After receiving a large and unexpected donation of over 11,000 farm-fresh eggs, the Moose Jaw & District Food Bank was surprised – and relieved – to find two young men show up at their door asking if they could use a few additional volunteers.
“I remember – this is going back probably nine or 10 years ago – in the one afternoon I had four young gentlemen come into our food bank and ask if there was anything they could help with and volunteer,” recalled Deann Little, development and warehouse manager.
“These eggs all needed to be washed, dried, and put into empty egg cartons. When these four boys came into the food bank… I said, ‘oh, you hit the jackpot. Can I ever use your help!’”
“That’s where it started, and they’ve been coming in every week (since),” Little said.
These men are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based out of Utah, USA.
According to the church, its membership includes more than 17 million individuals, 62,544 of whom are full-time volunteer missionaries (as of April 1, 2023). As a part of its missionary service, all able-bodied young men in the congregation are expected to serve a two-year, full-time proselytizing mission. The practice extends back to the late 1960s and has become standard practice.
“There are always two gentlemen who come in, and they do all sorts of different tasks. They’re strong and young, so I put them to work. They’re a wonderful couple of guys who are great to help out,” Little said.
On Oct. 19, these men assisted with a donation of 1,039 pounds of fresh produce donated by the Baildon Hutterite colony by unloading and placing boxes in the walk-in fridge.
Each missionary service lasts for a limited duration, meaning there’s a constant rotation of new volunteers. Missionaries may visit the food bank for a few months, and then another group from the church will take their place as they relocate to another charitable mission.
As the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah, most of the missionaries who volunteer are from the USA.
The two current missionaries helped with this year’s ‘Better Together’ food drive on Halloween night, and being new faces in the community, they were fascinated by the show of support.
“They just couldn’t believe how it was actually the night of (the food drive that everything was put together), because I showed them a video of what goes on that night… They were really happy to be part of that evening and volunteer as well…,” Little explained, noting that the missionaries were impressed with Moose Jaw’s level of generosity.
The food bank always welcomes new groups and individuals looking to volunteer their time. One such group arrived earlier this year from Swan River in Manitoba.
“I think it was in May that I had a group of 26 kids from Manitoba, and they were coming through (the area). They volunteered and I had them all in groups. I’ve never managed a group that large, but with a facility as large as we have, I was able to make it work and that was amazing,” Little recalled.
Groups looking to volunteer start with a tour of the facility, and many report being shocked at the wide range of initiatives underway to help strengthen the community.
“Often when I give tours, (new volunteers) have no idea of all the different areas behind the scenes on how we help people in our community and the surrounding districts of course. It just opens up their eyes to just how much we actually do here in various different ways – not just by giving out food,” said Little.
Little said the food bank is appreciative of all the help they can get.
“(I want to thank) our volunteers in general – we couldn’t operate our food bank without volunteers, period. We don’t have the means financially to pay our volunteers, so with them giving up their time, week after week to come in and help us, it’s huge and instrumental,” she said.
“I love all my volunteers. They’re not just coworkers to us; they have become family to us. They’ve really just become really dear friends to all our staff here,” Little said appreciatively. “We joke, we laugh, we pump up the tunes in the warehouse and we just have a lot of fun.”
To volunteer, The Moose Jaw & District Food Bank is located at 270 Fairford Street West and can be reached at 306-692-2911.
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