Southwest Florida food banks call for volunteers

The people who served hundreds after Hurricane Ian are asking for help to serve our community better.

The Harry Chapin Food Bank says they have given out millions of pounds of food to the people in southwest Florida. Now, they need your help.

Any food bank in Southwest Florida will tell you that their volunteers are more than just an extra hand: They’re the heart of their organizations.

“We call our volunteers our secret sauce,” said Karl Steidinger, executive director of Midwest Food Bank. “This is really what helps us be extremely efficient with the dollars that were given.”

“Our volunteers really are the lifeblood of our whole organization,” said Stuart Haniff, Chief Development Officer at Harry Chapin Food Bank.

And that has never been more true than in the last seven months. With Southwest Florida still recovering after Hurricane Ian, staff at both Midwest and Harry Chapin Food Bank say the need for helping hands is great.

“We’re trying to meet that increased demand,” Steidinger said. “So that puts more on our plates, which means we need more volunteers to come in and support our efforts.”

“Hunger is not seasonal, but a huge portion of our population are,” Haniff said. “A lot of our most dedicated volunteers and people who make up our biggest volunteer base that move back to their original homes or their summer homes.”

Midwest Food Bank volunteer Joseph Glenn said he felt called by God to serve as a Midwest Food Bank volunteer. To him, the payoff is difficult to put into words.

“When you go home, you feel gratified and thankful that you know, bless somebody else, you know, that’s doing, unfortunately, worse than you,” Glenn said.

And with summer approaching, food banks are hoping that many more Josephs will come through their doors.

“Summer is actually the hungriest season of all because school’s out, but hunger is not,” Haniff said. “So when schools closed, children that normally rely on those schools for their breakfast, lunch, snacks, and even dinner sometimes they don’t have that resource. So the need now is greater than ever.”

Harry Chapin says if you can volunteer, even for a day, consider making it Saturday, May 13th. That’s the food bank’s annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive.

On that Saturday, people with mailboxes are encouraged to leave non-perishable food items next to their mailboxes, and their mail carriers will collect them.

Click here for more information about how to sign up to volunteer with Midwest Food Bank.

Click here for more information about how to sign up to volunteer with Harry Chapin Food Bank.