Volunteer’s award benefits neighbors who struggle with food insecurity

February 22, 2022

Thanks to the generosity of Mike McGay, the Food Bank of Delaware received a $5,000 donation from Capital One, his employer. McGay was recognized as Capital One’s Northeast Volunteer Year as the most impactful volunteer in this region during virtual ceremonies last Thursday evening.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, McGay, a project manager with Agile Development, took teams to volunteer at our Newark facility. He describes that experience in his acceptance speech: “To see the tremendous donations of food to help others was impressive. The amount of volunteers it takes to get the food boxed and stored was enormous.”

McGay has volunteered for more than 20 years teaching financial literacy and on the Junior Achievement board of directors and for the Delaware Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Stepping Stone Credit Union.

McGay notes that his contribution to the Food Bank have been in the form of financial and food contributions. While assisting at a mass distribution, he realized that “. . . I had not truly seen the impact it had on others until the Pandemic began. Randy Holl, a friend and also an associate of Capital One, invited me to help distribute food to those in need. One of those people in need of help was a former student of mine (I teach Economics and Finance at Wilmington University part time),” he explained in the same speech.

“It hit me . . .  the connection to the Food Bank, that all the financial literacy I had volunteered, if it wasn’t for the Food Bank, they wouldn’t be able to learn, they wouldn’t have food in their bellies,” McGay said.

“It was then I realized that if this student did not have their basic food needs, who knows if they could have been attending college and what could have been this student’s fate. A charity like the Food Bank of Delaware ultimately helped this student and their family. No charity that I have ever been involved with has had this kind of impact on people,” he added.

“I do between 100 – 300 hours of community service for Capital One. This award kind of snuck up on me. It was a no-brainer to give it to the Food Bank,” McGay said.

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