Near-weekly volunteer shifts are a boon for Food & Friends staff.
Almost every Monday afternoon, a group of volunteers from the international law firm Hogan Lovells comes to the Food & Friends kitchen to pack meals for our clients. The small but mighty team sets up like an assembly line, stationing themselves in front of an array of breakfast items, lunch items, snacks and condiments. Chef Matt calls out the different meal plans, explaining which items go into which color-coded bags. He runs a tight ship, but the volunteers are ready for the task at hand and get right to work. During one recent 2-hour shift, the hardworking group packed over 600 meals!
Hogan Lovells has been volunteering with Food & Friends since 2013. In addition to their Monday shifts, they also volunteer one Wednesday evening a month and do weekly deliveries during their Thursday lunch break. Food & Friends drops off the meals at their office and staff then distribute them throughout the neighborhood. What an awesome way to spend a lunch break!
Food & Friends is incredibly grateful to the many corporate volunteer groups that pass through our doors each year. In fact, we welcome 100-120 corporate volunteer groups annually and we couldn’t do our work without them. But the regular commitment made by Hogan Lovells truly stands out.
“Volunteers are not just a nice to have, they are a necessity,” says Beth Stewart, Volunteer Services Manager. “We send 2,800 meals out the door every day, rain or shine, winter or summer, with only a small staff.”
“Our chefs and delivery drivers appreciate the consistency of a weekly or monthly commitment. It’s such a relief and inspiration to our staff to have that level of dependability from volunteers!” she adds.
Even if your company can’t commit to a regular shift, corporate volunteer groups are always needed. In particular, we need groups when schools are less available, including August/September, April/May, and around the holidays. Join us!
If you would like to bring your company to volunteer with Food & Friends, visit our Group Volunteer page or contact Chanel Moore at cmoore@foodandfriends.org.
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