Volunteer Spotlight: Connie

November 12, 2025

By Zaria Dalton, Communications Volunteer

For many volunteers, the groups and friendships formed at the Food Bank start to feel like family. This is certainly true for Connie Houston. As a retired teacher in 2018, she was simply looking for something to fill her time. At the time, her nephew was on the Food Bank’s board and thought she might be interested. Connie has been volunteering ever since.

Since starting her volunteer tenure, Connie has witnessed many changes at the Food Bank. When she started, our headquarters were still at 14 Garfield Way in Newark. She began in the kitchen, making after-school and summer meals for kids.

When asked how volunteering has impacted her personally, Connie says, “You learn a lot here… It’s made me more aware of what’s going on in the world — with different families and organizations that don’t have food, and how the Food Bank gets all that food out there… I think volunteering here just makes you more aware of what we all take for granted,” she explained.

One of the things she loves most about volunteering at the Food Bank is the community she has become part of. She says, “When we’re here in the volunteer room, you have a group of people that you volunteer with… We call ourselves the regular group because we’re always here together… When you’re in this room, you have that fellowship, that friendship that you build. It’s made a difference in my life because now I have all these new friends. And at the same time, when I’m here, I’m always doing something meaningful and giving back to the community. I think it’s important for everybody to try and do that,” she said.

Connie has done so many jobs around the Food Bank. She particularly loves making senior boxes. Though she is not the biggest fan of sorting through food, she recognizes what she’s learned from it. She explained, “Until I started working here, I didn’t know to really pay attention to expiration dates when you go shopping… I never thought to look at vegetables and pasta and different things on the shelf.” She even shares a story about her husband throwing away a can of beans that expired a year ago, to which she responded, “It’s still good! Because I know that from volunteering here.”

For anyone thinking of volunteering at the Food Bank, Connie explained, “This is a really good place to volunteer… It’s just a great place to be. This is a family, and that’s what all of us regulars say. We’re all a family. We’re groupy people.”