On a cold and sunny Saturday morning at 9 a.m., me and the other four members of our group, Work Hard Play Hard—seniors Brandon Myers and Caitlin Carmody, junior Anice Sanders and sophomore Britannie Hildreth—went to the Gleaners Community Food Bank in Warren, Mich.
We met Bill Jambeau, the branch’s vice president, and went over all of the rules for our tasks so we would not be at risk of injury. He emphasized the organization’s mantra.
“Volunteers are our biggest asset,” Jambeau said.
Then, we toured the warehouse and were shown where all of the food is stored.
Shortly after, we were assigned to putting pasta into bags for the first hour.
There was good group cohesiveness as each of us knew our role and performed the tasks to the best of our abilities.
Then, we went on a 15-minute break to rest and came back to a new assignment.
This task was to fold up plastic grocery bags and to put a red sticker on each one, so letter carriers could deliver them to houses where people would put canned goods in the bags to send to Gleaners.
Then at noon, the second and final task of the day was over and Jambeau thanked everyone for giving their time to volunteer.
After he thanked everyone, I was supposed to sit down with Jambeau but he had to reschedule for the week after because local residents came in with canned goods to give to the warehouse.
I was able to contact Jambeau by phone the following Wednesday and asked him about how the Double Your Donation program works.
“On select Tuesdays, every dollar that is donated, PNC Bank, DTE Energy and Sodexo will match and on those days we [Gleaners] range from $350,000 to $400,000 in pledges and it doubles to $700,000 to $800,000 and it helps out quite a bit,” Jambeau said.
When asked about whether there is ever a need for volunteers, Jambeau responded by saying, “For something such as the mail carriers food drive, we try to limit to 40-45 people or else it gets overcrowded.”
Jambeau continued on by saying, “The volunteers go in the back to the shipping and receiving area and that day, the mail carriers pick up the food from the postal customers and they load up their trucks and bring it to Gleaners. Then our volunteers unload the trucks and separate the can goods from the plastic dry goods.”
To keep volunteer workers from being overworked, they have staggered start times for the food drive.
“Some will start at 10 a.m. and end at 1 p.m., then another group will run from noon to 3 p.m. and the final group will go from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.,” Jambeau said.
Some of the volunteers at the Gleaners locations are college students and they generally come on Fridays or Saturdays.
“I get students from the University of Michigan, U of M-Dearborn, Wayne State University, Macomb Community College,” Jambeau said. “I do not get too many [students] from Eastern and obviously it is so far away.”
In closing, Jambeau said, “For any EMU students who struggle with whether or not to give back to the less fortunate, always remember that you are our biggest asset.”
Where to volunteer?
If any EMU students, staff or faculty are interested in volunteering at Gleaners, you can call 313-923-3535 and pick from numerous locations, including:
2131 Beaufait St., Detroit, Mich.
120 E. Columbia Ave., Pontiac, Mich.
25670 Northline Road, Taylor, Mich.
5924 Sterling Drive, Howell, Mich.
24140 Mound Road, Warren, Mich
