Thank You, Mark, for Ensuring Only the Best Food Leaves our Warehouse

Apr28

For Mark, volunteering in product recovery is a workout. He inspects food items, like cans or frozen meat, cleans them, and packages them into boxes.

He leaves product recovery sweating, and he doesn’t mind. It’s his work out and one of the reasons why he began volunteering at the Food Bank.

“I can lift weights and do some good. I can lift food weight,” Mark said. “I did it because it was a workout, but a more constructive workout than just watching weights go up and down.”

Though Mark enjoys the three-hour workout from each shift, he keeps coming back because there are families in need.

Years ago, Mark saw child hunger at his daughter’s elementary school. He knew the kids ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at school because they didn’t have food at home.

“Hunger and shelter is such a basic human need, you can’t get more basic than that.  You have to eat,” Mark said. “It’s just inconceivable, that I could go to H-E-B and there are 57 kinds of bread and 32 flavors of ice cream, and right there in the neighborhood are kids that don’t have enough to eat.”

Seeing children hungry left an impact on Mark. Prior to volunteering at the Food Bank, he volunteered at Hays County and Meals on Wheels, but it wasn’t enough. When he volunteered he wanted to stay busy non-stop.

The Food Bank was right around the corner and he knew the Food Bank made a difference to families in all of Central Texas. It was the volunteer experience he had been looking for. He has been volunteering since 2013.

“The nice thing about the Food Bank is that you’re always working. There’s just no down time and it just doesn’t feel like I’m wasting my time,” Mark said. “There’s always hunger, there’s always food and no matter how little or how much you do, you put three hours and then you feel good.”

Though it’s been years since his first volunteer shift, he still remembers the Kansas State shirt he was wearing and how welcomed he felt when a Kansas State alumni Food Bank staff approached him about it.

After one year of volunteering regularly, Mark was selected to serve as a volunteer leader. In his leadership role, he helps volunteers with orientation, answers questions and helps Food Bank staff.

“I don’t mind being just behind the scenes and working with the volunteers,” Mark said. “As a leader now, my fulfillment is in making this [volunteer] team work."

Thanks to volunteers like Mark, the Food Bank can continue making a difference in the lives of families. We can’t thank volunteers enough for all their work. They are the heart of the Food Bank.