• 29:24
  And learn your lesson and move on.
• 29:28
  Personally, I mean, marriage advice, the best thing is, I don't know if you've ever read that, men are from Mars, women are from Venus.
• 29:35
  I mean, it was pretty hokey.
• 29:35
  Yeah, I tried to avoid that book because I just thought, I don't want to know about me.
• 29:39
  I don't want to know where I'm from.
• 29:41
  But the biggest lesson on that one was to put into my sentence for my husband, and the point is, because as a woman, we talk in a big circle, and then we get to a point, and men just want to get to the point, and then they need to know whether or not this is something they need to solve or not.
• 29:58
  And so A, I have to preface a conversation with- I feel like we're in counseling here.
• 30:04
  I know.
• 30:06
  I don't know what to say here.
• 30:07
  Just get to the point, Sheri.
• 30:09
  Right?
• 30:09
  Exactly, talking to my circle.
• 30:13
  So starting a conversation with a man, you have to almost start it with, this is something I need you to fix or I just need you to listen.
• 30:19
  So they have a mindset.
• 30:20
  And then the second part is I'm going to ramble, and I will let you know when I need you to come back and listen.
• 30:26
  And then you can be like, okay, there we finally got to a point of this conversation.
• 30:29
  All right.
• 30:30
  There you go.
• 30:32
  Words of wisdom.
• 30:33
  Those are good words.
• 30:34
  Yeah.
• 30:35
  They are.
• 30:36
  So Sheri, this has been an absolute pleasure.
• 30:40
  We encourage you if you don't know about the Parkland Food Bank.
• 30:45
  Sheri, where can they find your information?
• 30:47
  parklandfoodbank.org.
• 30:49
  And we're going to be everywhere.
• 30:50
  This is our summer of being everywhere.
• 30:51
  This is post pandemic.
• 30:53
  We were let out of our box.
• 30:55
  So we're all over the community.
• 30:56
  So I'm sorry if you've gone to the grocery store, my volunteers have accosted you.
• 31:00
  We will be continuing to do that for the rest of the summer.
• 31:02
  If you go to a parade in the area, just bring food because we'll probably be collecting food in the parade.
• 31:07
  And yeah.
• 31:08
  So parklandfoodbank.org or everywhere you go.
• 31:11
  You know what Sheri, you never have to apologize.
• 31:14
  I think what you guys do, and I'm going to say it, is absolutely fantastic.
• 31:18
  I've had the privilege in the last little while of being a little bit involved with some of what you're doing.
• 31:23
  And I do it because I believe in you and we believe in you and we think you are doing an amazing job.
• 31:30
  And so folks, check it out, Parkland Food Bank.
• 31:33
  Go and look at it a little bit.
• 31:35
  I think it's worth checking out.
• 31:37
  They do a fantastic job and we really appreciate you.
• 31:40
  We appreciate what you're doing.
• 31:41
  Thank you for taking the time.
• 31:43
  Thank you so much.
• 31:44
  This was fun.
• 31:44
  That was my first podcast.
• 31:46
  Awesome.
• 31:46
  First podcast I listened to, so I have no expectations.
• 31:49
  Great.
• 31:50
  Well, we're glad that you joined us in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson at the Wall Coffee Roasters.
• 31:56
  And thank you very much.
• 31:57
  And folks, check it out, Parkland County Food Bank.
• 32:01
  Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell your enemies, tell anybody about the ABA Coffee In The Park podcast.
• 32:06
  Thanks for listening, everybody.
• 32:07
  Thanks.
• 32:07
  We'll see you next week.
• 32:16
  You will not want to miss this year's 2024 Acheson business Association Awards Gala.
• 32:23
  This event will sell out quickly as we recognize and celebrate the business community and people of Acheson.
• 32:29
  This year's award will go to businesses of the Year , Innovation , Community , Associate Member , Women in Leadership , and the highlight of the event , the Lifetime Achievement Award to Wes Wall ,Founder and CEO of Genics.