Faculty and staff from Harvard-Westlake School volunteered at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank twice in February 2019.

The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has been listed as a top volunteer opportunity by Eventbrite, momsla.com, CBS KCAL 9, Entitymag.com and others. Thanks to roughly 30,000 volunteers annually, the Food Bank is able to provide food to 300,000 people each month.

Faculty and Staff from Harvard-Westlake School, one of the best 7-12 Schools in America, gave back to their Los Angeles Community not once, but twice in February 2019. Volunteers who give their weekends, birthdays, and special occasions to the Food Bank, like the leaders from Harvard-Westlake, are critical in the fight against hunger in Los Angeles.

Harvard-Westlake leadership decided to have their year-end celebration volunteering at the Food Bank as part of their vision to serve Los Angeles. Harvard-Westlake strives to be a diverse and inclusive community united by the joyful pursuit of educational excellence, living and learning with integrity, and purpose beyond themselves.

To set a shining example for their students, Ari Engelberg, Head of Communications & Strategic Initiatives, helped organized the service day. “Harvard-Westlake’s faculty and staff were thrilled to volunteer at the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank on consecutive Saturdays in February. It was gratifying for members of our faculty and staff who work in different divisions and departments of our school to come together in service to our community, and we look forward to making it an annual tradition.”

The Harvard-Westlake team prepared almost 9,500 meals for the Food Bank / USDA’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) by giving some of their Saturday hours. The CSFP program works to improve the health of low-income older-adults by supplementing their diets with nutritious foods, and the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank has one of the largest programs in the country. Hunger is a community issue, and it takes all of us to donate just a little time, treasure and talent to fight hunger in our community.

Volunteering at the Food Bank is Easy

It is easy to participate in one of the best volunteer opportunities in Los Angeles. Some individuals in Los Angeles County make the decision to celebrate their birthdays by gathering friends and family for a volunteer day at the Food Bank. It is also common for organizations to structure team-building activities and retreats around volunteering at the Food Bank.

Volunteering at the Food Bank is easy. Most of the volunteer opportunities at the Food Bank involve gleaning, sorting and packaging food for later distribution. While the Food Bank does participate in some direct distribution programs, like the Mobile Food Pantry, volunteers are most needed in the front line of food preparation and packaging. Rooms for meals or presentations can sometimes be made available for birthday cake corporate retreats, which makes it easy to include volunteer time in your activity.