Second Harvest Food Bank says it’s in desperate need of volunteers to keep helping people in need during the continuing coronavirus pandemic.  IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports.

 In 2019, Second Harvest Food Bank served nearly seven million meals.  In 2020, that became more than 12 million meals.  And for much of the year, those distributions were helped by the Indiana National Guard.

“When the Guard was first assigned to Second Harvest, I think there were about 30 guard members who came in.  And then that was reduced to seven, and there was kind of a core group of seven who stayed through the end of the year.  Their service did not extend past 2020.”

That’s Kim Gillenwater, Second Harvest’s marketing manager.  Now food banks like Second Harvest need even more community volunteers to work in the warehouse packing up food and at area tailgate distributions.   Gillenwater says the organization has doubled the number of tailgates it holds each year.  And the number of cars it sees at each of those tailgates has increased by hundreds.

“The more volunteers we have at a tailgate, maybe the more lines we can set up to make that go a little bit faster.  At tailgates, volunteers can direct traffic.  We have somebody who checks cars in as far as number of people and households.  They may load cars – some of that could be heavier, but, some of it is, you know, bags of greens and things like that.”

Gillenwater says safety is important at Second Harvest, especially with COVID-19.  Volunteers are required to wear a mask at all times, their temperatures are taken before starting work, they keep to social distance practices, and areas are regularly sanitized.

Volunteers can sign up for warehouse or tailgate work online at the Second Harvest website.  You can also use the website to donate.  Or, to talk with Volunteer Coordinator Kellie about how you might best be useful, you can call 765-287-8698, extension 105.