Lois and Wayne N.

How did you meet? 

We met at an open gym night that Lois' work was having. From afar, Wayne looked like someone Lois knew so she smiled at him. That must've given him the courage to come talk to her!

Why and how did you find the food bank? 

We live across the street so we pass it all the time and we had always said when we retire we should volunteer at the Food Bank.  

Hobbies? 

Wayne enjoys playing golf. Lois enjoys crafts and trying new Japanese recipes.

Favorite foods? 

Wayne - Koobideh (Persian food)

Lois - Brazilian street food (Pasteis, pao de quijo, and coxinha)

Favorite volunteer opportunities? 

Wayne likes the produce party and meal kit packing.

Lois likes doing the food distributions and the Tuesday WPUSD Student Group

If you could have dinner with 5 people (dead or alive), who would they be?

Wayne: Tiger Woods, Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Warren Buffet, Bruce Lee

Lois: Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neil, Robin Williams, Mother Theresa, Gordon Ramsey

Ryan F.

What brought you to Placer Food Bank?

During college, I volunteered at various transitional homes and soup kitchens in LA. These experiences really showed me the impact that food security had on the individuals I met. Once such a fundamental need was fulfilled, they could really move forward with looking for jobs and housing. I started volunteering at Placer Food Bank after moving back home since graduation to hopefully continue to make an impact on my community.

What are your hobbies?

In my free time, I enjoy drawing and painting.

Favorite movie?: Not too sure, but the best movie I've seen recently was Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse.  

Favorite foods?

I really love hotpot. I also like bossam, which is Korean boiled pork wraps. 

Interesting facts about you?

I've stayed awake for 60 hours straight before. Don't recommend.

Favorite volunteer task or opportunity?

I recently injured my leg, so I haven't been able to go out to in-person events, but I've enjoyed being able to help out from home via data entry.

What are some goals you have in life?

I'm applying for medical school this year, so I hope I get in!

Sam & Christina

Why did you start volunteering at PFB?

When we moved to Roseville, we began to look for opportunities to volunteer in the area and found Placer Food Bank out of our shared passion about addressing food insecurity. I’m a firm believer that while you can teach someone to fish and feed them for a lifetime, it’s a lot easier to learn to fish when you aren’t hungry. Food insecurity is such a pervasive issue and hunger impacts every aspect of someone’s life. By volunteering at the food bank, I hope I can help make families’ lives easier and help people live up to their potential by providing some extra help.

Favorite Foods and Movies?

Sam: Outside of the PFB and work I love to cook! "Cooking for people is like such a pure thing to do, it's like saying I love you without saying it" - Rich Brian. I have recently tried to get into smoking meats which, in a tiny apartment...has yielded mixed results. I also play the trumpet (Christina, who plays clarinet, and I actually met in our college Marching Band and that's where we started dating seven years ago)! In my free time I like listening to Irish punk bands like Flogging Molly and electronic music like Daft Punk.

Christina: I really like to knit and crochet! You can catch me at some of the produce parties wearing my homemade kerchiefs in my hair. I’ve also been doing a lot of baking lately, and have learned how to make some really good homemade scones, bread, bagels, and pretzels. One of my favorite bands right now is Creedence Clearwater Revival; favorite movies are Barbie and Chicago; and my favorite meal is Sam’s fettuccini alfredo.

Christina and Sam both help us out with Pantry To Go data entry in addition to volunteering at the warehouse.

Oracle

Staff from Oracle’s Finance Team from their Rocklin office returned to volunteer at PFB on January 30^th and began their shift with an educational activity developed and led by one of our dedicated volunteers. The activity is a way to offer more information and insight into food insecurity and how it impacts our neighbors and community and provides more context for any subsequent volunteer tasks. This group brought amazing energy to the activity and thereafter packed six pallets of salvage boxes which amounts to180 boxes full of a wide variety of donated non-perishable food items. That equates to approximately 5,202 pounds of food and 4,335 meals! Oracle has had various teams volunteer with us over the years, and we greatly appreciate their volunteer spirit!

HCL Tech

HCLTech is a provider of digital business, process operations, cloud, engineering, and digital foundation solutions. This very friendly group packed over 100 bags of non-perishable food for school-age children and bagged more than 1,000 pounds of Starbucks’ day-old food items for our mobile food distribution in Foresthill the following morning. HCLTech noted that their employees are committed to give back to society any way they can, and we are delighted that they chose to do so with us on January 24th.