Our partners at St Vincent de Paul need volunteers to accomplish the many things they do to help our neighbors in need. Here’s a short note they have written.
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Join us in helping our neighbors in need!
You’ve likely seen, or even visited, one of the St. Vinny’s Thrift Stores around Dane County. Maybe you’ve donated clothing and household items at one of these locations. But did you know that our organization does lots of work outside of our seven thrift stores? St. Vincent de Paul — Madison is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization of over 400 staff and volunteers who are dedicated to helping our neighbors in need. Our stores offer direct charity through a voucher program for individuals on low incomes, covering clothing, furniture, and household goods. Sales from our stores help fund our charitable services, like our food pantry, pharmacy, storage lockers, and microlending program.
Volunteers are the heart of our organization; without them, our programs would not be able to operate. In our food pantry alone, we currently have over 100 volunteers who work to keep our doors open and our community fed each week. In the pantry, volunteers pack boxes of food, sort produce, organize warehouse shelves, or work in the outdoor drive-through pantry. Additionally, our volunteers run Vinny’s Lockers, a storage program for individuals experiencing houselessness that gives them a safe space to store their belongings. Volunteers at Vinny’s Lockers greet neighbors, explain program guidelines, oversee check-in, and maintain the storage space. We also have a large plot of land in Fitchburg called Lacy Garden, where each summer our volunteers grow and harvest fresh produce to hand out in our food pantry. No previous gardening experience is necessary!
Last year, our volunteers served 118,225 people in our community through their work in our various programs, a contribution of 38,995 hours total! Thanks to our awesome volunteer team, 36,775 families received food and 15,060 pounds of food were harvested, along with many other life-changing impacts on our community.
Our volunteer team is made up of amazing individuals from all over the Dane County community, such as local schools, congregations, business groups, and RSVP! We are so grateful for the wonderful relationship we have with RSVP, and the support their volunteers continue to provide in our programs. If you are looking for a fulfilling volunteer opportunity on a team of compassionate community members, we would love to have you join us!
Currently, we are looking for more volunteers to support Vinny’s Lockers, Lacy Garden, and the SVdP Food Pantry. The pantry is in need of volunteers to help with sorting and bagging food/personal care donations, packaging and restocking non-perishables (this requires the ability to lift up to 20 lbs), and drive-through pantry operations. Please see below for information on days and times. We look forward to welcoming you to the team as we serve our neighbors in need!
| Vinny’s Lockers Wednesdays 2:00 – 4:00 PM |
Lacy Garden Mondays + Thursdays 5:00 – 6:30PM |
SVdP Food Pantry Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri 8:00AM – 3:00PM |
For more information, please email our Jan Karst, Community Connections Coordinator, at jkarst@rsvpdane.org.
