On a night out, Troy Gilbert can be found at the Little Longhorn or the Broken Spoke enjoying his preferred music genre: country. With Austin Reggae Fest approaching, this new Food Bank volunteer is taking a chance with reggae music for the love he has for the Food Bank.
Reggae Fest is a 180 turn from Troy's current volunteer duties as an administrative volunteer. Since February, Troy arrives at the Food Bank every Tuesday and Thursday to help the development department with research. At the festival, music and crowds will be a break from the laptop he works on and the silent office he sits in.
“I expect there’ll be a lot of people, probably, listening to music, maybe in various states of consciousness, I don’t know,” he said. “I think Austin has pretty fun crowds for big events, so I imagine it’s going to be really colorful and really fun.”
As a relatively new Austinite, Reggae Fest will be Troy’s introduction to the genre, but not to food banks. About seven months ago, Troy moved to Austin from the Bay Area with his family, leaving his position as the executive director for the Alameda Food Bank to take care of his partner’s parents.
Once in Austin, he couldn’t stay away from helping others and was soon volunteering at the Food Bank.
“I love food banks in general, and I think that they’re just amazing organizations that do so much remarkable good for people,” he said.
While working at the Alameda Food Bank, he found his calling in fundraising. With Reggae Fest being one of the Capital Area Food Bank’s largest fundraiser's Troy is excited to be there. Not just for the music or for the craziness a festival brings, but to let attendees know about the Food Bank’s efforts alongside other volunteers.
“[It’s] really incredible to me to experience making people feel good about a gift that they give to the food bank and help them understand the impact of that,” Troy said. “It’s a rush, it’s fun because Food Banks are always a product of a lot of people coming together to help, and the help comes from a lot of different directions.”
Troy is also looking forward to a night out from his 8-year old twins. And who knows, reggae artist Bunny Wailer might be on his playlist after this experience.
“Hopefully I’ll meet some bands or something. And hopefully I’ll get into reggae, because I actually do love live music,” he said. “Everyone says it’s such a great event, so I can’t wait.”
