Donna Biocca, 82, began volunteering at the Fort Bragg Food Bank 31 years ago, at the start of the 1980s, often dubbed the “decade of greed.” Of course, that nickname ended up being akin to “The War to End All Wars” for World War I.
While America”s maddened overconsumption only got worse in the nineties and naughts, Biocca kept volunteering. Every year from 1983 on, the gap between rich and poor widened. That yawning gap was mirrored by a steady increase in clients at food banks across the country, including in Fort Bragg.
“We have more and more clients every year but also more and more good food too,” said an always upbeat Biocca.
She would rather tell how the positive, playful atmosphere at the Food Bank is passed to every new crop of volunteers.
“When I first went to the Food Bank, it was because I needed food. I noticed how much fun everyone there was having and I started volunteering. It”s always fun,” said Biocca, who feels tired yet refreshed after each day by the fast-paced work.
The facts are daunting; a New York University 2010 study showed the top 20 percent of wealthy individuals own about 85 percent of the wealth, while the bottom 40 percent own 0 percent. Many in that bottom 40 percent not only have no assets, they have negative net wealth.
Biocca says the secret is thinking about your blessings, not those you lack.
“What the Food Bank has done for me most is make me thankful for how fortunate I am to have everything I do have,” Biocca said from the front room of her aging house trailer.
She says the volunteering experience and the challenges clients face makes her feel wealthy every day.
Biocca doesn”t talk politics or religion, nor is she likely to look down her nose at anyone.
Biocca”s daughter, Donna Dugger, picked up the volunteer spirit from mom. She now lives in Windsor, where she volunteers for that food bank. Dugger drives up to Fort Bragg to help mom and the rest of the Food Bank volunteers during special days, when the festive spirit, crowds and piles of food are all the biggest.
“This is something you could do just for the fun we all have. We all have a great time here, while working hard. And we have a ball there [Windsor Food Bank] too.
Grandson Dennis Dugger, 42, also volunteers at the Food Bank. We printed a picture of the three working as a team during the holiday rush a couple of years ago.
As the reporter covering the story, it”s hard to find words to describe the positive energy that this group of volunteers generates.
“We do have fun but it”s also exhilarating and immensely satisfying when obstacles are overcome, differences ironed out and the place runs like a well-oiled machine,” said Nancy Severy, Fort Bragg Food Bank executive director. “The support to the operation that our volunteers selflessly give over and over again is truly inspiring.”
U.S. volunteerism
Volunteering is a great American story, a bigger one even than the great personalities and local heroes who are easy to find. Yet when the unique power of American volunteerism gets brought up in political debates, it is often ridiculed.
The first President George Bush got laughed at for “a thousand points of light.” Ditto with President Bill Clinton and “It takes a village.”
Something about our recent culture marginalizes volunteering as something for sissys or retired people. But volunteering has actually played a critical role in our national security and defense.
America”s small towns were the most powerful economic engines in the world in the days before franchising, mega mergers and widespread foreign ownership. While European and Asian power shifted to the big cities during the 1890-1930 timeframe, the United States bucked the trend, with mom and pop truly owning and running our country.
Those world powers plummeted into chaos on the right and on the left. We saved the world from both fascism and totalitarian communism.
In those days, dozens of volunteer civic organizations set the tone in every American small town. They plugged local money back into the local economy and provided a safety net for the poor and a step up for young people. They set and enforced ethical standards.
Many are gone, but fraternal beneficial organizations like Rotary, Kiwanis, Knights of Columbus and Lions are now growing in other parts of the world while dying in their home country.
When I was a journalism professor at Dominican University, I surveyed my class and found only 2 of 22 students knew anything at all about these clubs or the tremendous role small town volunteerism has played in American and world history.
As a young reporter who grew into a grumpy editor, I was amazed at how much good was done by volunteer and civic organizations, and how little this fact, much less this spirit, had been taught in school. (Fort Bragg schools do offer high schoolers credit for participating in the groups) I always felt our mission as journalists was to talk about the unseen and important, not the overexposed and unimportant celebrities.
Rotarians were always a favorite of mine to spar with as editor, especially in the Midwest, where civic clubs were once so legendary.
In that unique spirit of rough and tumble camaraderie found in civic organizations, as editor of several papers, I was called a commie for vilifying slumlords and teased relentlessly for lecturing about growing corporate power in my op-ed columns — while working for a giant corporation. In turn, I pointed the many ways Rotary and its ilk only pretended to be ruthless capitalists and are actually bleeding heart socialists who talk loudly but secretly carry many helping hugs.
Kidding aside, we do see ourselves as individualists, yet our society has often been in some ways more communal, more socialistic than the official communist countries, which force people to do what we do voluntarily.
The volunteers
A big part of the volunteer spirit that can really draw you in emits from the Food Bank”s disabled volunteers, including severely developmentally disabled people, thanks to a program called ABC No Barriers.
“They are a varied bunch — from retirees, to folks who are or who have been clients and want to give back, to homeless people, to people doing [court-ordered] community service, to disabled adults,” said Severy.
People who used to stand out, to be big fish in some larger pond, blend right in.
“There are veterans Pete Peterson, John Teller, India Gingell-Smith, Stan Halvorsen, Dusty Dillon, Nancy Milano, Lupe Arreguin and others who know a lot about how things run. They are a huge help keeping things moving and guiding newer volunteers,” Severy said.
The big moment of the day at the Food Bank is lunch, which nobody would miss, made from the donated food, but hard to beat anywhere in town.
“There are those I affectionately call the Ladies of the Kitchen,” led by Yukie Holland, and including Angela Gomez, Dory Polacek, Dolly Bail and others who prepare a wonderful lunch for our volunteers and perform multiple other tasks like folding bags, washing eggs and re-packaging beans and rice,” Severy said.
Communal, community power once made America great. Can it bring us back from our current decline?
“I think if people would start volunteering, at the Food Bank, at the Senior Center, wherever, they would keep doing it and they would tell others how great it can be,” said Biocca.
“The key is getting up, getting out and getting started volunteering,” she said.
Season of Sharing
This series goes hand in glove with the Advocate-News” and The Mendocino Beacon”s annual Season of Sharing fund drive for the Food Bank. The goal is to give the Food Bank money it can use year-round, not just during the holidays.
Last year, $21,890.29 was donated, which brought the total raised since our first fund drive in 1995 to $185,890.
The nonprofit Community Foundation of Mendocino County administers the Season of Sharing free of charge as a courtesy to the newspapers. Every cent taken in by the newspapers goes to the Food Bank.
Checks should be addressed to the Community Foundation of Mendocino County (CFMC), and mailed to the newspaper at P.O. Box 1188, Fort Bragg, 95437, or dropped off at 450 N. Franklin St.
If you have any questions, call us at 964-5642. The fundraiser runs through Dec. 31.
Donors” names are printed each week, unless you ask to remain anonymous.
The Food Bank”s 2010-11 volunteers include:
Christopher Allen, Laurie Alvarado, Tony Anderson, Sister Anderson, Lupe Arreguin, Dolly Bail, James Barker, Jason Bearden, Joanna Becker, Carolyn Beefelt, Shara Berta, Kenneth Blackford, Sister Brunson, Chris Bryant Debra Bryant, Michael Bryant, Donna Biocca, Lynn Black, Billie Bouldin, Gail Burns, Susan Cardoza, Mike Carstensen, Dottie Casebolt, Janet Chyles, Alena Deerwater, Nick Corbin, Bonnie Cuadra, Miliana Davuke, Leona Demits, Michael Dieters, Dusty Dillion, Dennis Dugger, Donna Dugger, Dharma Edwards, Scott Effinger, Gerard Eisenberg, Tonya Engel, Emmy Fine, Vicky Fish, Barbara Garcia, Betty Goldfarb, Michael Grimm, Bruce Halloran, Stan Halvorsen, Shirley Harbour, Ian Hardie, Ken Harris, Yukie Holland, Vickie Horner, Douglas Isaacs, Maureen James, Mark Jepsen, Nancy Kann, Marilyn Katzel, Sandra Kearney, Laurel Krause, Mary Kraut, Genessee Lafazio, John Lain, Annie Lee, Jon Logan, David Long, April Lovelace, Kristie Madsen, Bill Maki, Michael Mankin, Pati Martinez, Sean McNaughton, Heather Meyer, Nancy Milano, Mary Jo Morra, Sarah Naples, T.E. Pelley, Pete Peterson, Dorie Polacek, AB Priceman, Alyce Power, Beverly Remer, Jonah Remer, Marianne Richter, Beah Robinson, Marie Russert, Ramon Savidge, Michael Schmidt, Robert Severi, Mary Schineback, India Smith- Gingell, Jerry Smith, Miguel Soria, Michelle Syfert, Thomas Taylor, John Teller, Elizabeth Ann Tolbert, Mark Townsend, Charles Unser, Nathaniel Vangorder, Lucinda Venegas, Cree Waterman, Gary Watkins, Jesus Ybarra and Ofelia Ybarra.
