By Janelle Poore
Thousands of Utah families were fed last year by the Timpanogas Regional Food Bank thanks to the countless volunteers donating time, money and cans to fill food orders.
However, hundreds more individuals and families will be in need of the services and food this year. Volunteers are the mainstays who help sort, stock and fill the orders coming in from all around the state.
“We literally can”t survive without volunteers,” said Gwen Vance, assistant director of Community Action in Provo. “They do huge amounts of work.”
The food bank and other services Community Action provides, such as mentor programs for at-risk youth, get more volunteers during the fall and winter, Vance said, but have lulls during the summers when most students go home.
“We need mentors and volunteers especially during the summer,” Vance said. “A lot of students go home, but the kids are still here. We still have a great need for them.”
Kailey Campbell, a senior from Santa Barbara, Calif., volunteered at the food bank with her family home evening group last week. Campbell filled bags with cans of beans, soup, vegetables, condensed milk and tuna for senior citizens.
“I like the fact that they use feedback from the people they”re serving,” Campbell said. “They actually ask people what they would use and make that available to them [volunteers].”
Campbell said she was impressed with the people she worked with at the food bank are how dedicated they were to helping others.
“You can tell that they are very committed to what they”re doing,” Campbell sad. “They inspire others to get involved.”
The food bank is only one of many services Community Action offers. Located at 815 South Freedom Blvd., Community Action offers services from budgeting classes and strategies to counseling for individuals and families in the state.
“Food is the draw to get people in here,” Vance said. “Then they”re seen by a counselor and then we find out what else they need. Usually needing food is a symptom of something else.”
As the largest client-based food bank in Utah, Vance said they work one-on-one with those in need to encourage self-sufficiency. Vance said the majority of families who come to Community Action for support are two-parent households that are unable to make ends meet.
“We would rather give food to people than have them spend their rent money on food,” Vance said. “We would love to help them that way, so they can use their tangible resources to pay what they need to pay.”
“People are part of their solutions,” Vance said. “We are always looking for ways to ease the burden. They just need to identify that they have a need.”
