Suganya Dhanaraju, 32, began volunteering at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank to make a difference in her community. When looking for a place to volunteer, she identified the Food Bank as a place where her efforts would make a significant impact. Suganya quickly fell in love with volunteering at the Food Bank and started volunteering on a weekly basis.

“I get satisfaction from helping others and the Food Bank has a great work environment.”

Suganya participated in various volunteer activities including gleaning, sorting, and packing food into kits for our senior and children nutrition programs. The Food Bank relies on more than 30,000 volunteers each year in order to feed more than 300,000 hungry neighbors on a monthly basis. Because of her dedication, Suganya was invited to join the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Volunteer Ambassador Program.

The Volunteer Ambassador Program is an internship opportunity for students and community members to gain leadership and nonprofit administrative experience at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Volunteer Ambassadors primarily support Volunteer Coordinators during the weekly Saturday morning events when hundreds of volunteers help inspect, sort, and pack donated food for distribution throughout Los Angeles County.

She credits the internship with helping her develop both personally and professionally. “Though I accepted the volunteer ambassador position offer with a motive to help the Food Bank and to serve the community, later on I realized that it was the Food Bank had been helping me to grow.”

Prior to accepting the ambassador role, Suganya was a reserved, quiet person. After gaining work experience in the program and receiving mentorship from the Food Bank Volunteer team, she became more confident in directing the other volunteers.

“I have implemented many of the things I learned at the Food Bank in my professional life.”

Thank you to Suganya, and to all of the volunteers who make our work possible.

Together, we feed L.A.

If you would like to learn more about Volunteer Ambassador opportunities, please email Jeff McIlvain at jmcilvain@lafoodbank.org.