CINCINNATI — The holidays may be winding down, but the need in Cincinnati's community continues. St. Vincent de Paul says they're always looking for helping hands to serve neighbors facing food insecurity.
Food banks need help year-round, and at St. Vincent de Paul, the need doesn't take a holiday. If you're looking for a New Year's resolution, now is the perfect time to jump in and make a difference.
It was a packed end of the year with toy drives, coat drives, and food distributions. St. Vincent de Paul saw an increase in November, serving over 600 people in just one week.
"If you don't have 15 or 20 in the morning, you don't have 15 or 20 in the afternoon, you see the time that it takes to walk people through increase," said Nate Smith, donor operations manager. "So it's really super important to have folks in the morning and folks in the afternoon taking on those shifts."
Hear from members of St. Vincent de Paul about the importance of volunteers:
I walked through the warehouse and food pantry with volunteer coordinator Molly Spitzer and Smith. They both started as volunteers themselves and say they need more help to keep up with demand.
"Food is such a core memory, like growing up, what you had to eat, what did you do for Christmas, what did do for Thanksgiving, it's really a rich conversation that you get to have with the folks that you're helping that day," said Smith.
The organization has plenty of opportunities, ranging from receiving and organizing donations to operating a cardboard breakdown station for volunteers to help with, and more.
"I just found myself continuing to come back on Saturdays to volunteer. I truly think this is just like the best feeling and volunteering experience I've had in the Cincinnati area. After two years of coming back, knowing that I was making an impact, just on the individual level, every single time that I came here, I volunteered, it's truly been the best job ever," said Spitzer.
"The whole time you're able to have that conversation with somebody," said Spitzer. "Your neighbors are just super grateful to be here to be receiving the immediate service that they came in for, and we also just have a huge emphasis on establishing dignity while you're shopping."
Spitzer says the goal is to have 12,000 volunteers by the end of the year.
"Whether it's here, whether it's at one of the eight different thrift stores throughout the city, there's a lot of volunteering opportunities available," said Smith.
St. Vincent de Paul says they'd especially like to see more businesses get involved in volunteering. If you're interested, you can sign up on their website or email volunteers@svdpcincinnati.org.
