We celebrate Margaret Tusz-King's contributions to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
Margaret Tusz-King served as a representative of the United Church on the Canadian Foodgrains Bank (CFGB) Board of Directors for nine years, reaching the maximum term on the Board. We asked Margaret about her time on the Board and heard her wisdom and advice for future Board members.
What interested you about joining the CFGB board?
There are so many important ways that the CFGB impressed and interested me. It is an impactful, collaborative, and highly-respected organization, seen as a leader in the food security sector. I wanted to learn about and contribute to its decades of justice activity in the world, so that my gifts might blend with those of others in creating a more just and loving world.
What is your best personal memory as a board member of CFGB?
It was a privilege to serve on the Board, and an even greater privilege to participate in two Board delegations overseas—to Laos and India in 2016, and to Kenya in 2019. These trips ensured that our decision-making would be grounded in real, direct knowledge and experience, as well as in our individual values and perspectives. Accompanied by key staff, we had the time and opportunity to go deeper, to ask the difficult questions, and to gain better understandings of how the CFGB works best. I also got to know some really exceptional people—Board colleagues, staff, and also the people we met in the field. These were profound, memorable learning experiences.
What did you find most rewarding in this role? Is there a particular project or achievement you are most proud of?
One such occasion was when, as a member of the Human Resources Committee, I became a member of the Search Committee for a new Executive Director. The only Executive Director the CFGB had known since 1997 was leaving, and it would be a challenging task to replace him. This can be a very vulnerable time for an organization like the CFGB. Our process was long and unpredictable, and confounded by COVID-19 at the end, but all of us worked with good intention and tenacity, and we brought an exceptional candidate to the Board for approval. Whew!
What were some of your successes and challenges?
I have been the only Board member from east of Montreal for the past six years. Bringing my Maritime perspectives to the largely central-and-western-Canadian base of the CFGB was sometimes challenging. For example, where I live we are well-aware of risks due to climate change, and there is a strong organic farming movement that has a big voice. Nine years ago, both of these topics were contentious at the Board level, and these perspectives were not widely represented by others. That was hard for me, because I value safe spaces where we can work through our differences.
What are your plans for the future?
I will not stop building circles of concern and action for justice. As long as people continue to ask, I will willingly speak to groups about hunger—its causes, our complicity, and ways to address it. I will support the CFGB financially as I am able. I will take what I have gained from this experience into future board governance volunteer work. I hope to maintain some of the friendships I have built through this experience as well!
Thank you, Margaret!
We celebrate Margaret Tusz-King’s contribution as a United Church representative to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank Board of Directors and wish her well in the future! Rev. Michael Blair, General Secretary of The United Church of Canada, adds, “I am grateful for Margaret's commitment to the work of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, holding strongly to the values of partnership and justice for those marginalized by systems of oppression. Margaret served on the Executive of the Board and courageously challenged the Executive and the Board to engage in significant courageous conversations around gender, climate, and economic justice. Blessings on her new journey.”
The United Church is pleased that Jan McIntyre of Rock Lake United Church in Manitoba will serve as our next representative to the CFGB Board.