Here’s a side of John Horgan you might not have seen: After pulling the plug on politics, the former premier became a volunteer at the Goldstream Food Bank.
With few knowing about it, he did so from the spring of 2023, when he gave up his seat in the legislature, until January, when he was appointed Canada’s ambassador to Germany.
Every Friday morning, Horgan and food bank buddy Pat Contant would pile into a cargo van and make the rounds of West Shore grocery stores, picking up donations of short-dated dairy, baking and other consumables.
At first, his fish-out-of-water presence earned him double-takes on the loading docks. “Um, don’t I know you from somewhere?”
Sometimes Horgan would just smile, say “I get that a lot,” and keep heaving boxes into the van. But then he would start chatting and joking, to the point that Contant would tease him about throwing their schedule off. “I told him it took twice as long to get the job done.”
Contant, a retired pipefitter, says being teamed with Horgan was a treat. Always upbeat, always game for a laugh. “I don’t think we ever talked about politics.” When Contant, who likes his classic cars, would point out a nice one, Horgan would reply “Except for the colour.” Horgan was colour-blind.
It’s a nice way to picture Horgan, now that he’s gone. Nice that after shedding the weight of office, he got to have some good times doing good work. But it’s also good to remember why he was there. Horgan was a grassroots guy who cared about his neighbours, an increasing number of whom have come to rely on the food bank in the basement of the Langford Legion.
In fact, the first week of this month saw a record number of them line up, with food for 756 people going out the door.
Why the increase? Blame a lack of affordability, particularly around rent. “A two-bedroom apartment in Langford can cost $2,850 a month,” says Gayle Ireland, the food bank’s executive director. Try that on minimum wage.
That last bit is important. Many of those who rely on the food bank have jobs, but still can’t earn enough to stay above water. Twenty, 30 years ago the clients were nearly all single mothers on income assistance.
Today it’s what Ireland calls the “working-challenged” — people with jobs that don’t pay enough to cover the bills — plus lots of seniors, lots of people with disabilities, even some foreign students blindsided by the cost of living here. Then there are those who simply don’t have a safety net when dealt a big blow; not long ago, volunteers came up with diapers and baby food after a young dad was badly hurt in a workplace accident while the mom was on maternity leave.
Some recipients line up at the food bank like clockwork, once a month, year after year. Some appear just once, like the sharply dressed and very embarrassed man who showed up after his wife cleaned out their bank account and disappeared, leaving the man with a teenage son but not a nickel to his name.
Then there was the woman who appeared last Christmas with a $1,000 donation. The food bank hadn’t seen her in a couple of years, not since she was collecting food as a single mother. The woman hadn’t forgotten that help, wanted to pay things back now that she was on her feet. “She was crying.” So was Ireland.
Gifts like that are essential, as the Goldstream operation must buy about 70 per cent of the food it hands out. It relies on donations from individuals, corporations, service clubs and the like, plus grants like the one it received from the Times Colonist Christmas Fund last season.
We all have our own causes to support, our own capacity to help, and our own way to do it.
Some donate money to the likes of the Times Colonist Christmas Fund, which last year gave grants not just to the Goldstream Food Bank but to food banks up and down Vancouver Island. This year’s campaign has raised $115,970 so far, with donations from 219 individuals, families and businesses.
Some donate their time: The Goldstream effort relies on about 80 volunteers. Nobody there gets paid, not even Ireland, who has been there for 38 years. Almost all the volunteers are retirees, from a variety of walks of life: a geologist, an engineer, a psychologist, nurses, a bunch of military veterans. ... It will be all hands on deck when it’s time to put the Christmas hampers together.
There will be a gap, though. John from Langford — who with wife Ellie supported the food bank long before he volunteered there — will be missed.
“He was,” Ireland says, “a decent, hard-working, wonderful man.”
HOW TO DONATE TO THE CHRISTMAS FUND
• To donate, go online to tcchristmasfund.com. That page is linked to CanadaHelps, which is open 24 hours a day and provides an immediate tax receipt.
• Or drop off a cheque made out to the Times Colonist Christmas Fund at the Times Colonist office at 201-655 Tyee Rd in Victoria.
• You can also use your credit card by phoning 250-995-4438 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday.
