January Project: Food Bank

I volunteered at the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina today –squeezing in the project just before my end-of-month deadline. It was a great project for getting me going on this year-long quest. I didn’t have to provide a list of references or complete any training. I didn’t have to provide a medical history report or complete any extensive paperwork. All I had to do was show up, follow some simple instructions and get to work.

I was one of about 50 people who volunteered at the Food Bank this afternoon. Half of us worked in the Salvage Room sorting through canned food that had been donated by local companies. The other half worked in the main warehouse sorting donations that had been collected via food drives.

It was surprising to see how quickly a large group of individuals worked out a system for the task at hand. In no time at all, the Salvage Room volunteers had a process for sorting through boxes and boxes of canned yams, adhering Food Bank labels and putting them back in clearly-marked, reinforced boxes.

The Food Bank estimates that for every hour volunteers work, 317 pounds of food is distributed to their network of partner agencies who serve the 400,000 people at risk in their service area. Each month, the Food Bank provides more than 2.7 million pounds of food to their partner agencies, which include soup kitchens, homeless shelters and food pantries. They estimate that volunteers sort 40% of their warehouse inventory. As the volunteer coordinator told us today, the Food Bank relies very, very much on their volunteers.

If you’re in the Raleigh area and you’re looking for a way to give back to the community, I encourage you to check the volunteer information page for the Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina’s Raleigh Branch. They have countless opportunities and various schedules. If you’re not in Raleigh, but wondering about Food Bank opportunities in your area, try consulting the Feeding America website, which has a “Find a Volunteer Opportunity” form.

Work to Be Done

There’s a lot going on in our country this week to strengthen my commitment to finding my cause. With our new president, there is a sense of new beginnings and new hope. With the inauguration of President Barack Obama, there is an intangible sense of self-determination that is pulsing through the country.

One line from his inaugural speech that stood out to me was “For everywhere we look, there is work to be done.” I agree. There is a lot of work out there. Work we need to do to fix what we’ve broken. Work we need to do to get the country back on track. Work for which someone will most certainly hire me someday. Work that I can do to help others now.

I was looking forward to my first 2009 community service project tonight, but it was cancelled due to yesterday’s snowstorm. I hopped online and spent a couple of hours researching local charitable organizations, frantically trying to find one for which I could volunteer over the next 10 days (to meet my self-imposed deadline of one project per month). I read about some great organizations, many of which I hope to serve at some point over the coming year.

So, instead of writing about my first service project tonight, as I had planned, I have someone else’s story to share. I stumbled across this individual’s service commitment as I was looking up volunteer opportunities. Her name is Mary Judd. She is 70 years old and she has been feeding the homeless (at times right out of her home) for 12 years. See Mary Judd video clip from a local news station, WRAL.com.

My first service project is now set for January 31st, just under my deadline.

The Beginning and The End

“Begin with the end in mind.” It’s one of the principles in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” book by Dr. Stephen Covey. It makes sense and it’s a straightforward idea. Decide what you want the outcome to be and then do everything in your power to make it happen.

Well, it’s January 2009 and I’ve been at this job search for almost a year. The ideal end for my job hunt would be me landing a challenging and fulfilling job that puts my skills to the test and rewards me with a paycheck and benefits. But, this job search isn’t like the searches I’ve conducted in years past. Things are different in these tough economic times and while I know that I will someday be back in the workforce, I know that the timeframe isn’t 100% up to me.

With the start of the new year, it is time for some changes. As a goal-driven and deadline-oriented individual, I need something else to fulfill me and reward me, something else that I can take on and accomplish this year no matter what the headlines say about our economy or the job market.

The Real End

So, I’ve taken a step back and I’ve given “the end” some more thought. The real end. The one that comes when my life is over and someone, somewhere is in charge of summarizing my life in a few short paragraphs. My job search of 2008-2009 will not be in there, but what will make the cut?

I occasionally glance at obituaries in the newspaper and the line that sticks with me is an individual’s lifelong commitment to a charitable organization. 15, 20, 30 years. Wow. No matter what that person had going on in his or her life or what unexpected turns he or she took, the commitment to that charity was always there.

It’s that line in my obituary that I will tackle in 2009 – the line that will read, “For 30 years, Kelly was involved with XYZ organization, giving her time, her skills and her financial support.”

The Plan

Each month this year, I will volunteer with one charitable organization. I will blog about my service, reflecting on what I was able to give, what kind of impact I think I could make and what I took away from the experience. In December, I will choose one organization to be my life-long volunteer cause. Between 2010 and 2040 (God willing I live that long), I will offer my time, my skills and my financial support to that organization’s mission.

Do you have a life-long commitment to a non-profit organization? If so, drop me a line at kduffort@gmail.com and let me know why you chose that group. I’d love to hear your story as I begin my 2009 journey.

-Kelly