Coming together in service when our neighbors needed us most. That is how I will remember this past year. After unimaginable losses from the Hill Country floods and unprecedented cuts to programs that stock our shelves and fill our neighbors’ pantries, you showed up in a big way.

It’s a labor of love. We serve our neighbors and share the love because food is love. When you give your food, time, money, and voice—that’s love. When you volunteer—that’s love, too. It’s something greater than ourselves. It allows us to grow into the best versions of ourselves. We become who we were meant to be.

Here at the San Antonio Food Bank, we now have a bigger lab where you can be a hands-on helper: our newly remodeled, world-class volunteer areas. From a refreshed lobby and welcome center with easy access to get you started, to a new mission briefing room for orientation and a much-expanded impact center with technology to guide you every step of the way, we can host hundreds of volunteers at a time.

But while thousands of volunteers walk through our doors each week, we’re still not able to meet the urgent need. While 11% more volunteers signed up to help this year, the number of neighbors in need shot up 20% across our 29-county service area.

More people need us, especially now, and we need more volunteers to meet that urgent need—for our unfilled shifts, preparing meals at the downtown homeless campus or making meals for kids at the Food Bank’s Community Kitchen. The more people who help, the more people we can serve. Will you help us?

Volunteering also has real medical benefits: it decreases depression and brings a profound sense of meaning and purpose. It only takes 2-4 hours of service a week to see the positive impacts on your mental and physical health.

Those volunteer vitamins are our medicine for a brighter today, tomorrow, and lifetime, for ourselves and for our neighbors. We invite you to donate your time, experience the magic of service, and become the best version of yourself. Become a Hunger Fighter at safoodbank.org.

Eric S. Cooper | President & CEO