The 30 year-old community outreach program at Trinity Anglican Church that provides free lunches to anyone who needs a meal is in desperate need of volunteers this summer to help cover a gap caused when regular volunteers go on holiday.
The annual shortage is something the 70 or more volunteers at Trinity Community Table can usually manage, but with demand so high for the program this year, they need help more than ever, says chair of the program, Bonny Jensen.
Jensen says she's never seen demand this high for the free lunches which are offered Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
So far this year, they've served 9,300 meals. By this time last year they'd served 7,079.
Jensen says the volunteers were surprised earlier this year when six "nicely dressed" Conestoga College international students began showing up for lunch and asking if they could volunteer. All six are from India and live together in one house while struggling to make ends meet.
"They've been such a great help to us," Jensen said, encouraging high school students who need community volunteer hours to consider doing the same.
It's critical the group gets more young volunteers on board to help the regulars whose average age is 70. Many have difficulty navigating the stairs to the basement freezer, refrigerator and pantry.
That help is also needed to process the produce Trinity grows in two garden plots at rare Charitable Research Reserve.
Last year Jensen says the gardens produced 550 pounds of lettuce alone, all of which has to be cleaned, bagged and put into storage.
"It took us all last year to learn how to do that," she says.
Crops coming up this year include tomato, cucumber, peppers, herbs and kale.
Having a reliable roster of volunteers they can call whenever they're in a pinch is essential, Jensen says, and jobs can be anything from working in the garden, chopping vegetables, washing dishes and peeling potatoes to making sandwiches.
"Working in the kitchen isn't high science," she adds.
Interested volunteers are invited to call 519-621-8860 or emailing [email protected] for more information.
