Catholic Charities Emergency Services Seeking Summer Volunteers

(KNSI)—Summer is a more relaxed time, and people frequently head up north or out of town.

The change in behavior can leave nonprofits with holes in their schedule since they rely on volunteers. Catholic Charities Emergency Services Program Manager Eric Vollen says the organization needs help staffing some of its core programs.

“It’s the basic everyday essentials, or clothing program, and our food shelf program that are run by volunteers. We have around 25 to 50 volunteers coming in every day.”

Some roles you could fill include sorting and packing for the food shelf, assembling boxes, greeting donors, dropping off items to thank them for their generosity, and helping customers shop for clothing.

Several of the organization’s operations are seeing soaring demand. Vollen uses the food shelf as an example, “It is continuing to go up. We saw an increase from 1.7 million pounds of food served at the food shelf in ’22 to more than 2 million pounds of food served in ’23. I would not be surprised if next year I’m reporting that there has been an increase once again.”

Catholic Charities is happy to be flexible within your schedule, letting you decide how often and how long you volunteer. Email volunteer@ccstcloud.org, call 320-229-4568, or visit ccstcloud.org/volunteer for more information.

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