Profiles in Ending Hunger: Food Lifeline's Product Recovery Center
Tasha Fekeshazy
Marketing Coordinator
Hank Nguyen and Sam Butay, the maestros behind the magic of Food Lifeline's Product Recovery Center (PRC), are safety and quality control experts that, together, have been running a well oiled machine for nearly a decade. Day in and day out, Food Lifeline's food recovery programs rescue thousands of pounds of food. Much of that rescued food comes from the retail grocery industry, manufacturers, and community food drives - all of which needs to be inspected, sorted, and repackaged before it makes its way to hungry people. In 2007 alone, these magicians amazingly processed more than 1.25 million pounds of fresh, highly perishable food in addition to 640,000 pounds of dry and canned goods-that's more than 1.4 million meals for hungry people!
With nearly 10 years at Food Lifeline, Sam Butay would be a veteran staff member at most businesses. But not at Food Lifeline, as Hank Nguyen just began his 18th year at Food Lifeline, making him the most veteran member of our staff! Together, they are a two man show that view each day as a unique experience, as they are the only paid PRC staff and rely almost entirely on volunteers to support their operations. Some days there may be no volunteers available, and on other days they may have up to 10 or 15 people. Flexibility and well developed systems are the name of the game. Ultimately, Hank and Sam love interacting with and training the diverse volunteers that spend their time in the PRC. Sam relayed that "It's good to see the support from the community. It's a whole community effort and it makes me feel good to see volunteers so committed to our mission."
Hank and Sam have been described as the back bone of Food Lifeline by many staff. Their expertise, hard work and dedication to the mission of ending hunger have resulted in millions of pounds of nutritious and safe food being distributed to Food Lifeline's network of meal programs, shelters and food banks. Sam relayed the importance of his work as "A really big help to the mission of Food Lifeline. Our work feeds hungry people and prevents good food from being dumped into a landfill." Likewise, Hank feels that it his responsibility to feed hungry people and give back because of his own experience of having to rely on a food bank for more than a year when he and his family first immigrated to the United States almost 30 years ago. Hank and Sam take Food Lifeline's mission very seriously as demonstrated by their long-established careers at Food Lifeline.
If you would like to join Hank and Sam for a day in the PRC, please contact our Volunteer Team by email or calling (206) 545-6600. You can also make a donation to support Hank, Sam and their work in the Product Recovery Center.