Grow Calgary, Canada’s largest urban farm, will be able to move ahead with significantly increasing its harvest and services this year thanks to the new relationship with a very well-known tire retailer. Each month, 15,000 Calgarians use the services of the city’s food bank and 42 per cent are children and youth.
Paul Hughes, founder of Grow Calgary, expects the volunteer-run, non-profit urban farm to provide 30,000 hampers of fresh, nutritious produce to Calgary food bank users in 2015. The ability to efficiently shuttle the farm’s 1,400 plus volunteers to and from its 11-acre farm site just west of Canada Olympic Park, and make scheduled truck deliveries of fresh produce is essential to meeting this ambitious goal.
Then, Fountain Tire came in. The tire franchise recently made a surprise donation of a 15-seat passenger van – complete with Grow Calgary decals – to drive volunteers to and from the west Calgary farm site. The company is also servicing the farm’s fleet of 15 aging delivery trucks to ensure they are always roadworthy. This generous donation will now allow for better service and deliveries, with less down time due to breakdowns. Fountain Tire decided to help after realizing that Grow Calgary, like every not-for-profit, was operating on a shoe string and that the farm’s aging fleet was in dire need of regular service.
When Hughes arrived at the company’s store on Fairmont Drive in Calgary, he didn’t know he was about to be given a 15-seat passenger van in superb operating condition. An emotional Hughes said, “Receiving this beautiful vehicle was one of life’s incredible unexpected moments, like winning a lottery”. “This is absolutely huge for us because the van and our overall partnership with Fountain Tire will allow us to take Grow Calgary to the next level in terms of increased harvests and service to food banks.”
The wheels went into motion for this amazing donation last October when Hughes contacted Fountain Tire for help servicing one of their food delivery trucks that was in desperate need of repair. He was connected with Dave Lentz, owner of the company’s Fairmont Drive store, who agreed to repair the truck.
Lentz and his team quickly realized that Grow Calgary depends on donations of old trucks and that regular tire and mechanical service was key to keeping the farm’s aging fleet of 15 vehicles roadworthy. Fully recognizing and appreciating the importance of this program to the community, they offered to service the entire fleet free of charge.
Through the grapevine, Lentz and other Fountain Tire store owners in Calgary and the surrounding area (including Airdrie, Strathmore, Okotoks, Cochrane and High River) also heard that Grow Calgary was in desperate need of a reliable passenger van for its volunteers. Together, they sourced a van through Driving Force, which offered to sell them a vehicle below cost, and they all pitched in their own money to pay for the van. After the vehicle was prepared, Hughes was invited to the Fairmont Drive store for what he thought was a routine tune-up. Instead, he found himself receiving the passenger van.
“Fountain Tire’s logistics support will allow us to increase our harvest and significantly improve access to healthy, fresh local food for food bank users,” says Paul. “They’ve basically said to us, ‘you worry about your farming operations and serving your food bank clients and we will take care of your trucks'”.
“We believe in going the extra mile to build strong communities,” says Dave Lentz. “Paul and his hundreds of volunteers are enabling healthier food choices for thousands of people in this city. We’re proud to stand with Grow Calgary and, hope to encourage others to reach out to food banks to find the little things they can do to make a difference.”
