Written by Jan Nigro, November 2025

Jim Wells was born in a small town in Nebraska, grew up in Toronto and eventually settled in Ithaca where he went to high school. He then went to school for tv and radio and got into corporate video production and from there got involved in making training and marketing videos for several companies. But he was also looking to do some volunteer work, something that would be more fulfilling. That’s when he got involved with FDN. The flexible hours appealed to him. “It was set up in such a way that I could go in when and where I could. So I started just by putting myself out there, subbing for people. “

He was drawn to FDN for the same reason all its volunteers are drawn to it. “I really like the idea of the food rescue aspect of it and reducing waste. It is really disheartening and depressing to see how much viable food gets wasted in this country. And then knowing that you’re helping feed any number of people. It’s local and it’s immediate. It’s wonderful to see there are so many farms, restaurants, grocery stores, cafeterias, really any number of sources. And they have such a wide variety of distribution points for helping people. So it really covers a lot of people.”

And he’s certainly transported some heavy loads. Loading up 400 pounds of apples from an orchard in his car. Then he topped that . “I did an unusual pickup from one of the dairy producers. They were doing away with flavored yogurts. And they had all the fruit preserves that they would put in there which they were donating for people to use. So we’re loading up these boxes of jelly preserves and we just keep loading up my car. Finally one of the guys said, I think we better stop. You’re riding pretty low. So I looked, and the car WAS really low. It was putting a lot of pressure on my suspension. He said, “you want to make sure you can get over the roads without bottoming out.” And when I got to FDN and weighed it all, it was over a 1000 pounds… that’s a lot of jelly!’

Outside of FDN Jim enjoys various ways of exercising and being outdoors. “There are some physical things that I try to do to keep myself in shape, especially as I get older. My wife and I are in a dragon boat club, which is team paddling and we practice for races. That’s a good, aggressive, kind of fun.

And during the pandemic, my wife and I got some kayaks when you couldn’t do too much else. Between that and now Dragon Boat, it finally feels like we’re taking advantage of living on a lake.” In addition Jim enjoys composing and recording electronic music, as well as jamming on acoustic guitar with friends.