Volunteer Profiles - Meet Brooke

Brooke recently signed on a volunteer for the Volunteer Center’s Grocery Shopper Program. This program was developed last month to ensure that our most vulnerable community members are able to get the food they need as they shelter in place. The project serves fixed-income seniors age 60+ as well as health-compromised older adults 55+. All volunteers receive a background check and training. Volunteers connect with their participating seniors to get their grocery order and preferred methods of payment. They then purchase groceries from local retailers on behalf of the senior and deliver the groceries to the senior’s home using social distancing practices.

Brooke is “so happy” that she signed up for this volunteer opportunity. She suspects that she will “continue doing this for a long time into the future.” She describes building a relationship with the participant she was matched with and feels glad to have met them.

For Brooke, helping out this fixed-income senior is getting easier and easier. At first, shopping felt a little slow, but she’s quickly become well acquainted with the products that her participant likes and she’s found that she “can easily incorporate the shopping into [her] own.”

Most importantly, Brooke finds her service fulfilling. She is personally helping her participant, reducing the risk of COVID-19 for everyone by reducing how many people are shopping and also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by combining it with her own shopping trip.