From one of the toughest neighbourhoods in Toronto to the mean streets of Cleveland, Peter Sundborg has seen the many faces of poverty.
The executive director of the Barrie Food Bank has been helping improve the lives of the less fortunate since working in the Jane Street and Finch Avenue area beginning in 1978, and later in the Ohio city.
“There was a massive abandoned apartment building there just filled with people because that was only place they could afford to live. They were basically squatters,” he says from the food bank’s Anne Street South location, which he has overseen since June 2011.
“That made Jane and Finch look better. At least people there had a place they could go to,” Sundborg says. “It was a tough neighbourhood. I worked there for four years. I saw shootings, buildings and cars being set on fire.”
But all that mayhem set him on a course for the rest of his life.
“I think it created a character in me that has never left me. It created a bigger awareness of what can happen to people,” he says. “I’ve become a much better person and a more appreciative person after I left Jane and Finch.
“That’s where the beginning of my calling started and that is to serve others.”
He says he has learned not to judge people.
“Because you never know who you’re dealing with,” Sundborg says. “Everybody has a story and everybody has something that they are battling with, so we always need to be kind. We always need to be respectful.”
There are different ways to look at the lives of people who are marginalized, he adds.
“What we see as poverty here in Barrie is completely different from what poverty might be like in another part of the country or part of the world,” Sundborg says.
“Either way, poverty still exists and for us we need to deal with the folks that are coming to our door,” he says. “Those are the people who are in need of food or conversation, in need of a handshake or a hug, whatever it happens to be.
“Providing food, or a little laughter, makes a huge difference in their lives. My intent here at the food bank, and in my whole life, is to serve others. I’m still the guy who holds the door for someone.”
Sundborg says the Barrie Food Bank’s mission is twofold: to provide for those in need and to help them on the road to self sufficiency.
“We want to point them somewhere. I know there have been people who have come through the front door looking for food who today are donors to the food bank, which is awesome,” he says.
The vast majority of clients are getting a hand up from the food bank because at some point in their lives they need assistance.
“They’ve lost a job; someone got ill in their family and they had to leave a job to take care of that person,” Sundborg says. “They come to the door and we help and in a year or two or three years later, all of a sudden they are making donations to us.”
There are approximately 140 weekly volunteers along with an additional 500 or 600 people who volunteer throughout the year with food drives, events or running their own food drives.
“We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without them,” he says glowingly of the army of volunteers.
“They come from every walk of life and every kind of background: schools, businesses, service clubs, churches, individuals,” Sundborg says. “I have police officers, nurses, teachers, stay-at-home moms who don’t need to stay at home anymore, all sorts of different people with lots of different skill sets they are bringing to the table.”
The food bank receives more than one million pounds of food annually: meat, vegetables, non-perishable items.
Simcoe County farmers donate almost 125,000 pounds of fresh produce every year and a recent partnership with Costco has generated 133,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables that would otherwise be thrown into a landfill site.
“Part of our philosophy is if our clients are eating healthier and have a balanced diet, they will do healthier things,” he says.
“One of the things I am most proud of is that the Barrie Food Bank is truly a community food bank,” Sundborg adds.
The food bank doesn't receive provincial or federal funding, and is 100 per cent supported by Barrie and the surrounding communities.
"They are just an amazing group of people.”
