Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank is celebrating International Volunteer Day!
Established by the United Nations in 1985, this day is dedicated to recognizing volunteers and their contributions on a global scale. The Food Bank would like to thank our passionate volunteer base for all their time and effort, especially during these challenging times.
Almost every day of the year, volunteers across southwestern Pennsylvania are hard at work in our community. These volunteers are helping in a variety of ways including packing boxes at our warehouse, harvesting produce from local farms and directly distributing food through our drive-up distributions and partner agencies.
Last year our organization worked with nearly 5,000 dedicated volunteers, who contributed more than 61,000 hours of their time. It is thanks to their efforts that we were able to distribute more than 45 million meals to our neighbors struggling with hunger across the region. It would be an understatement to say that our mission in the three rivers region could not be met without the efforts volunteers.
One of these devoted volunteers, who has dedicated over 275 hours of service in our Volunteer Engagement Center, is Gwen V. Just like many of our volunteers, Gwen holds volunteering close to her heart.
“Volunteering is important. Any volunteer opportunity is important. Spending time at the Food Bank calls to me. I’ve never been truly hungry and knowing that there are individuals, families and children who go to bed hungry is unacceptable. Spending three hours at the Food Bank is the very least I can do. And… it is a lot of fun, too!”
International Volunteer Day sets aside time for the Food Bank to highlight and thank volunteers, like Gwen V. It takes the dedication of committed volunteers to empower the Food Bank to assist 110,000 families monthly. We cannot thank each of our volunteers enough for standing alongside us in our efforts to end hunger across southwestern Pennsylvania. To learn more about our volunteer program and how to get involved here or email us at [email protected].