As traditional food bank volunteers age, finding enough workers to staff pantries is becoming a challenge

Food bank volunteers are often older.
(Photo by Katherine Emery, The Maine Monitor)

Over the past 20 years, the average age of food pantry volunteers has climbed, leading some volunteers to reduce their hours or stop volunteering due to health issues. Meanwhile, there aren't enough younger volunteers to fill their spots.

In rural states like Maine, where food insecurity is a consistent issue, the "nearly 600 hunger relief agencies that get free and low-cost food from Good Shepherd Food Bank rely on volunteers," reports Elaine Appleton Grant of The Maine Monitor. "This includes 250 food pantries as well as soup kitchens, senior centers, shelters, schools and youth programs."

Food banks thrive with a regularly scheduled staff of volunteers working planned shifts, but many younger generations are more likely to sign up for limited-time commitments. Grant explains, "Younger volunteers are increasingly seeking out what the Minnesota Alliance of Nonprofit Advancement calls 'event-based' volunteering — one-time efforts with no commitment to future shifts."

In many places, it's not that younger people don't want to volunteer, but they're often limited by working so many hours to pay their own bills. Grant writes, "Just 20% of millennials volunteer in Maine, half the rate of Gen Xers and baby boomers." Researcher Quixada Moore-Vissing told Grant, "I would categorize it as being an overwhelmed and overworked society."

Faced with a volunteer shortage in September, Second Harvest Heartland in Minnesota "had to delay the distribution of thousands of pounds of food," Grant reports. "As a result, food pantries in Minnesota and western Wisconsin got the food later than expected."