Volunteer Spotlight: Wendy

Building relationships. Improving physical health. Sharpening mental health. These are all things we can accomplish through the joyous act of volunteering!

In 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy addressed a growing epidemic of loneliness, coming with a greater risk of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and more. Murthy believes three factors can decrease feelings of loneliness, and thus prevent these greater health risks:

Relationships. Service. Community.

Volunteering is a way to plug into all three! It's about being part of something bigger than just yourself. What keeps our volunteers coming back is that they're building quality relationships and strengthening their sense of connectedness to the neighborhoods we live in and enjoy. In turn, the hours that folks dedicate to the food bank are resulting in better health outcomes! 

Let's explore how Wendy, a dedicated Ballard Food Bank volunteer, get benefits while giving back:

As a self-proclaimed extrovert, Wendy was anticipating the huge life change of retirement. Once retired, Wendy tried out a handful of roles at the food bank in 2023 to evade feelings of loneliness and disorientation without routine. Ultimately, she committed herself to bagging, gleaning, and home delivery driving. Each offering her a healthy balance of routine, physical activity, a connected sense of purpose, socialization, and a way to see more parts of Seattle outside of her own neighborhood.

Renee, Wendy's friend, was a volunteer at the food bank before her and would often positively describe the experience. This helped Wendy, a longtime supporter, make her transition into volunteering once she had the time available.

Wendy, in her job, interacted and worked with 100 other employees. "Retiring was very challenging for me in a way I knew intellectually would happen … after a few months of retiring I needed some structure. I like that BFB lets you pick your shift, it’s very flexible in that way that once you do your training in something you can pick and choose what works for you."

The routine fits right into her life. She commits to her regular shifts and will sign up for them as early as possible. Beyond a schedule she enjoys, volunteering gives Wendy a space to socialize to her extroverted-heart's content!

"It feels a little like a small neighborhood, you see people frequently enough they do feel like your neighbors even if they’re coming from across town. There’s the guy who brings in his own little produce bags, or the person with a particular way they like their bags packed, which I get as someone who loves the Tetris of bagging. Which is fun on its own for me … there are so many happy interactions."

She enjoys the wonderful conversations and people-watching. Equally delightful, she explains how she looks out for cute puppies and kittens that occasionally grace her checkout line.

Home delivery bags stacked in the warehouse

For the end of her week, she works with the home delivery crew and Food Access Senior Manager Ysa to deliver the packed bags to food bank clients who cannot physically come down to our building.

"I probably wouldn’t even drive my car if I didn’t do it. So it keeps me remembering how to drive my car, ha!" Driving for the Home Delivery program is a fun challenge that keeps Wendy and her driving skills sharp. She enjoys the challenge of coming up with the most efficient route. It also gets her out of her own neck of the woods, finding new coffee shops, and staying up to date with the city of Seattle. "I’ve learned and seen more neighborhoods. That’s the other thing, Ballard is super easy to navigate. So the delivery route gets me just a bit out of that."

Beyond Ballard, beyond food. To plug into something bigger than herself helps her remember what truly matters. Wendy says, "It makes you appreciate more of your stuff and focus on the things that make you happy and other things become less relevant. They become less annoying because they’re actually not core. It’s good that way."

In spring until fall, Wendy joins the harvesting crew. Tim, pictured below (next to Wendy), a volunteer with Ballard Food Bank helped connect us to Holy Cross Church in Redmond who run the Food Bank Farm in Snohomish to form a partnership. This fruitful partnership yielded 28,803 pounds of 28 different items in its first official pilot season.

Wendy was part of that effort to help save the food bank an estimated value of $30,970 in donated crops that volunteers help grow. From planting to harvesting, Wendy has enjoyed each part of the process. She is an avid gardener at home and always interested in food, " I could always eat. I’m always interested in food, I’m always interested in what you’re eating what everyone else is eating … So the idea that anyone is feeling restriction around food feels very sad to me. So rather than staying in those feelings, I can come in and do something about it in a small way each week."

Adding purpose with physical activity into the mix, volunteers like Wendy are actually slowing down the biological aging process. "That physical aspect is so rewarding. Not just something online, like signing a petition. It’s putting cans in bags and helping people find the right way to pack. All that stuff. The tangibility of it is really rewarding."

Wendy is truly making the most out of her retirement. At Ballard Food Bank, Wendy enjoys listening to "flashback to the roller rink" old school tunes in the market (compliments of Grayling, Warehouse Coordinator). She finds fulfillment in these happy interactions and acts of service. And most importantly, she loves organizing around food with people from so many different backgrounds who are at so many different stages in life. 

It's beautiful to know that when Wendy invests in community care, she is also investing in self-care and better health outcomes.

Volunteers Tom and Wendy harvesting produce at the Food Bank Farm in Snohomish