Tucked away in a back lot of a shopping center in North Raleigh is a food pantry and crisis center. There’s a small community garden growing on bales of hay out front of the building in what used to be a playground for a charter school. Eligible neighbors come in Monday through Thursday to receive food from the pantry. Some come in needing money from the crisis center in order to pay the next month’s rent or to pay their water bill. The money they receive comes from a Thrift Shop around the corner which is managed by North Raleigh Ministries, the same organization running the Food Pantry and Crisis Center. Amazingly, the Crisis Center, Food Pantry, and Thrift Shop are almost entirely volunteer run.

Imagine this: it’s a little girl’s seventh birthday, and she doesn’t have any presents. She doesn’t have a cake or a pretty new dress to wear to a birthday party. She wouldn’t even have friends to invite to a party, even if she did have the dress, because all the other kids in school make fun of her for having ratty shoes and plain school supplies. She doesn’t realize that most little girls do have birthday parties and get new dresses on their birthdays.

She climbs into a small white dodge with mommy and her four-year-old sister. The car paint is peeling in several places. She’s been told that they’re going grocery shopping. The last time they went grocery shopping was a month ago. The people at the store are always nice and sometimes there’s free candy. Last time they went, a lady gave her a toy dolphin and a candy bracelet.

When they get to the store, some people ask mommy questions and ask her for some papers, and then they go wait in a waiting room. There are some toys for her to play with while mommy reads a magazine. A lady calls out mommy’s name from the door, and it’s time to go shopping. She follows behind mommy with her sister.

There are shelves full of bread, some full of produce. They go around the store and mommy does her shopping until the cart is full and they make their way to the checkout table. A man bags the food mommy picked out while a lady checks it off of a piece of paper. When their groceries are bagged, the man goes along a clear-glass refrigerator and asks mommy if she wants anything from the fridge. There are fresh-picked tomatoes, eggs, milk, sandwiches, salads, and some sweets. The man bags whatever mommy says they need, and soon they’ve filled another cart and are ready to leave. This time, they have free candy bracelets. A lady gives her one as they leave.

Mommy makes her favorite food with the groceries—spaghetti. After the spaghetti, mommy tells her to close her eyes. When she opens them, mommy has a surprise for her— there’s a big chocolate cake with seven candles on it, glowing on the table. The cake has pretty white icing with “Happy Birthday” spelled across it in pink letters. There’s also a small tub of vanilla ice cream next to the cake. She blows out the candles and makes a wish. Mommy and her four-year old sister sing happy birthday to her while mommy slices the cake and scoops out ice cream. She gets an extra-large slice.

The little girl doesn’t know that they went grocery shopping at a food pantry, and she doesn’t know that that’s where the cake and ice cream came from. She doesn’t know that her mommy also got money to help pay some of the bills, and that now mommy won’t have to worry so much about feeding the family and keeping up the rent. Her mother is happy to see her smiling as she eats her cake and ice cream. If it hadn’t been for the food pantry, her little girl wouldn’t have had cake and ice cream for her birthday, and she wouldn’t be as happy as she is.

A situation just like this happened at North Raleigh Ministries Food Pantry a few weeks ago.

What would happen if all of the volunteers at North Raleigh Ministries decided they were too busy to volunteer? Many little children wouldn’t have any special treats on their birthdays. Many parents wouldn’t be able to pay the heating and electric bills. Some families wouldn’t have anything to cook for dinner and would go hungry.

The North Raleigh Ministries volunteers are ordinary people, just like you and me. They have busy lives, just like you and me, and their time is valuable. Nonetheless, they each sacrifice just a little bit of their time in order to help those in need.

Although it may seem that a few people volunteering for a few hours a week doesn’t make much of a difference in a community, many organizations like North Raleigh Ministries are run almost entirely by volunteers. Each volunteer brings their own unique skills and personality to their community service, each impacting those they serve in different ways.

Each volunteer is necessary to community service organizations so that they can run smoothly. Each volunteer as an individual can have a powerful impact on the community. When placed together with other volunteers who are also willing to sacrifice some of their time, many lives can be changed for better. Volunteers are a vital part of our community.

-Abby Danfora