Volunteer Shortage Affects Food Banks at the Time They Are Needed Most
Photo Credit © Joel Muniz on Unsplash.
It’s been over a year since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and food banks have been extremely hard-hit. As the need for food bank services by consumers increased, the availability of volunteers and their ability to deliver services declined. Finding ways to navigate all aspects of ever-changing restrictions, guidelines and needs has food banks struggling to serve those who need their help.
During 2020, food banks served 6 billion meals across the United States to those in need. This was an increase of 55% over what was served prior to the pandemic. Demand is expected to increase to 6.5 billion meals in 2021. [FN1] However, food banks saw a sharp reduction in the numbers of volunteers at this time of rising demand. Numbers vary widely, but in some cases, volunteer hours decreased as much as 95%. [FN2]
There are multiple reasons for decreased volunteer participation: some volunteers were from corporate groups, and these groups heeded company and local recommendations to avoid large groups and to stay home. Others, especially older volunteers, were from at-risk populations, and they were urged to avoid interaction or mingling with the public unless it was absolutely necessary to buy food, get medical attention or pick up prescriptions. This second group may account for the biggest loss in volunteer power at food banks. [FN2]
People with underlying health conditions or other concerns were among volunteers who opted out. There are also volunteers who would be considered as running a low risk at the food banks, who chose to participate more sporadically than before. These volunteers may be fearful of contracting the virus, or perhaps worried about infecting others, should they present symptoms. It is clear that volunteer attrition left most food banks unsure of how to proceed, knowing that they would struggle to meet a rising demand but would need to deliver in ways that would not make consumers feel awkward, or like a burden. It was not their situation that had changed. [FN3]
In this unchartered territory, food banks are forced to come up with creative and unique solutions -- to not only serve their consumers while complying with COVID regulations, but also honoring the wishes and needs of their volunteers despite the drastic reduction in volunteer hours.
Prior to deciding how to best utilize the volunteers that remained, food banks had to adapt their operations to accommodate new COVID sanitary guidelines. In many states, this meant shutting down completely for days, weeks or even months. Thankfully, re-opening was allowed under certain conditions, and it was quickly confirmed that food-insecure consumers needed food bank services as much, if not more, than ever before. Furthermore, in the early days of the pandemic, four out of 10 people served were coming to a food bank for the first time. Once again, food banks with fewer volunteers faced serving the growing food-insecure population. [FN1]
The majority of the US saw panic buying at grocery stores, resulting in shortages or limited purchasing for many items; this translated to food banks receiving fewer donations and experiencing a similar inability to buy the food items to meet the need. Unfortunately, this meant radical scaling back on certain items until they became available again. Equally troubling was the cancellation of almost all annual fundraisers and donor dinners organized by food banks because of the pandemic; this money could have been used to supplement the lack of donations. [FN3]
There is a tremendous need and organizations are working feverishly to find creative and novel ways to meet this. [FN1] Nearly two-thirds of food banks under the Feeding America banner are accepting volunteers at their 200+ sites. [FN5] Most food banks are putting out calls to the public to encourage volunteerism. Many high schools, some of which encourage community service by their students, have heeded the call and stepped up to provide volunteer hours and additional donations of supplies or money. Other members of the public in the vicinity of the food banks also re-evaluated their risk level and ability to help and showed up to fill the need. Feeding America established a COVID-19 Response Fund, which is allocating $2.65 million to assist food banks nationwide to support communities affected by the pandemic. The priorities for this fund are for food and fundraising efforts to support people and the food banks that help them, and also to create an inventory of emergency food and funds for anticipated use in the future. [FN4]
The current status of the COVID-19 pandemic varies from state to state, but the US is certainly not out of the woods yet. Although still needing to work in resourceful and atypical ways, most food banks are operational. As vaccines continue to be rolled out, more and more volunteers are feeling more comfortable about returning to their previous assignments.
There are many lessons to take away from this experience, along with a few positives: even when stretched to an extreme, food banks have come up with creative and effective solutions to meet needs. They learned to rely on themselves and on their network of community support, including other food banks. The pandemic continues to ebb and flow, but hopefully as the country begins to emerge from its grip at whatever pace is allowed, the volunteers behind the food banks will be perceived as the heroes that they are. When those helping vulnerable populations adhere to and embrace their missions, we can all learn how invaluable they are and how much they can teach us.
Resources
1. https://feedingamerica.org/hunger-blog/food-bank-response-covid-numbers
3. https://coloradosun.com/2020/03/17/coronavirus-food-banks-volunteers/
4. https://agdaily.com/news/feeding-america-covid-19-response-fund/
5. To pledge to volunteer with Feeding America in your local area, see https://www.feedingamerica.org/take-action/volunteer; from this page you can also find the Donate button if you would like to help financially.