good will
Back from left: Hal Cole, Rob Oliver, Dick Hilfiker, Dick Bender. Front from left: Bill Riffle, Chuck Matsumoto, Ken Partridge
unteers helped rescue 7,000 pounds of food and prepare 3,074 meals for the hungry. These days, Second Helpings turns approximately 100,000 pounds of rescued food into 50,000 meals each month. Each day sees more food salvaged, more meals prepared and more adults receiving valuable job training in the approximately 20,000-square-foot facility. So how does it all get done? In large part through the effort of volunteers. “We have 600 volunteers a year in addition to our regular staff, many who serve regularly on specific days of the week,” says Betsy Whitmore, communications manager. One such volunteer has been at it for well over a decade. Greenwood resident Dick Bender began volunteering for a simple reason. “Hunger is an issue close to my heart,” he says. “We have a hunger problem, and it’s not due to lack of food. But we do have a distribution problem.” Since retiring in 2004, Bender has devoted much of his free time to volunteer organizations. So much time, in fact, that he logged 800 volunteer hours at Second Helpings within his first two years. To date, Bender says he has more than 2,600 volunteer hours logged. Many mornings find Bender in the kitchen at Second Helpings, where he preps ingredients and cooks hundreds of meals using industrial-sized cooking equipment. The 1,600-square-foot production kitchen turns 40
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into a bustling workplace in the mornings, as staff and volunteers prepare 3,200 meals a day bound for more than 60 social service organizations that feed children, adults and seniors. The types of meals created are determined on an ever-changing basis, depending on what foods have been donated most recently. All are balanced and nutritious. Large delivery trucks go out daily to supply partner agencies with the food they need. Like many volunteers, Bender rotates duties from cooking to making deliveries to unloading and stocking incoming items. “Volunteering at Second Helpings is never boring,” he says. “I just do whatever needs to be done.” It’s this humble attitude that makes him such an important part of the organization, and such a magnet for other southside volunteers. A number of friends have followed his lead over the years, most invited by Bender himself and encouraged by his passion and energy for the mission. Hal Cole of Greenwood is one of them. Cole retired from a career in education. Then, after his wife of 48 years passed away, he confided to Bender
that he felt lost. Much of his time had been spent caring for his wife, and he turned to his friend for help in 2003. “Dick invited me to come volunteer with him,” he recalls, “and I found purpose again. We’re like a family here.” And indeed they are. Several of the Greenwood volunteers catch rides together on the days they come in and continue to grow their network of neighbors who make the trip to Second Helpings. Ken Partridge from Southport is another retiree who volunteers his time. “Second Helpings is one of the most well-managed organizations I’ve seen,” he says. “I say that because they’re impacting hunger, they’re Volunteer Hal Cole managing waste and they really treat people right.” Being well-managed is crucial, especially when operating on a large scale. Second Helpings offers a rigorous 10-week culinary training program for unemployed or underemployed adults. (One delicious perk of volunteering at Second Helpings is the lunch buffet created by the culinary students as they train.) The course is completely free