For staying true

Your challenge: Start a business with no money and no stock, pay yourself nothing, and give all of your product away for free. Run the enterprise for 26 years, until it’s turning over millions of dollars annually. Your reward: Orders of Nova Scotia and Canada.

That’s the way it worked out for Mel Boutilier, the founder and executive director of the Parker Street Food & Furniture Bank in Halifax. He has been running the charitable venture for two and a half decades with no government support. At 83, he’s still working full-time and drawing an annual salary of $0. What started as some leftover food in the Seventh-day Adventist Church basement on Parker Street has turned into a huge poverty-fighting engine in the city’s north end, with a team of 20 full-time and part-time staff and 30 volunteers who gather and give away millions of dollars worth of food and furniture, along with offering skills development, computer recycling, emergency funding, and mentorship/sponsorship.

Boutilier, who grew up poor in Seabright near Peggy’s Cove, recounts a pivotal story. As a boy he would see his friends playing while he worked so his family could eat. One day he had an epiphany; he overturned an orange crate and used it as a platform to announce his discovery. “I imagined I had a big audience and I made a speech. I said, ‘When I get big, I’m going to help people in the community have food.’ ” And so he has; about 250 families rely on Parker Street every week.

Boutilier was named to the Order of Canada by the Governor General, the highest civilian honour in this country. He has also been named one of Canada’s volunteers of the year. His core principles are clarity, tenacity, and creativity. “One has to have faith in themselves. Set goals that are achievable with hard work and don’t be concerned about the hours needed to be successful,” says Boutlier. “If one door closes, try another one until you find a way to do it.”