This week is National Volunteer Week, and all of us at Second Harvest Heartland extend our sincere sincere thanks to all of our fantastic volunteers who have donated time and energy in support of our mission.

Without our volunteers, we simply could not operate as we do. More than 48,000 hours were logged in 2009 by more than 7,000 different individuals. Our volunteers are part of a movement that is helping provide more meals to more of our hungry neighbors each and every day.

As a gesture of thanks, we put together a few fun facts and quotes from Second Harvest Heartland staff about our volunteers and their efforts over the past year. Click here to get the full story!

If you’ve volunteered with Second Harvest Heartland in the past–thank you! If you’d like to learn more about how you can get involved, simply stay tuned to our website for upcoming opportunities.

For the past year I’ve been writing a personal finance blog at www.biblemoneymatters.com talking about my faith and finances, and writing daily articles about how to get out of debt, save, give and prosper.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to enter a competition for personal finance writers at FreeMoneyFinance.com. 64 bloggers submitted one of their best articles about personal finance in hopes of being voted the champion. The final four articles to remain standing in the competition would all receive a donation to the charity of their choice.

Choosing a charity was an easy task for me. Growing up my father worked for many years at a Downtown Minneapolis food shelf. Through his work there I was able to see first hand the impact that local food shelves, and food banks like Second Harvest Heartland, can have on a community. Not only are they able to feed people who are hungry and in need, but they’re able to give hope to the those in need when they’re going through tough times.

A friend of mine worked at Second Harvest Heartland, and through him I knew of the good work that they were doing. After doing some research on the Second Harvest website I found that for each $1 donated, they are able to distribute more than $9 worth of groceries to those in need. In addition, 96% of each dollar of revenue goes directly to the programs, so I knew my donation would be put to good use. Second Harvest’s mission was one I wanted to support, so I chose them as my charity.

Since I was competing with 64 other very good bloggers, I wasn’t expecting to make it very far. To my surprise, after four rounds of voting I was still standing and on my way to the final four. Because I had made it to the finals, I knew that I would at least be able to make a $100 donation to Second Harvest, which was exciting. Then after winning a hard-fought semi-final matchup, I moved on to a the championship round where the winner would receive a $500 donation to their charity. And after several days of roller coaster voting, I was able to pull out a victory by a tiniest of margins, two votes. With those two votes it was ensured that Second Harvest Heartland would receive a $500 donation to help feed families in need.

The $500 donation we were able to make through this contest may not seem like much, but with Second Harvest Heartland’s help that $500 will help distribute more than $4500 worth of groceries. Our small donation will make a huge impact!

My desire is that others will be inspired by this small victory and be moved to donate as well. You may not feel like you’re giving very much, but every little bit helps! Your $5 donation will provide 20 meals to the hungry! That’s an amazing impact from such a small donation. If you’re thinking about donating today, just do it, you’ll receive far more in return than you’ll ever give.

Peter Anderson
www.biblemoneymatters.com

A few years ago, one of our volunteers, Michael, decided he wanted to start celebrating his birthdays in a more meaningful way. Instead of getting gifts and cards from his family and friends, he asked them to give him 2-3 hours of volunteer time instead.

For the past three years, Second Harvest Heartland has been chosen as the beneficiary of these volunteer hours. Two years ago, Michael and his group of 10 friends and family members helped pack food boxes. Last year, they helped us write hand written thank you notes to first time donors. And last Sunday, Michael and his group helped us collect food and monetary donations at the Vikings game.

As if his generosity wasn’t inspiring enough, Michael always makes sure to take his family members and friends to dinner after every volunteer event, as a “thank you” for their time and support.

Last year, volunteers of Second Harvest Heartland gave enough of their time to equal that of 25 full-time employees. Volunteers like Michael make a tremendous impact on hundreds of thousands of lives, and we sincerely thank them for their ongoing support.

Over the last month or so, we’ve had some great response to a couple last-minute volunteer opportunities. More than 120 volunteers, staff, truck drivers and others stepped up to help us harvest apples from nearby orchards. With their help, we’ve been able to glean over 61,000 pounds of fresh apples to be distributed to those in need.

We are so inspired by everyone who has volunteered their time and energy, and we wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the feedback we’ve received from volunteers.

“I wanted to let you know that the recent apple picking effort for 2nd Harvest at Apple Jacks was a great idea. I brought my whole family to help out. It was a great cause and we all had a great time picking the apples as well. I think this is a great way to get younger people like my two boys involved. It is a great idea to get some of this fresh produce to people that are going hungry. Otherwise the apples would have gone wasted. I happened to run into the owner of the apple farm, Jack. He was so pleased that we were out there and making good use out of his apple harvest. I believe there has to be other businesses that would also like to donate fresh produce like this to the hungry families in MN. Keep up the great work and let me know when there are other opportunities to help.” – Tom and Nancy Lego

“We had a great time picking apples for Second Harvest today. It was a great idea. How generous of the orchard. We felt it was a terrific family activity. Our kids really enjoyed it even though they were working hard and it was a great learning experience. Our kids are only 7 and 9 years old yet they were able to pick a substantial amount of apples.
I explained to them how we always donate to the food shelf but the value of the apples we picked was so much more than we could ever afford to give monetarily. Thanks for the opportunity.” – Beth Breiter

“Just wanted to say what a great morning we had at Dassel Hillside Farm. It is good to know there are caring people like Carl and his wife to donate apples from their crop to Second Harvest. I will admit that we are a little sore, need to teach the left hand to pick next time!  I can guarantee we are 100% glad we went!” -Ann and Mark Hall

“I didn’t know what to expect when we got there. There were a ton of apples to be picked. We had eight apple trees as kids, but picking apples at Hillside was more fun than I remembered. We talked and laughed and enjoyed the sunshine all while doing something that will help feed others.” – Kathy Michaelson

“My sister Ann and I had a fabulous time picking apples yesterday – and knowing they are going to good use. As farmer’s daughters, we were taught to never waste. Part of our values. Thank you for arranging for us – and others – to participate in service – and to walk my path to peace.” – Julie Rogers Bascom

“I want to thank you for providing the opportunity to further help Second Harvest Heartland. Money is the easy gift. The harder gift is volunteering your time. The time spent that Saturday was extremely fullfilling. And it was fun. I was more than happy to carpool with other volunteers for a very rewarding day.
If you have a need for further volunteers to help out, please contact me via your email list.
Thank you again for the opportunity to help others.” – Richard Sollberger

This is just some of the wonderful feedback we’ve received from volunteers. We want to personally thank everyone who has spent their Saturday mornings and afternoons helping us to achieve this terrific feat. These 61,000 pounds of apples will be provide much-needed healthy, free food to those in need in our community, and we couldn’t do this important work without your support.

Thanks so much!

Dennie – Volunteer Manager
Tim – Volunteer Coordinator
Jerry – Food Resource

(Update 11/11/08 – View pictures here!)