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For decades, St. Vincent de Paul’s dining facility in Eureka has provided free home-cooked meals to food-insecure residents with the help of a core group of volunteers. But in the years following the COVID pandemic, the nonprofit has struggled to maintain its base as longtime volunteers retire and fewer people step up to replace them. 

Bob Santilli

“It’s a universal problem for any small-budget nonprofit organization,” Bob Santilli, board president for the St. Vincent de Paul Society - Redwood Region, told the Outpost. “The whole industry relies on an older clientele — typically retirees — who have the available time, and they are aging and dying off. … We recently lost a couple of long-term volunteers who were in their 90s — one passed away, and the other is in assisted care now. Right before our eyes, our core volunteer base is leaving us.”

Santilli believes the answer to the organization’s volunteer woes is getting more young people involved in the community service sector. 

For the last two years, Patti Dutton and Laura Middlemiss, leading members of Soroptimist International of Humboldt Bay, have helped connect the dining facility with local students through “S” Clubs, or service clubs, at Eureka High School and St. Bernard’s Academy that encourage girls and young women to help the community. The partnerships have brought dozens of first-time volunteers into the fold.

“Every Monday, I usually bring four girls to come down and spend two hours serving lunch to help out St. Vincent’s dining room,” Dutton told the Outpost while volunteering during a bustling lunch service on Monday. “They’re always a little hesitant at first, but then they come and do it and everyone, every time on the trip back to school says, ‘I want to come back, I want to do it again.’”

“I already have a sign-up list that goes through next spring, almost to the end of the school year,” she added. “That many kids are excited about coming to volunteer here.”

For St. Bernard’s student Alawna Hall, the two-year volunteer experience has helped her step out of her comfort zone and deepen her compassion for other people.

“I think [volunteering] helps you to get a better perspective and understanding that everyone walks different paths in life, and that you should be able to see them all and not judge, and just be there to help,” Hall said while taking a quick break from assembling lunch trays. “I think volunteering when you’re younger really helps you to develop and set up a better mindset for when you’re older. If you can put yourself in a situation to work with people who need help, and just be judge-free and there to help with nothing else benefiting you, I think it sets you up to succeed better in your own life.”

Scarlett Zerlang, another St. Bernard’s student, acknowledged that a lot of her peers get into volunteer work to satisfy community service requirements for school or scholarship applications, “but once you start doing it, you realize how fulfilling it is,” she said.

“It’s fun to serve people and to see their smiles,” Zerlang continued. “Everyone’s so kind here, and it’s just nice to do something outside of yourself, right? … I think that when we introduce that to kids during high school, hopefully they can carry that feeling on and continue to serve their community outside of high school.”

Earlier this year, Natalie Heckman, student support counselor at East High School in Fortuna, started bringing in another group of students to lend a hand with meal prep and clean up on Tuesdays. The volunteer work helps students check off some of the service hours needed to graduate and gives them an opportunity to give back to their community.

“I think it’s super important — especially as a school counselor — because all I want is [for] my kids to be passionate about something and to learn from people who are helping our community,” Heckman said. “For some of my students, it’s been a full-circle moment because they came here and they ate as young children with their families … and now they’re volunteering and giving back. It’s been eye-opening.”

The extra hands in the kitchen are welcome additions for Mary Price, the 20-year head cook at St. Vinny’s dining hall. Like Santilli, she’s seen the organization’s volunteer base wane over the years, putting additional strain on regular support staff. The surge in new volunteers “frees [staff] up to do other things, and gives them self-fulfillment.”

“[Volunteering] shows them that things aren’t always what you see on TV. This is the real world; this is about as real as it gets,” Price said, gesturing to the dining hall. “Some of their parents were really wary when they first started volunteering … but now we have a lot of parents that come back and volunteer [with them].”

St. Vinny’s staff is always on the lookout for volunteers of all ages, but Santilli wants to keep working with local schools to keep the students in the mix. 

“You get to talking with these youngsters, and they’re very upbeat when they’re here, very self-reliant and they quickly learn whatever tasks are presented to them,” he said. “And now, there’s some talkin’ like, ‘I’d like to go into sociology when I go to college’ or ‘I want to volunteer on my own time.’

Those interested in volunteering can contact St. Vincent de Paul’s dining hall at (707) 445-9588. Additional information can be found here.