Yesterday my coworkers and I volunteered at a food pantry near one of our branches. A few years ago, my department agreed to forgo giving each other gifts and to instead spend a morning volunteering before exchanging Christmas cards over lunch.

Our bank encourages all employees to volunteer for worthy causes and so this fits well into our culture. Together, we have baked cookies for families at Ronald McDonald House, worked on small marketing projects for my local historical society and helped out at Meals on Wheels.

Our job yesterday was to help fill paper bags with non perishable groceries for a couple hundred households in the community.

Friends, this was a humbling experience.

Those households sometimes are couples or families. Often, they are seniors who are living on ridiculously slim social security checks. Some come in every month while others only come when they need a little help getting by.

The volunteers work hard to make their clients feel comfortable. After all, most folks don’t set out in life to end up in a line for free food. They talked about those clients who don’t engage in conversation, who are tearful or embarrassed and who just take what they need and leave. There are others who make sure the food pantry knows what a blessing it is to have the help.

I complain about the rising cost of food but that’s all I do. I shop sales and try to be smart with my money but I don’t do without fresh produce and the things I like. Yet, here in southern Ohio, I am surrounded by people living quietly with food insecurity. What a horrible thing for anyone to face.

How lucky am I?

In addition to things like canned veggies, soup, pasta and peanut butter, the bags also contained treats like microwave popcorn, a cake mix and a can of frosting. The lady who sorted the cake mix and frosting spent the entire morning making sure each bag got a cake mix and frosting flavor that went together. I appreciated the care she put into this. After all, just because you need a helping hand from your neighbors doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have something good.

This food pantry is run by local churches working together. The school district and some local events collect donations throughout the year and it’s not uncommon for teenagers and other locals to show up and help with whatever needs done.

We all pitched in yesterday and helped in any way we could to make it easier for the volunteers who have been showing up to work every single month for years.

It was a good use of our time and I was glad to be of help, even if it was for just a few hours. I felt better for being useful to others.

Look around your community. There are needs in every nook and cranny and organizations are in desperate need of volunteers. If you want to do good in the world and bring change in your own community, find someplace to volunteer. Not only is it helpful to someone else and good for the community, helping others through volunteerism is a noble way to help yourself as well.