VOLUNTEER APPRECIATION NEVER ENDS

Whether I’m walking through our building, visiting a pantry partner, or checking out one of our mobile distributions, I am constantly encountering our steadfast volunteers. They are everywhere.

A lot of organizations talk about the value of their volunteers, but in our world of food banking, volunteers are even more of a critical resource to our operations and our ability to reach South Jersey neighbors.

We’ve got volunteers who show up every day in our building. Volunteers like Dave Levay who retired and said he “found a home” volunteering at the Food Bank. Dave, who put in the most hours of any single volunteer last year, comes to FBSJ with a regular group of volunteers that are in our building every week. This is the group that helped prop up our operations throughout COVID, when we were forced to have a limited number of people in our warehouse.

There’s also a group of volunteers on the road we call Drew’s Crew. This dedicated group shows up at our mobile distributions led by our driver Drew Johnson. They demonstrate their unwavering commitment to our mission and, of course, to Drew.

“I am very lucky that I am able to come out here and help these people that need it,” said Melanie, a charter member of Drew’s Crew. “We’ve become a little family.”

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the volunteer service of our Board of Trustees. An outstanding group of South Jersey leaders, dedicated to driving our strategic purpose and pushing our organization to always be its best.

So yes, April was Volunteer Appreciation month. But for us at FBSJ, it’s volunteer appreciation 24/7.

 

Fred C. Wasiak
President & CEO
Food Bank of South Jersey

 

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