With demand for The Sharing Place’s services soaring, the local food bank is in dire need of volunteers to help through the busy holiday season.
Volunteer drivers, warehouse workers, and front-of-house workers will be needed in the coming holiday months to help The Sharing Place, in a year where inflation and increased costs of living have already driven demand for the food bank’s services sky high.
“Our food receiving side of the organization is very busy in the holidays,” said executive director Chris Peacock. “That puts a lot of strain on our volunteers; they're cranking out a hard day's work.”
“It's going to be a busy time and we need the community to help.”
The Sharing Place has seen a 30 per cent increase in overall demand for its services year-over-year, Peacock said, with dozens of new individuals looking for help every month.
Previously, 70-90 new people were seeking the food bank’s services for the first time each month, but that number ballooned to 147 last month, Peacock said.
“We need more volunteers to help manage that increased number of individuals,” he said. “What we've experienced lately is just more traffic, more demand and stress on our capacity. It's a unique thing we've never seen, where we're just consistently busy every single day.”
On top of increased demand, Peacock expects The Sharing Place to lose 8-10 volunteers in the coming months as snowbirds begin to leave for their winter homes, and he is hoping to recruit an additional 15 people to help out.
The greatest demand is in the warehouse, Peacock said, where volunteers will need to be able to carry 30-40 pounds at a time, but applications for any type of work are always accepted.
Volunteer applications may be picked up at The Sharing Place or can be found on their website.
“You can put in your hours of availability and what your capabilities are, and if we don't have a fit at that moment in time, we keep it on record,” he said. “As soon as an opportunity opens up, we go through those volunteer application forms and reach out to those individuals.”
Peacock said his current team of roughly 80 volunteers are “great people” who are welcoming and provide dignified access to food for those in need.
“The number one requirement for our volunteers is that they are a dignified, welcoming type of individual that can work with anyone, no judgement,” he said. “We're just looking to grow that team of positive individuals … that care about our community and want to help others, and do so with dignity.”
