Sustenance - Emergency Food Network

VOLUNTEER
VOLUNTEER!
Volunteers are a signifi cant part of Emergency Food Network’s success.
Whether it’s weekly, monthly or every so often, your willingness to
help those in need is invaluable.
Distribution Warehouse:
Groups of volunteers help out in our warehouse Monday through Saturday
with a variety of tasks. Food sorting, order building, truck loading and
unloading, and repacking are just a few of the important jobs that keep EFN
running.
Mother Earth Farm
Volunteers prepare the land for cultivation, plant seeds, weed the fi elds, and
harvest food throughout the growing season. Once food is harvested it is
immediately available for Pierce County feeding programs, often arriving
within hours of harvesting.
Other Volunteer Opportunities
• Administrative Needs: Mailings, data-entry, fi ling, typing, etc.
• Special Events: EFN has several events throughout the year.
• Community Outreach: Help educate the community about EFN.
• Food Drives: Download EFN’s Food Drive Kit at efoodnet.org
• Food Banks: EFN serves 67 sites that always need a helping hand.
For more information about volunteer opportunities
contact Stephanie Genton at 253-584-1040 or stephanie@efoodnet.org
A Word from an
EFN Volunteer
-Erika Tucci, TPU
Each October, Tacoma Public Utilities’
Community Connection Leadership
Team evaluates our programming
and makes recommendations for the
coming year. As part of that evaluation,
we take a look at the most pressing needs in the community based on current call
volume to 2-1-1. Utility assistance and food are consistently among the top needs in
our community, so, it just made sense for us to direct employee volunteer resources
toward hunger issues. We see it as another direct way we can help our customers.
We also noticed that many of our employee volunteers did not have large amounts of
time to commit to volunteering. It better suited them to have several smaller volunteer
opportunities throughout the year rather than just a few with a larger time commitment.
EFN Repacks offer our employees a chance to get to know each other as they work.
I’ve been in on some really funny conversations over a table full of frozen corn! We’ve
noticed that volunteers love this opportunity. Each time we have a Repack on the
calendar, we don’t even have to advertise it. People just ask when the next event will
be and we keep a running list.
It also helps that our volunteers
tend to be motivated and
competitive. There have also
been Repacks where the
volunteers were so focused on
working fast that the chatter
was at a minimum. Volunteers
have found their expertise,
whether it’s bagging, taping
or moving large boxes around.
Our volunteers take their work
seriously – no matter what it is,
and they are very proud of the
results! Each Monday after a Repack, someone will call, email, or stop by my desk
to tell me how many pounds of what food they packed on Saturday. It has given
our employees something fun to talk about around campus and there is an ongoing
debate about the best type of food to repack. Naturally, it’s usually the heavy stuff!
Repacking food is a very tangible activity for our volunteers. They can see their results
immediately. It has also been nice for our volunteers to see the full circle of food
assistance in Pierce County. Our employees also volunteer with My Sister’s Pantry and
FISH Food Banks. They see repacked food from EFN come through their hands as they
work at these other agencies and the whole circle just clicks. We also had volunteers
working at Mother Earth Farm last fall. So really, our employees have touched all
aspects of the food circle in our community.
I like to think that this experience has made our employees more thoughtful members
of this community. They now understand why it is important to donate items like
peanut butter and tuna to food drives rather than whatever they may have on their
shelf at home. They also seem more attentive to the needs of our community. Once a
person has an understanding of the challenges related to the most basic needs, it is
easier to understand how the entire puzzle fi ts together.