Friday, April 24, 2009
Helping hands fight hunger
Have you heard?
Courtesy of Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank
James Andrews works with volunteers to sort and package food at the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank in Salem.
JoAnne Poindexter
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James Andrews has a bounce in his step as he moves around the concrete floors of the salvage area of the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank in Salem.
His "Live your life so the preacher won't have to lie at your funeral" T-shirt is Andrews' invitation to engage food bank visitors.
Coordinating the salvaging department for the food bank is a mission, not a job for Andrews, 57, and it gives him a chance to help others and give back to his community.
"I love it, and I take pride in it," he said of the job that makes him "strut like a peacock."
Andrews maintains he had "been out in the world" and not fully contributing to society five years ago when he applied for a job at the food bank. His mission now is to feed the hungry, he said.
He's turned presorting, cleaning cans and boxes, checking dates and packaging food into an addiction for many food bank volunteers, said Jeremy Butterfield, food bank communications and public relations coordinator.
"James keeps it lively," Butterfield said.
In a single year, the food bank salvages or rescues about a million pounds of perfectly safe and consumable food and related products that otherwise would have ended up in the landfill because of mislabeling, shipping damage or recall by manufacturer, Butterfield said.
On a recent rainy Thursday morning, Andrews was full of sunshine as he directed about 20 male students in the Bank on It program from William Fleming High School. After a short video, shown to first-time volunteers, Andrews demonstrated each step of the process, encouraging the young men to have fun.
He told the Fleming boys, who were conducting a community service project, that he's been the beneficiary of handouts and has been out in the world but he believes that God led him to the Southwestern Virginia Second Harvest Food Bank.
"I found out that you can do anything in this world. There are all kinds of things out there. It took me a long time but I chose to go the other way," Andrews told the students, combining salvaging directions with his personal testimony.
"The Lord helps motivate me. This is my way of giving others something so that they won't go down that path I was on," Andrews added, without clarifying his indiscretions.
Before the 90-minute session was completed, several Fleming students, citing Andrews' enthusiasm and energy, inquired about volunteering at the food bank.
Andrews works 40 hours a week and volunteers on some Saturdays. He's on a mission now to recruit more minorities to volunteer at the food bank and has echoed the need on several radio programs.
He encourages volunteers by telling them that their pictures will appear on the wall of fame in his office area.
Andrews has been known to recruit any visitor to the food bank, from governors to 7-year-olds, to help salvage an average of 40,000 pounds of food. Last year, volunteers donated approximately 15,000 hours of work to the food bank, most of it working with Andrews in salvaging.
The state of Virginia estimates that volunteer time has the equivalent worth of $20 an hour. Food bank volunteers typically work four-hour shifts in the salvage department, meaning $80 is saved by each volunteer, Butterfield said.
"For every dollar donated to the food bank, we can distribute $6 of food. So for the $80 we save from that one volunteer visit, that volunteer has freed up enough money for us to distribute $480 worth of food," he added.
