What A Team!

There is no clock on the wall of the sorting room at Harvesters, the Community Food Bank. Wyman Barnes, Jerie Edwards and other volunteers haven’t noticed because they’re busy and they’re having a good time.

Wyman sorts food in a huge bin filled with cereal, rice, and snacks of all kinds, while Jerie quickly tapes together boxes. A few feet away, McKennon Smith is packing food into those boxes that will go to feed the homeless and the hungry in and around Kansas City.

For more than a decade, students from the Rainbow Center for Communicative Disorders have come to volunteer at Harvesters. They are students with special needs, who can’t be mainstreamed into public schools. Teachers and therapists from Rainbow Center work closely with the students teaching them skills to live in a hectic world. Peggy Britton, Operations Director at Rainbow Center says, "Our students' volunteer work at Harvesters is a foundation for the future. It teaches them to count, follow instructions, stay on task, work as a team, meet expectations and succeed in a working environment."

Harvesters faces a challenging job, collecting and distributing more than 16 million pounds of food in a 13-county area. The food goes to more than 500 soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and emergency assistance food pantries. Harvesters relies on the generosity of local individuals, businesses, foundations, and employee campaigns to cover expenses, but they couldn’t succeed without the efforts of more than 6,000 volunteers. Those volunteers help Harvesters minimize expenses in its quest to make sure no one goes hungry in the metropolitan area.

Most volunteers work at their regular jobs Monday through Friday, creating a strong need for weekday volunteers. Rainbow Center students and adults from Rainbow Options are exactly what the doctor ordered. They volunteer four days a week at Harvesters, with assistance from therapists and aids.

Jerri Fankhauser, one of Rainbow Center’s Recreational Therapists says, "Harvesters has been great. They’re flexible and very accepting of our students’ special needs and have structured the volunteer jobs to meet them." Fankhauser adds, "In many ways volunteering at Harvesters teaches our students more than they can ever learn in the classroom. It’s functional vocational training. The kids walk away with confidence, a ‘can do’ attitude and a sense of satisfaction knowing they’re doing productive work that’s helping feed the hungry in our community."

Is the program working? Wyman got a paying job last summer working for a Kansas City area construction company. Jerie is a dishwasher at a local Furr’s Cafeteria on weekends and Jennifer Britton, Peggy Britton’s daughter, is now assembling medical supply kits at IBS industries in Blue Springs. They’re using the job skills they learned as Harvesters volunteers. But just as important as what they learned is the sense of pride and accomplishment they gain in working at Harvesters, contributing to the community and knowing they’re helping someone else in need.