I’m glad you found an organization that had an opening, please don’t be discouraged by the lack of response from other organizations. I don’t believe the organizations you contacted meant to offend you by not taking you on as a volunteer.

I volunteer part-time, year round for an organization that offers physical and drug rehabilitation. Year end is the time when many people with mandatory community service requirements and court-ordered volunteer hours try to get all their hours in. This is also the holiday time when companies want to schedule do-good days for their employees. It takes staff to coordinate and train all these volunteers. For most non profits the type of volunteer who is only available for one day, or for a few hours at the end of the year isn’t worth the amount of staff hours it takes to do background checks, match schedules and train that volunteer.

Moveable Feast is a large organization, started by the city health department director. They have a large budget and staff to handle volunteers. Please don’t think the smaller nonprofits specifically exclude you, many simply don’t have the staff to manage volunteers. I wish you an enjoyable time with the food service.

As someone who has run a non-profit, you have incorrectly identified the issue. Many community based non-profits or agencies lack the funding and resources to structure their own paid programming, let alone volunteer programming. It takes people and time and energy to respond to people and coordinate volunteer programs. It’s the opposite of not needing help.

Bmore Community Food on 24 and Howard always needs volunteers.