For the past two years, Bob and his wife Leslie have supported Food For Free as two extremely dedicated volunteers. They both wear many hats in support of Food For Free and for Volunteer Appreciation Week, we’d love to introduce you to them both.
At Food For Free, Bob has been a critical piece of the puzzle! Come by one of our weekly Just Eats shifts and you can find Bob assembling boxes for a smooth start, or handling the heavy bags of potatoes. Bob often helps orient new volunteers during their first shift. In addition, Bob has made connections with several of our Healthy Eats clients by delivering our grocery boxes to housebound Cambridge residents.
Bob is a very important part of the Food For Free volunteer community, and we are so grateful for him! Thank you for your commitment to our work, Bob.
Read more about Bob and his experiences with Food For Free below:
Tell us about yourself:
“I was born and raised in Philadelphia and went to college at Penn State. After college, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. In my work and for leisure, I’ve lived in and traveled to several other countries. Aside from travel and volunteering, I like to exercise, hike, explore Somerville/Cambridge/Boston, and go to concerts. I am married (see Leslie Cohen, another spotlight). We have two adult sons, Jesse and Noah.”
What is your work status? (Student, employed, retired…) and what do you do?
“I’ve been retired for the past few years. I worked the last part of my career as an IT manager for the International Business Unit of Liberty Mutual Insurance.”
How did you first get involved with Food For Free?
“During the early days of the pandemic, we learned of the Food for Free food delivery program and signed up every week to deliver throughout Cambridge. After that program ended, we signed up for our regular biweekly delivery route in Healthy Eats. In about autumn of 2020, we learned of the Just Eats program and started to sign up for one or two shifts a week.”
What do you wish other people knew about Food For Free?
“It’s well-known that Food For Free provides fantastic, healthy food for people in need, and they do an amazing job in fulfilling that mission.
In volunteering though, like most experiences in life, it’s the quality of the people you work with that makes the difference. Food for Free has excellent (and fun) people running and working in all of their programs (shout out to Emily, Emma, Steph, Damian, Simon, and everyone else). I’ve enjoyed meeting and working with the other volunteers packing food in Just Eats as well. And to be sure, I very much enjoy the Healthy Eats clients to whom we deliver food every other week.”
What advice do you have for people looking to give back to their community?
“I do volunteer work for a few other organizations in addition to Food For Free. The key for me is to find an organization with a mission that really speaks to me and has a need for the abilities that I have to offer. There are so many good organizations in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville area that have a need for volunteers, you just need to find them. The Cambridge Volunteer Clearinghouse is a great resource for finding the one(s) that meet your criteria.”
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Feeling inspired? You can join Food For Free and volunteer in any one of our programs, check out our volunteer page here!
