April is Volunteer Appreciation Month

What kinds of people dedicate their time to re-packing frozen peas, labeling instant oatmeal, or sorting through food drive donations? The best kinds of people – Food Lifeline volunteers! Every year, more than 13,000 volunteers give their time and talent to help end hunger with Food Lifeline. Because April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month, we’d like to honor our incredible hunger-fighting volunteers by sharing a few of their stories.

Thomas & Christine 

Tom and Christine have provided more than 260 hours of service to Food Lifeline and have maintained a weekly volunteer commitment over the past year. They even spent their wedding anniversary volunteering at Food Lifeline!

Tom and Christine believe that as a retirees, volunteering helps to keep them engaged. “It is a great place to volunteer with a diverse group of people who are nice and fun to work with. We enjoy sorting and repacking fresh produce to help our community members who need it the most.”

Bud

“When you work with people who’re doing things for others with their own time, it gives you faith in the people in your own country,” Bud says, describing his volunteer experience with Food Lifeline. Every Tuesday morning, you can find Bud sorting and packing food that might otherwise go to waste here at the Hunger Solution Center. “Just having a meal can have such an effect on your life,” he says. “There’s always going to be people who need food.”

Janet

On her first day volunteering at the Hunger Solution Center, Janet joined the ranks of one of the most important volunteer groups at Food Lifeline – the individuals who sort and repackage donated food items for distribution. Without caring individuals like Janet, our member agencies wouldn’t be able to stock their shelves with the groceries our hungry neighbors need.

Reflecting on her time spent volunteering, Janet said that since day one she’s been impressed with the solid business model, innovation and can-do attitude she sees at Food Lifeline.

“I am amazed at how they cleverly source food, organize it, and get it out to the food banks and food programs,” said Janet.  “This operation is saving so much healthy food from going to waste and getting it effectively to people in need!”