Through the Eyes of a Volunteer: Alanna’s Story

Rainier Valley Food Bank serves a growing population of at least 8,000 households every month. It takes a lot of people to keep our operations running smoothly, ensuring every guest’s needs are met. From the folks who come in person every day to the unseen heroes, like Alanna, a dietitian with a background in research, a knack for data entry, and a passion for food justice. Alanna has been heading up our data entry basecamp team for the past five years!

“I have a lot of expertise doing kind of tedious data entry type tasks, and I saw that that was one of the things the food bank needed, and thought, I could do that. I’d like to help my community more.” What began as simply logging how many carrots, onions, chicken, or other items were delivered from our vendors evolved with the onset of the pandemic as Alanna shifted, taking on more of a coordinator-level position, helping to manage a team of data entry volunteers off-site who coordinated routes, client lists, and continued to log our product information.

When asked how she makes time to volunteer, Alanna noted, “it’s just more a shift in mindset because you can always get busy doing other stuff.” She noted that “feeling that the work is important too” makes a powerful difference – and passion certainly met purpose when Alanna found us. 

As a dietician, Alanna understands the power food has on communities. “I like to think of food as a central part of my life in particular, but I’d like it to be that way for others because I know it's important for a lot of cultures. Food is what brings everything together.”

For our community, systemic barriers and systems of oppression have had a long-lasting impact. The way our food system is structured is included with this, impacting who has access to what foods at what price points. The Food Justice Movement is something RVFB’s community focuses on and unites around. “To me, food justice means that people are allowed to have the choices to eat healthy food at an affordable cost and that there’s a culture around that to appreciate food as well. So often, it’s just sort of an afterthought.”

For volunteers like Alanna, the recent move from 4205 to 9021 has meant that she has the opportunity to easily connect with all of RVFB’s staff when she volunteers in person, making it easier for her to be involved in all aspects of work taking place at the food bank. It also means that she can walk to volunteer on a sunny day instead of driving over. In the short time RVFB has been in Rainier Beach, she says she’s noticed how the work has directly impacted her neighbors and the neighborhood at large. 

“We just have such a great community. There’s just a lot of people helping each other out and so many great long-term volunteers and staff members. Alanna noted that the mindset is a part of what makes RVFB’s environment so inclusive: “seeing people as whole people, not just ‘oh that was a client, or this is a volunteer. People fill different roles at different times.”