After 42 years of service, Terry Deets has retired from his role as a food bank volunteer, but his spirit will continue to help others through a new fundraising initiative created in his honour. 

President and CEO of the Calgary Food Bank (CFB), Melissa From, announced on the afternoon of June 9 that the campaign aims to raise $15,000 to help residents facing food insecurity. 

The hundreds of volunteers they see daily make up nearly 60 per cent of their workforce, From said, and without them, the food bank would not be able to support as many households as it does. 

According to a news release, the CFB is expecting volunteers to contribute over 200,000 hours this year. Because of this volume, the food bank can put 94 cents of every dollar back into delivering food supplies. 

From said that every volunteer, no matter how much time they contribute, is vital to their operations — but Deets was one of a kind. 

“They broke the mould with Terry,” she said. 

“He always came in with the best attitude — he worked hard, he got the job done, and he actually wasn’t afraid of kind of kicking other people in the butt to make sure they were working hard, too.”

‘It’s like a family,’ says Deets

In 1984, after coming across a volunteer-wanted advertisement in the local newspaper, Deets, also known as the food bank’s “honourary mayor,” said he learned about the opportunity. 

At that point, the CFB was in its infancy, having just been established two years earlier, and operated in an East Village church basement. 

Today, the food bank is a multi-million-dollar charitable organization with hundreds of staff members and volunteers working out of its two warehouses. Deets said he had a hand in shaping it into what it is in its early days.

From sorting fruit to helping hamper collection drivers, he said his favourite part of the role was doing something different every day. 

“I just like to keep myself busy, because I just don’t want to be sitting around on the couch all day,” said Deets.  

Before he took up the role, Deborah Lewis said she first met Deets in the early 1980s at the Vocational and Rehabilitation Research Institute while she was an employee and he was a client attending one of its programs. 

The non-profit is dedicated to improving the dignity and independence of people with developmental disabilities.

Lewis said that they crossed paths several times but eventually lost contact over the years. When she started volunteering at the food bank, she said that seeing Deets again was a “true delight.”

“Terry was always in a good mood on the line,” said Lewis. 

“He’s a very special man, and it’s wonderful to see. It’s very few of us who can say that we volunteered in a place for as many years as he has, and had so many people connect with him.”