Volunteer Spotlight: Galen Holden
Longtime Food Lifeline supporter and world traveler Galen Holden has volunteered in almost every facet possible: Pandemic Mobile Food Distributions, Production Corps, Sort & Repack, and many, many events. He sat down with us this month to share more about his volunteer experience, and why he believes volunteering is the very best medicine. We’re so grateful to Galen for his longtime commitment to our mission, and for all the positive energy he brings to every event and interaction.
Galen Holden first started volunteering at Food Lifeline after hearing about the organization from the accountant at his architecture firm. In those days there was a Wednesday Night Sort and Repack and you had to sign up on the first of the month for it, because spots filled up quickly. So, he would put a reminder on his calendar and sign up every month. The first sort he ever did was the Stamp Out Hunger donation, which was super fun. He kept signing up and showing up, and soon he was the “Tote Tipper Master” and was learning how to use the Box crusher. “It was just fun,” said Galen.
He wanted his employees at the firm to volunteer at Food Lifeline too, so he created opportunities for them to participate. At the end of the each session, they would get a slip of paper that said how many pounds of food they had sorted, and Galen would take the slip of paper back to his office and put it on his desk. Whenever employees volunteered, they would add their slips of papers to the stack. After a couple years they had a huge stack of hundreds of slips of paper from everyone volunteering.
After retiring, Galen traveled extensively through Nepal and Tibet for a few years, climbing mountains and helping with the long 2015 earthquake recovery.
When he returned to Washington, he returned to volunteering at Food Lifeline.
When asked what kept him coming back, he said that giving of his time to help people has always been very meaningful to him.
“Anybody can give their money, but you can’t ever get time back. Giving time is a really important thing for me.” He’s always helped to connect people with food, at Food Lifeline and beyond, including when he was in Nepal. “I want to give food wherever there’s a need.”
Galen has worked at Food Lifeline in just about every capacity imaginable – from sort & repack sessions to Production Corps, to the Covid mobile food distributions, to event support, racking up over 394 volunteer hours since May 2017.
He says the most significant experience for him were the mobile food distributions that he helped with during the pandemic. “You had a moment to interact with people,” said Galen. “Having some experience in Asia, I had some pretty cool interactions. Giving blessings back and forth…Human connection.”
Galen has volunteered for numerous events over many years, building close relationships with other volunteers, Food Lifeline Staff, and guests. One of his favorite memories occurred at Savor a few years ago, when he was a spotter during the live auction. A table near him was having a really good time, and he became a cheerleader for them, encouraging them to not lose the bid. “We had a blast together.”
This power of volunteering to take him out of himself and to connect him to others is why he has made volunteering such a big part of his life. When he was young and going through a hard time, his Dad had advised that the best medicine was to help other people. So he did.
“I found that it really helped. Mentally, your whole body, everything—to get outside of your own skin, your own misery, and do something for somebody else,” said Galen. “I’ve been doing it ever since, and it’s the best medicine.”
“I get more out of it than I give,” said Galen. “I’m the winner.”