My Experience Volunteering – 2025 Join Intern

This weekend I had the opportunity to volunteer at the Sunday serving session with my mom. She had never been to Yad Ezra before, so it was cool to see her experience everything for the first time. Also, this was my first time doing it on my own. I had volunteered during a Monday serving session before, but I did it with another volunteer, so I did not get the full experience. It is amazing that so many people on a Sunday morning volunteer their time and energy to help Yad Ezra.

One of the first things I noticed when coming to volunteer was how welcoming all the volunteers are. With it being our first time volunteering, everyone immediately showed us what to do and where to go. My Mom and I instantly felt comfortable and welcomed. It was also nice to get to know the volunteers when we were waiting in the volunteer room for orders to come in. We got to know many of them and played some Jewish geography, and my mom ended up knowing some of the volunteers from her childhood.

When my mom and I got there, we signed in and got a clipboard and pen and waited for the session to start. At 12 pm, there was a rush of clients, so it was busy for the first 20 minutes. The first thing you do once you get the shopping list is put all the bags in the cart and tie them to the cart, so they stay open. I learned this from the volunteer who showed me the ropes. Next, you go through all the bonus items and see which ones the client wants or does not want. On Sunday they were eligible to receive laundry detergent, hot dogs, cabbage, tomatoes, potatoes, grapes, and cucumbers. After getting the bonus items you move on to the shelf goods, such as cereal, canned fruit and vegetables, pasta/pasta sauce, canned meat, and fish. Cereal is a hot commodity especially for the clients who have children, but at least on Sunday, few clients wanted the shelf goods. Next is the freezer section, which is a hot commodity for every serving session. This is where frozen meat is as well as stuff like butter, fresh fruit, eggs, cheese, etc… These foods “cost” the most points, so many clients use most of their points for this section. The foods that were picked the most were whole chickens, eggs, and butter. The next section is more shelf goods like mac and cheese and milk, and kasha. Kasha is commonly used in Russian dishes, and Yad Ezra has many Russian clients who love to get it. This is one of the things that sets Yad Ezra apart from other food pantries, is that they cater to their clients. Many foods that we offer are foods that many of our clients would have eaten in their home countries, but after immigrating to America, they could not get it, but coming to Yad Ezra, they are able to enjoy the foods from their home country.

After the food section, next comes the toiletries. Clients can get diapers and wipes with their points and with all orders clients receive two roles of toilet paper. Also at this point, if the client has children ages 3-17, they get snack packs which have a variety of healthy snacks in them. Lastly, you weigh the cart and then David or Melinda takes the cart out to the client’s car, and you (the volunteer) go back into the volunteer room to wait for another order.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience volunteering with my mom, and I know I will be back to volunteer again soon. Hopefully, this piece will encourage you to come to volunteer, as now you have more of an idea of how things work. I also encourage you to bring a friend or relative because the more the merrier.