Over A Beer
-With Country Artist Jaydee Bixby-
-Jazz Matthews
Today, Over A Beer is stepping outsdide the box. Today it's Over Food... Actually it's over a food hamper. We stopped in at our local food bank, the Parkland Food Bank Society. This visit was promoted by our friend, Jaydee Bixby. Bixby was a contestant, then runner up, on Season 5 of Canadian Idol. You remember, that 16 year old, crooning out Elvis and Conway. He finished second that season, to winner Brian Melo. Now to connect this to the Edmonton area. Bixby is starting a new tour, the Classic Canadian Cross Country Food Drive. He is literally driving across the country, rasing awareness, food and funds for local food banks along the way. All donations stay local, he is not gathering and leaving town, only to distibute later. In most cases, the show is free wih the hope that more people will come out and help those that cannot help themselves. Here is our local connection, the Parkland Foob Bank Society, in Spruce Grove and Moonshiner's in Stony Plain.
This is not Bixby's first stop to Stony Plain. He has been there twice in recent years, once playing an eight hour concert at the intimate venue known as The Tavern. On this night, the show is at Moonshiner's with local artist, Steve Newsome. Jaydee arrives after playing an afternoon perfomance at Whispering Waters Manor in Stony. It's a seniors residence and something Jaydee has a soft spot for doing. He will be back in Stony on April 22 to play a fundraiser with the Legends of Country Music at the community hall. After arrival, we chatted about the tour, but he was more interested in getting out to see the local food bank, talk to the volunteers and cruise around town. We arrived at the food bank, by now most of the clients, who usually line up well before opening, have received their weekly or monthly allotment. We are quickly introduced to the Sheri, the coordinator and given a tour of the grocery area and the warehouse. This is quite the feat, as it is explained that this food bank alone, helps over 425 families a month. These families come in all kinds of sizes, from single moms or dads with one child to a large group of thirteen. After having checked in, the clients are free to help themselves to bread and a small selection of refrigerated items. Within two minutes, their supplies are ready and brought out. It is an amazing thing to follow. To do that right, we will start at the end of our tour and come to the front. The warehouse is a new, year old, over half a million dollar addition; a space that was desparetly needed. It was built completey on grants and donations, but mostly donations. The local chapter of the Rotary Club kicked thing off with a $100,000 dollar check. This was matched by the provincial government in the form of a grant. The remaining $300,000 plus dollars was rasied the old fashined way, by the people. Sheri gave us a great quote, "If you want to see the heart of your community, go to the local food bank". In this case, there are over 170 volunteers of all ages and walks of life here.
The warehouse addition has an indoor bay that will fit, one at a time, the trucks that have been donated to the food bank. After loading in, the trucks are unloaded. Sometimes these trucks are from one of the 15 local food distributers that drop off items regularly. In days past, those items would have to be unloaded by hand from the back of the truck to the floor and moved to the shelves. Thanks to the loal Boston Pizza, there is now a dock leveller that raises and lowers, to truck level and back to the floor. This allows pallet jacks to be used instead of doing everything by hand. Much more efficient, time and back saving. The items are separated and put on shelves so that volunteers can start the process of building the hampers. This is an almost fool proof method with the number of particular items in a hamper, color coded depending on the number of people in the family. As the hampers are made, they are cased and fed through the back end of a new shelving unit that has rollers. This takes everything to the front of the shelves. In days past, you would have had to fill the shelves from the front and rotate stock much like a grocery store. Now wiith the new unit, once the cases are made, they simply slide in and out from the back. This means that the older stock is always at the front. Volunteers grab a cart and after picking up a pre-printed ticket with the clients name and family information on it, they head to the shelves and grab the staples required for the hamper from the cases that are ready to go. A quick run past the new walk in coolers with glass front serve doors, they grab milk, eggs and other items that are keep cool or frozen depending on the item. The Parkland Food Bank is able to help with dietary issues as well as some non food item supplies, in the form of diapers and the such. Actually, diapers of all sizes are one of the things that typically don't get thought of when making a donation.
As the hamper is complete, it is brought to the front and signed for, then the client is on their way. As we left the food bank, Bixby was stunned at the number of people being helped. It was an education for both of us and something you will hear a lot on the road over the next few months. Pulling out of the parking lot, we headed to the Tri Leiure Center to play a song. Nope, no one knew we were coming, we just pulled up, sat on the Community Couch and Bixby did a quick rendition of Folsom Prison Blues for the people that had watched this young man carry his guitar case across the parking lot and through the building. The Community Couch is a bit of a celebrity all on it's own. People are stopping by the Fix Coffee Company, having a cup and taking selfies, hash tagging #CommunityCouch and tagging the coffee shop, the Tri-Leisure Center and donators, the Black Dirt Company. Everyone reading this, if you are in Spruce Grove, why not do the same.
After the Tri, it was off to 88.1 The One radio on Stony Plain, where on air guy, Gruff Gushnowski spent about 20 miutes on air with Bixby, who played a classic Buck Owens tune, Love's Going To Live Here. After sound check it was show time and the place was packed from doors opening to show time to closing. When all was said and done, the first stop on the tour had rasied over 61 kilograms of food and $350 dollars cash. Good on you Stony Plain!
As my friend Jaydee drove off the next morning, I couldn't help but think of all the towns and cities he was going to. He is not making a lot of cash personally. Driving with his dog, Simba, in an older Crown Victoria, Jaydee has always been that giving person. The cause doesn't really seem to matter, but there is always a cause. It might be the River Float he started last year in Drumheller, raising funds for the local cancer unit. A tragic affliction that has since taken his dad Bud. Or it might be the local food bank. One thing is for sure, it is always for someone else. As the tail lights of his car turn the corner, I wonder, how about all those other bands in our area? Jaydee is country, we have country, but there is rock, metal, folk, hip hop, you name it. And among those bands, there are some truly driven people. There is always someone needing help and as a band or artist, you have a public platform and the ability to raise the necessary awareness. It's time to make our music matter, not just play because we love it. Play because music can move people, it can move people in ways that nothing else can. Make. The. Music. Matter.