Volunteer Spotlight
MEET THE CATCH-22 DRAGON BOAT TEAM
July 2021
Hah! We sure were wrong!
When we started Clark Neighbors Food Project four years ago, we were so sure that Neighbors would be our food donors that we included “Neighbors” in the name. Never did we imagine that Neighborhood Coordinators would enlist friends from your book clubs, hiking groups, work teams, churches, mosques, and now even … a dragon boat team!!
Sharon Wyle, one of our new Neighborhood Coordinators, invited her Dragon Boat Team of nearly 100 members to commit to donating healthy foods and necessities every two months for local people in need, and her team said YES! Please join us in cheering for Catch-22 Dragon Boat Team!!
Printable link for Catch-22 Dragon Boat Team
MEET KATHLEEN AND PAUL STEVENS
April 2021
It started with a stolen can of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup to feed her hungry young children.
Today, life is good for “soup thief” Kathleen Stevens. She has plenty of food for her family and actively helps others through a nonprofit that she co-founded, “You Can Stop Domestic Abuse” http://youcanstopdomesticabuse.org. Still, that desperate feeling of seeing her children go hungry and that stolen can of soup didn’t leave Kathleen. She decided to do something about it.
On April 9, 2021, volunteers from the Green Bag Food Project picked up 50 bags filled with healthy foods from Kathleen and Paul Stevens’ house and dropped them at FISH of Vancouver Food Pantry. These 50 bags filled two vehicles: 724 pounds of food like cans of Campbells soup, Dinty Moore Stew, easy-open packs of tuna salad and crackers, bags of easy-peel mandarin oranges, toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, and much, much more. It took Kathleen weeks of shopping, and every single item she bought was a way to fend off that hunger for other families.
“This has been a tough year. We’ve seen so many folks who have said ‘I used to donate food to you guys and I never thought I’d be here needing help.’ But life can turn on an instant, as we all know. So when we at FISH see a car pull up, the whole back full of the beautiful lime green bags from our local “Green Bag Projects,” we know it’s going to be a good day. The support of our local neighborhoods, and of individuals like Kathleen, fills our shelves, fills our client pantries, and fills all our hearts. Thank you Kathleen!” — Dr. Beth Lee, FISH of Vancouver Board member
Printable link for Kathleen and Paul
MEET JULIE RICHARDSON
Sept. 2020
Julie is the dedicated Clark Neighbors Food Project volunteer who started our partnership with the East Vancouver Community Church Food Pantry in 2018. She first helped sort food for the Portland Food Project, asked whether there was a Food Project in the Vancouver area, and was quickly introduced to Debbie and Greg Nelson here in Clark County. She hit the ground running and hasn’t stopped since!
“For the past two years, Julie and the CNFP have been cheerful and significant partners to the East Vancouver Community Church Food Pantry,” shared its Executive Director David Lew. “Since 2018, Julie and her team have collected and donated more than 6,500 lbs. of food to our pantry! We look forward to continuing this highly valuable partnership.”
Julie has expanded her Riveridge neighborhood to about 50 food donors, has several volunteer drivers who help collect her neighborhood’s food, and supports three additional Neighborhood Coordinators who bring their collected food to EVCC Food Pantry. When she runs across a food donor who is excited, she asks whether they would like to be a Neighborhood Coordinator (and they typically say yes!) Julie has attended Cascade Park Neighborhood Meetings, struck up conversations with her neighbors, gone door-to-door (pre-COVID, of course), and simply looks for opportunities to share about this great program.
When asked what people might be surprised to learn about her, Julie shared she is a huge theater buff! At 13 years old, she saw a production of “To Kill a Mockingbird” and was so enamored with Scout that she’s been involved with theater ever since, even moving to New York for a year hoping to “make it big!” Although she ultimately returned to the Pacific Northwest, she met her (now) husband Clayton at the University of Washington where she graduated with a major in Theater. She also acted in productions at the Taproot Theatre Company in Seattle before moving to the Vancouver area. Although Julie still has a love of theater, she spends a lot of her time and energy these days with her five grandkids. Granddaughter Roara has helped with the Green Bag project in the past and plans to continue. Clayton is her driver for collection Saturdays and helps her with the food donor database. What a great way to get the whole family involved in volunteering!
Julie’s thoughts on what has surprised her most about working with the Food Project? “It’s so easy! There’s no pressure or stress. It doesn’t take a lot of effort yet there is a huge payoff, both in terms of building community and providing food to hungry neighbors.”
MEET CHERRYL BURKEY
July 2020
Cherryl is an energetic volunteer who has been with the Clark Neighbors Food Project (CNFP) since it was just a glimmer of an idea back in 2017. CNFP founders Debbie and Greg Nelson approached the Truman Neighborhood Association Council (TNA) for support and guidance in implementing their program so that food donations from neighbors would go to the Truman Elementary Family Resource Center as well as to FISH of Vancouver. As a member of the TNA Council (and now the chair), Cherryl raised her hand to help and has never looked back.
In addition to serving as a Neighborhood Coordinator for the Truman neighborhood, Cherryl has a knack for organizing people and processes, and she uses those skills to manage the food donation process on Collection Saturdays at Truman Elementary (which moved to FISH of Vancouver in June). And she wasn’t daunted by collecting food and organizing the collection site during the pandemic – she just put on her mask, observed the new safety protocols, and jumped right in!
One of the most important aspects of her volunteer work with CNFP has been that since day one she’s been able to include her grandson Chance. He’s worked side by side with her since he was 11, helping to pick up food bags from neighbors’ front porches, loading bags in and out of the car, and helping to organize and sort food every two months at the collection site. Even though he’s now 14, he still likes volunteering.
Cherryl has also shown leadership and dedication in providing food for the Family Resource Center at Truman Elementary School. She has encouraged Truman food donors to shop for foods that families need and that young children can cook themselves while their parents are at work. Amazing what a big impact Cherryl and her neighbors have made, and we know they’ll be back at it when in-person school resumes!
When not volunteering, you can find Cherryl tending to her vegetable garden, encouraging the neighbor kids to learn about growing (and eating!) veggies, and generously sharing her fresh produce with friends and neighbors.
Cherryl’s advice for anyone thinking of volunteering with Clark Neighbors Food Project? “Do it!”