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| Some of the YSA staff at DC Central Kitchen |
Have you ever had a fantastic volunteer experience? The staff was great, you were engaged the entire time, you learned about the history of the organization where you were volunteering and the impacts of your activities, and you couldn’t wait to return and volunteer again.
SA staff went to DC Central Kitchen (DCCK) in Washington, DC for our staff holiday volunteer event, and we had one of those fantastic volunteer experiences. It’s no surprise that DCCK is often nominated in local newspaper polls by DC residents as one of the best places to volunteer.DCCK is a nonprofit that turns leftover food into millions of meals for thousands of at-risk individuals and also offers culinary job training to formerly homeless and hungry adults. They take their volunteer management very seriously- they have even written a Volunteer Bill of Rights. But rather than tell you about the more than 4,500 meals we helped prepared for various organizations in DC that day, I want to tell you why I think DCCK is a great place to volunteer and encourage you to take some ideas from them.
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| Amanda, Helene, and Danielle were ready to start chopping chicken |
Impact : During orientation, a DCCK staff member gives volunteers a brief history of the organization and lets you know which local organizations will receive the meals that your prepare. I’ve been to too many volunteer activities when they throw you into the work, and you have no understanding of the impact of your efforts or how your actions are helping the organization or other people in the community. I think you feel a stronger connection to organizations and enjoy the volunteer activity more if learn about their work and understand the impact of your volunteering.
Engaged: At DCCK, volunteers are constantly engaged during the ENTIRE shift. Our shift began around 9:00AM , and we chopped, diced, cut, cracked, and sorted until 11:45AM. You do not waste time standing around waiting for something to do because they always have food that needs chopping, bagging, baking, etc….
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| Chetan and Steve dicing away. |
DCCK utilizes volunteers so well because they understand the community needs and have created a plan to address those needs; they know which meals and food items are needed at each organization , they group organizations with similar needs together, and then plan volunteer activities based on these needs. For example, my group made breakfast items for four different shelters. We chopped cantaloupe, sorted sausage patties, made egg omelets, and sorted pancakes. We made big batches of everything and packaged items based on the number of people the organization serves. It was really cool to prepare an entire meal for over 200 people in only 2 hours.
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| Matt and Mike had a great time cutting up butternut squash. |
Fun: DCCK is a fun place to be! Graduates of the DCCK culinary school train you, work alongside you and talk with you through your volunteer shift. You can ask them questions about DCCK, their work, or suggestions for what to make for dinner that night. Everyone is so friendly and extremely willing to help. They also place volunteers in groups so they can easily talk with each other. You can go with a group of friends or go by yourself and meet new friends – either way you’ll have fun. But my absolute favorite thing about DCCK is that they play music when you volunteer during their evening shift (after work hours, not too late). The mix of Motown and old school Michael Jackson is great to sing along with!
The YSA staff was so impressed with DCCK that we hired their Fresh Start catering service to cater our holiday party (it was REALLY good, I highly recommend them), and many staff members have already signed-up to volunteer with them in January.
Have you had a fantastic volunteering experience lately? Do you know an organization that has impactful, engaging and fun volunteer experiences? Post a comment and tell us about it!
