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At The Food Bank, volunteers play an essential role in our mission. One recent volunteer member, Dr. Kathryn Fishman-Weaver, shared her time at The Food Bank Market and Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen.
In a heartfelt post to her Facebook page, Dr. Fishman-Weaver described her experience working with neighbors and fellow volunteers, vividly detailing the people, sights, sounds and atmosphere she encountered during her time volunteering.
Her words share a glimpse into the work of The Food Bank’s volunteer community, both behind the scenes and working with neighbors, to help create a welcoming and safe space for those experiencing hunger.
Here’s what she wrote:
The weight of the world can crush you. I know.
But sometimes you get to share a cinnamon cookie with someone you just met. And sometimes you find your friend who has the serious day job standing in a giant cardboard box. This box, originally made for potatoes, is today filled to the brim with pastries.
Sometimes before the food pantry opens, we play ABBA loudly and dance with the frozen peaches. Sometimes the soup kitchen has enough ranch dressing for all the broccoli and even hot sauce for the rice.
Yes, the lines are long. Tonight you notice new faces along with familiar ones, grandmothers and teenagers, and young men who could be in my college seminar. We talk politics and poetry. We talk about ordinary things: tomatoes, the weather.
An older man roots around a large bowl of bananas looking for the green ones I had purposefully tucked away on the bottom. While choosing one, he gives me a lecture on chemical reactions—how starch turns to sugar. The change, he says, happens so quickly.
Whether he meant it as metaphor or not, food insecurity can be like that, too. I see it on the face of a woman, just about my age.
"How does this work?" she asks.
We walk together a bit.
"Would you like a clementine?"
I toss her one like a softball. She catches it and we laugh.
“Can you peel it in one piece?” I challenge.
Citrus wafts between us. It fills the air with all that is said and unsaid in these sacred spaces.
Thank you, Dr. Fishman-Weaver, for sharing this glimpse into your experience volunteering at these agencies! If you or someone you know would like to join in our mission to end hunger in our 32-county service area, please visit https://sharefoodbringhope.org/volunteer/ to sign up for an upcoming volunteer opportunity with The Food Bank, or visit https://sharefoodbringhope.org/programs/food-locator/ to connect with a partner agency near you.