On the first Saturday of each month, a few friends and I volunteer our time at OASIS Food Pantry. Serving around 30-35 families over a 90-minute period, we feel a sense of gratitude and obligation to give back to the community.

How would you picture a client of a food pantry? What would they look like? Employed or unemployed? These are questions I thought I knew the correct answer to until I began working with the clients. I then realized how true the statistic (the average family is two pay-checks away from needing the services of a food pantry) is; this could happen to me. This service acts as a support system for clients in need.

Volunteering to assist a service agency is an awakening experience because it makes you realize how fortunate you are and how close everyone is to needing the services. The clients of these services are everyday people; neighbors, friends, people you pass at the mall. They don’t necessarily have to live in boxes or beg on street corners. Volunteers receive a different perspective thanks to the clients they serve.

I wanted to volunteer without incentives or being guilted into it. I wanted to volunteer. I am as grateful to the clients as they are to me by the end of the morning. We give our time, but we receive so much more in return.