Have you ever thought about the magnitude of coordinating 12,000 volunteers each year or that hosting all these volunteers means a lot of hungry mouths to feed?
We do, each and every day. Habitat is very fortunate that we have the volunteer support that we do – they are the heart of our organization. It takes a lot of effort to schedule volunteers throughout the construction site, often making sure we have enough for as many as 15-20 houses at a time. We not only have to schedule, but we have to also make sure the needs of these volunteers are met while they are on the construction site and we have to coordinate with our construction department to make sure all construction needs are met.
Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this task, we currently have 15 houses in various stages of construction. On any given Friday or Saturday, we could have 30 or more volunteers per house on site. That is in upwards of 450 volunteers or more. Our volunteer services department does a wonderful job of making sure it all happens.
We are proud of this because without volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do – provide homeownership opportunities to families in need in San Antonio. Without us, most would not have homeownership as an option. And, without volunteers, we could not continue our mission of eliminating substandard housing in San Antonio.
It’s a hand-in-hand operation – HFHSA, families in need and volunteers all joined together for one common goal. But with all these people working hand-in-hand we have a lot of hungry volunteers to feed! We rely on lunch donations to help us provide these meals as well, but recently they have been few and far between. We need donated lunches.
If construction is not your thing this is where you can come in handy. If interested in providing a lunch, groups or individuals are asked to provide enough food to feed the volunteers on one house – approximately 30 people. The menu is up to you and can be as simple as pizza or hot dogs, or as fancy as you like, and should include a drink and paper products such as napkins, cups and plates
Lunch donations can also count as 10 hours of community service for work, school or church.
Please see our website, email at volunteer@habitatsa.org or give us a call at 210-223-5203 for more information.
by Shelly, Habitat for Humanity of San Antonio staff