With holidays over, Golden Harvest in need of volunteers

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - There’s always a rush to give and volunteer during the holidays, but afterward there are still people in need.

The lack of volunteers after the holidays hurts the community.

Every year community leaders see an up-tick in donations and volunteers during the holidays, but those numbers start to shrink through spring and summer.

Meanwhile the need in the community stays the same. We talked to Golden Harvest to find out how they manage with the post-holiday drop.

The holiday season is one of the busiest times of the year for local organizations like Golden Harvest food bank with hundreds of volunteers coming through their warehouse daily.

Once the holidays are over, organizers at Golden Harvest say they struggle to get volunteers to sustain them throughout the year.

Doressa Hawes is the volunteer coordinator at Golden Harvest and says she’s thankful for over 2400 logged volunteer hours this past holiday season. She says without those volunteers, getting meals to everyone who needs it, would be a struggle.

“We serve at least 150 to 200 meals a day at the master’s table soup kitchen. So having 20 volunteers down there to help serve each day seven days a week, 365 days a year was really helpful,” Hawes says.

She says they’ve already had a dip in volunteers since last month. In the past the need for help grows as we get closer to summer.

“It’s the toughest for us, you know, with everyone getting ready for summer vacations or kids getting ready to get out of school for the summer,” Hawes says.

According to golden harvest, 1 in 8 people in the Augusta area struggle with hunger. Hawes says putting food on the table is not just something they do during the holidays, it’s a need they have to work to fill 365 days a year.

“The struggle is real. we know that people often don’t only eat during the holidays. They have to eat all year round and they need food. And so we we need volunteers,” Hawes says.

If you would like to volunteer with Golden Harvest, you can visit goldenharvest.org and click the volunteer tab to find opportunities to serve the community.

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