by Jesse Holth, photo by Sarah Hartley Photography –
Gail and John Bones are long-time residents of Brentwood Bay, having lived in the area for 40 years. Every week, they spend time volunteering at the Living Edge Market, providing free surplus produce, bread, and other food items to the community.
How did you come to volunteer for Living Edge?
I had spent many years working as a volunteer and Chaplain at Mustard Seed as well as a volunteer at a downtown Living Edge Market, but wanted to serve closer to home and have the opportunity to do this with my husband, John.
He suggested we try volunteering at the Living Edge Market at the Centennial Park Campus of Saanich Baptist Church, as we knew a couple of the people leading it. We were welcomed with open arms by the market manager and invited to carve out our own roles in it. This really touched us. We found niche roles in serving each week, and being familiar faces who would greet the attendees, engage them in conversation, and provide background music.
What role does music play at these markets?
Our own band, Doctor Bones Project, has been fortunate to play live music at a few summer farm markets, particularly James Bay and Goldstream. We have come to appreciate the value that music has in creating a welcoming and festive vibe for the market-goers and vendors. We have found that playing background music at our Saanichton Living Edge Market has done the same thing, giving people a feeling that they’ve come to an event, come to interact with other people, and go home feeling good about the experience. Music has been a big part of creating a community vibe at the Market.
Where does the food come from?
Every Thursday, over the noon hour, a Living Edge food delivery van shows up to unload supplies that have been picked up from a variety of sources, from the Mustard Seed Food Distribution warehouse to grocery stores that offer their surplus food to Living Edge. We’re also aware of a number of Central Saanich businesses and farmers who offer fresh vegetables, bread, eggs and flowers to our Market. Occasionally we even get Market attendees coming with food that they want to offer. What’s truly amazing is the small group of dedicated volunteers who come every Thursday to unload the truck, and sort through and prepare the food for distribution.
You said the need for justice in society is huge – and that people often feel they’re not being treated fairly. Can you elaborate on this idea?
Fairness and justice in society is a daunting issue. As individuals we can only seek to affect the situations within our sphere of influence. In the case of the Market, we try to convey this notion to the attendees through the actions and attitudes of the many volunteer servers and the processes we use for distributing food and promoting best behaviour.
For example, in our process, food is distributed to attendees in accordance with a numbered ticket. We convey just and fair treatment by shuffling the numbered tickets and handing them out to everyone at a regular time (5:15 p.m.) each Thursday, instead of a “first come, first served” process.
Some of the most generous community members are those who have previously received food from the market. How do you equalize the power structure between givers and receivers?
There’s a tendency at volunteer food or meal distribution events for a “we give and they receive” approach to get used as a power differential. Meanwhile, the recipient of the free item can feel inadequate or inferior by lining up and taking the free item. We’re fortunate to have great volunteers at this market, doing their best to follow the teaching “Do unto others,” or treat others the way you would like to be treated. What we’ve done is take up offers by attendees who want to be part of the service. We find a good fit for them in all the activities, including the set-up, take-down, food prep and number calling.
You refer to this as a “community market” and not a food bank – can you explain the difference?
Food banks are indispensable in our community, and increasingly so across Canada. We appreciate what they do to meet people’s needs. We have attendees who frequent food banks as well as the Market. But we don’t store or “bank” the food that we receive. We don’t require people to register, or show some type of proof or need, which may be the case for some food banks. And, as mentioned, we are trying to characterize our operations in the style of farm markets (but free). We are all serving the same purpose.
It takes a lot of hard work to run these weekly markets – what makes it all worthwhile?
The Market on Thursdays is very much the highlight of our week. We do come home exhausted, but the interactions and the connections are so rewarding to us – both with the attendees as well as the other volunteers. The things that stand out to us are those where attendees will come to the assistance of other attendees, even those they do not know, just to help out.
We’ve seen people being helped to get their keys from inside their locked vehicle; people pushing cars out of the mud; lost wallets found in the parking lot and turned in; singles trading their good number with a single mom with kids in tow, so they can get through the line faster. And last month, when we ran into a former market-goer (a new immigrant) who has landed a great job and no longer needs the assistance provided by the Market.
Do you have any advice for those looking to spend more time volunteering?
Look for something you feel led to do. Try it out. Make sure you are flexible in tasks that might get assigned to you. Make sure you’re in it for the right reasons. And sometimes the best way to get involved is to donate funds to support this work – whether Living Edge markets (they have a website) or a service area of your choice.
The high cost of living has affected people from all walks of life – how can we make the most of our food budgets? What kinds of long-term solutions would you like to see?
I know of market volunteers who occasionally come with recipes to hand out to attendees, knowing there will be a surplus of a certain vegetable or product and wanting to see the product used for maximum benefit. We feel that the market has given many attendees an opportunity to try out foods that are more plant- or vegetable-based, as a lot of our food is of that nature.
We can only do our part. We can try to be examples of how to cope with the problem that many people now have in trying to stretch their food budgets. We can and do pray that our governments will come up with more creative ways to address this multi-faceted and complex problem.
