Volunteer Newsletter – December 2025/January 2026
We ended one year and began the New Year with continued gratitude to our community neighbors who held food and toiletry drives for the Center during December and January. This tremendous outpouring of generosity always reminds me there are good people helping other good people in times of need.
Our thanks go to Nontotuck Resource Associates, Ford Northampton, Forget Me Not Florist, Florence Bank, (who also made a sizeable food donation to us in November), Pennyleaf, Linda Manor, Dead River, Hampshire Probate Family Court, Burke Chevy, and Allsport Arena. We recognize that the community members we serve (our service area covers 18 towns) experience hunger year-round, and we are grateful for all our monetary donors who enable us to purchase food from our vendors and help us expand the variety of items we can offer our clients. Perhaps you’re familiar with our Bread and Butter Program, or you’re already a monthly donor! We thank you. https://www.northamptonsurvival.org/donate/donate-money/bread-and-butter-club/
Last month, River Valley Co-op donated an astonishing $20,309 to the Northampton Survival Center through the co-op’s Change for Change round-up program! We’ve been receiving donations from RVC Monday through Friday for years, which include bread, pastries, prepared sandwiches, salads, lots of produce, and occasionally quiches and pizzas, which are always big hits with our clients. Thanks to our 5 volunteers throughout the week who do the pickups for us, and to those who fill in when someone is unavailable.
Just as important and appreciated is the number of dedicated hours that volunteers give with such grace throughout the week. Did you know there are between 18 and 31 different volunteer tasks here at the Center between Monday and Friday? Some days we have close to 50 volunteers in one 7-hour day. I get to see over 200 smiling faces throughout the week! And I know many of you receive smiles back from our clients. I also recognize that there are clients who struggle to smile when dealing with hardships that many of us cannot imagine. I also know that at our core, we all do our best to exemplify the Center’s mission of providing food and other resources in an atmosphere of dignity and respect. On any given month, volunteers donate an average of 1,600 hours of their time to serve our neighbors!
Although we had to skip a month of offering our Pantry Fresh Meal Kit to clients due to the sourcing of meat, we were able to resume this program in January. Turkey Chili was the recipe for this month, and all ingredients were offered, including vegetarian beef crumbles for our vegetarian clients.
Check out our archived recipes here: https://www.northamptonsurvival.org/pantry/fresh/
Volunteer Spotlight: I love to feature a volunteer or two in each newsletter, so please let me know if you’re interested in sharing a bit about yourself.
I do know we have many music lovers among us. I often see many of you at different music venues throughout the valley, and I know for a fact that we have fabulous singers on our NSC volunteer team.
I recently had the pleasure of hearing the sweet voices of some of our volunteers at a Young at Heart performance at The Academy of Music, including a soloist!
We have artists and bakers and instrumentalists, journalists and novelists too! I imagine lots of other interesting talents permeate the Center. And I would be remiss if I didn’t include the talented staff who have many of their own talents. I’m still searching for mine!
December Volunteer Anniversary’s :
Catherine 14 years
Jim R 12
Sue 9
Caitlin 9
Claire 4
Craig 4
Helene W 4
Isabel 3
Lisa W 3
Katherine 3
Sandy 2
Matt 2
Nora 1
Susan K 1
David M 1
January Volunteer Anniversary’s :
Chris P 17 years
Tom Q 15
Jeannie 14
Betsy T 10
Joel 8
SJ L 8
Susan S 7
Nanci 6
Joe 5
Kristen 5 Hilltown Pantry
Madin 5 Hilltown Pantry
Tom M 5
Glenn 2
Greg P 2
Lucas 2
Scott 2
Deirdre 1
David H 1
Fred 1
Rafael 1
Dick 1
Rosannah 1
Sarah S 1
Sue D 1
Tamar S 1
I always marvel that we ask for a 3-month commitment, whenever possible, when volunteers come on board, and yet our average commitment is way over 3 years! And we have over 300 combined weekly and substitute volunteers. And I’ve been here for 13 years this past month (not counting the year plus I volunteered beforehand).
We have a new abridged volunteer handbook ready for volunteers. If you’d like an updated copy or have never received one (volunteers within the last yea,r especially) please ask me for one- I’ll keep some printed copies at my desk.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, or information you’d like to share with staff or fellow volunteers.
Action is the antidote to despair.” Joan Baez
Diane Drohan
Volunteer Manager
Northampton Survival Center
Volunteer feedback/Suggestion Box