Midwest Food Bank – Benevolence Volunteer Day

The Nussbaum Benevolence Committee started 2023 with a goal: coordinate a volunteer day every other month with the Midwest Food Bank, one of the organizations we already support monetarily. More to come on that later, but the gist of it is that five employees of Nussbaum will be able to sign up, coordinate a vehicle to ride in, and drive to the Midwest Food Bank to be “hands and feet”.

On Wednesday, February 8, the Benevolence Committee signed up to volunteer at MFB, as a trial run to how this process would work. We’ll take you through our day, and we hope to see you signing up soon! (Details to follow on how to do that)

Our group arrived at the Midwest Food Bank at around 11am, where we signed in using their kiosks, applied name tags to our shirts, and got excited (see Lisa). One of the perks MFB has for their volunteers is that if you arrive a little early (you officially start at 11:30), you will be fed a meal beforehand, put on by other volunteers. We were very impressed with their organization, efficiency, and the ease of the whole sign-in process.

After a quick (delicious) lunch, we were greeted by Donna, their volunteer coordinator. Along with another group of people that had come to volunteer, she walked us through what we would be doing, explained how everything was set up, and gave us some fun facts about the Food Bank. The first week of every month is considered “distribution week”, a week where all of the organizations that utilize the Food Bank’s services bring a truck/trailer at an appointed time, and volunteers (us) fill them with whatever items they need. These trucks can be anything from a pickup truck and a small trailer to a large box truck that needs packed to the brim.

Note: Because of what you will be doing, volunteers are required to wear tennis shoes. We’d also personally recommend wearing clothes that are breathable and comfortable – you will be lifting and moving boxes (some of which are heavy).

The MFB staff told us that with the state of the economy now, organizations are requesting more food/items than ever, and volunteers (and donations and prayers) are always needed and appreciated. It was amazing to see how many trucks came through needing food and other essential items. Each and every one of them were grateful for the work MFB is doing, and appreciative of the volunteers putting in their time.

Looking to the Future

The afternoon wrapped up around 2:30, and we headed back to the office with a collective positive experience. We are excited to give this opportunity to serve to other employees of Nussbaum. We know there are probably questions, concerns, and general curiosity, and we welcome all of that at our email: benevolence@nussbaum.com. We are still working out kinks and will probably have adjustments that need to be made, but in the meantime, we’re just excited!

Noah plans to send out a sign-up for volunteers every other month, so look for those in your email. Right now, this opportunity is open to all Nussbaum office/shop staff, and we are working through ideas of how we can involve drivers in opportunities like this. This is on work time, and we are limiting sign-ups to one time per person, because of the limited amount of spots available. Thanks for being willing to serve, and for your support!