Second Harvest offers many volunteer opportunities for people wanting to make a difference.  We welcome individual volunteers and groups from 2 to 50 people!  The Food Bank has monthly pack events that allow your group to work together on the same project – a great team-building activity!  There is a brief orientation process you must complete before you can start volunteering.  After completing the orientation, volunteers can come to the Food Bank Monday through Friday between 7am and 3pm; please call us at 484-287-4015 to schedule a volunteer shift.  for a referral to one of our member agencies that could use your help. For safety reasons, volunteers must be at least 14 years of age and require adult supervision up to age 18. In an average week, the Food Bank has more than 30 volunteers completing over 100 total hours of work.  This is equivalent to almost three additional full-time staff members. Scroll down or click on a specific project for more information about the volunteer opportunities we have available.

Backpack Buddies Pack | SUNShine Box Pack | General Warehouse Projects | Groups of ten to fifteen volunteers come to the Second Harvest warehouse in Nazareth on the third Friday of every month to fill bags with food for the weekend for area youth.  Through agencies like the Boys and Girls Clubs, the bags are distributed to children who receive free or reduced-priced breakfast and lunch during the school day and don’t have access to those meals on the weekend.  swissgear scansmart backpack 1923The bags contain “kid-friendly” foods that are nutritious and easily prepared.eberlestock x1e backpack For more information about Backpack Buddies at Second Harvest click here.fbcit backpack ministry

A variety of volunteers are needed to teach and assist with Cooking Matters classes. Our volunteers are passionate about food and dedicated to empowering low-income families to shop for and prepare healthy meals on a budget. Cooking Matters volunteers play diverse roles in the classroom, including Chef Instructor, Nutrition Instructor, and Class Manager.  backpack lt25Occasionally, we request the expertise of a Class Photographer/Videographer for publication materials.  eberlestock gs05m gunslinger backpackAll Cooking Matters volunteers must be at least 18 years old.backpack lt25 Please note that Cooking Matters volunteers commit to being part of an entire 6 week course. We strongly encourage interested individuals to observe a Cooking Matters class in action prior to volunteering for a course.

Once signed up to be part of a course volunteer team, each volunteer will take part in a two hour online Cooking Matters Volunteer Training and a one hour in-person Cooking Matters Volunteer Training prior to the first course. If you are interested in volunteering with Cooking Matters, please fill out a Cooking Matters Volunteer Application. Email your completed application and direct any additional questions to Kristina Parise or call her at 484-287-4015 x3313. For more information about Cooking Matters at Second Harvest click here. SUNShine (Serving UnderNourished Seniors) Box Pack Groups of forty to sixty volunteers come to the Second Harvest warehouse in Nazareth on the first Tuesday of every month to help fill boxes with food provided by the Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP).  Volunteers set up an assembly line to pack, seal, and stack the boxes so they are ready to be delivered to agencies for distribution to area senior citizens, new mothers and children.

For more information about SUNShine Boxes at Second Harvest click here General warehouse projects include tasks such as gathering items for the orders for the member agencies, assisting drivers with deliveries, and sorting donations for suitability and preparing them for distribution.  These tasks are completed during normal business hours on days when there is no pack scheduled. Want to Join Our Volunteers and Make Your OWN Difference? Every month, Second Harvest needs 25 to 35 volunteers to complete pack events.A little boy kept asking those in charge of Donegan Elementary School’s Homework Club when snack-time would be. When the snacks were passed out, he took one peanut butter cracker out of the plastic wrap and put the rest away. When Carolina Hernandez, the director of Lehigh University’s Community Service Office, asked him what was going on, he said that he was saving the rest so his mom could have dinner that night. Hunger is a daily problem for children and their families in the Lehigh Valley.

At Donegan Elementary School and Broughal Middle School in Bethlehem, about 90 percent of students are on the free or reduced lunch program. This program is only available to families below the poverty line. The 10 percent of students that are not on the program are often just above the poverty line or their families could not fill out the yearly application due to language barriers. Hunger is caused, and exacerbated, by problems like homelessness. According to a 2007 study by National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, in a given year 3.5 million people will experience homelessness nationally. In the Lehigh Valley, 2,400 people were homeless in 2010, according to the Lehigh Valley Shelter Census. The low wage gap keeps families from being able to improve their situation. The average South Bethlehem resident makes $14,600 a year, Hernandez said, and with the average rent being $800 a month, it leaves almost no room for food or childcare. “It is an imperfect storm of circumstances, a terrible series of situations that all lend and bleed into one another,” Hernandez said.

Schools and local organizations, like universities and churches, have a multitude of service programs in place to address the hunger and homelessness issues. Sometimes this is in the form of continued donations to a food pantry, and other times it is specific events like a Thanksgiving dinner hosted at the school. To help with the issue of families serving healthy food to their children, many programs have been put in place in local schools to teach children and families about how to cook nutritional and low-cost food. Rosa Carides-Hof, the community school coordinator at Donegan, said many students take advantage of the free breakfast offered in the mornings and snacks in the after school program. Some of the poorest children also are able to receive a free dinner a few times a week. These meals do more than supplement the food students receive outside of school. “Most students, if they are not coming to our school hungry, it is because they were at the child care center that fed them,” said Ashley Sciora, a community school coordinator at Paxinosa Elementary School in Easton.

For many students, the free snack or dinner is the last food they will receive until returning to school the next day. Erika Davis, the community school coordinator at Cleveland Elementary School in Allentown, said weekends or extended breaks from school are particularly difficult. To help with this problem, the Backpack Buddies program was started. At Cleveland Elementary and several other Lehigh Valley schools, a backpack filled with food for the family is sent home with children over the weekend or long break. “We tell them to keep it a secret so that other kids don’t get jealous,” Davis said. “They light up (when they get the food) and they think they are in a secret club.” Only five students of the 284 at Cleveland Elementary are able to be in the backpack buddies program. The program is limited due to funding. Similarly, in Donegan Elementary School, 25 students are part of the Backpack Buddies program, said Carides-Hof. “At least we are able to make a difference here or there,” Davis said.

Alicia Creazzo, the community school coordinator for Broughal Middle School, said she is working on bringing the Backpack Buddies program there. Meetings with Dining Services were being organized to discuss details and logistics of the program. With the wage gap, homelessness often results for local families. Seven hundred and eighty of the 2,400 homeless in the Lehigh Valley were children, or 32 percent. Half of the children living in homeless shelters are under the age of five. Hernandez said 2010 is the last year that the data is available from the Lehigh Valley Shelter Census, but the problem has escalated and the numbers are not going to be smaller for 2014. Struggles like homelessness often prevent families from concentrating on preparing meals with healthy foods. “(Families have) so many other things to worry about that food is last on the list,” Davis said. “Healthy food is just so much more expensive and out of reach. There are not many grocery stores (in Allentown), there are mini marts without fresh food or meat.”