Aging Gracefully

A Bank of Good Will

Bernard Boudreaux, Board Member ACCFB

In a world unsettled, and a country divided over everything from immigration enforcement to Super Bowl halftime shows, it’s fair to wonder what, if anything, we can do to have our voices truly heard or effectively influence positive outcomes.

We can march. We can protest. We can donate to nonprofits, causes, or movements that are trying to make things better. All are worthwhile. Another path is simpler and more immediate: volunteering on the ground to help provide people with the everyday things they need. It’s apolitical. That’s the path I chose last week.

I volunteered at the Alameda County Community Food Bank (ACCFB) in Oakland, and for a few hours the positivity of the place, the smiles, the warmth, the can-do attitudes of employees and volunteers, helped me forget about everything outside its walls. I didn’t volunteer to make myself feel better, but I did. And as I’ve learned time and again (and somehow still manage to forget), helping others and helping yourself are inextricably linked.

While going to ACCFB is an overwhelmingly buoyant experience, the first message that you receive there is rather stark.

One in four people in Alameda County are food insecure - meaning they’re experiencing hunger or are at serious risk of it. That statistic is jarring. But once I got to work, loading bags, packing apples, doing something tangible, it became clear how much even simple actions matter. I wasn’t just worrying or complaining. I was helping. We can do something.

What struck me when I walked into the lobby of ACCFB, was the age of the volunteers. Not that I’m a young man, but the waiting room looked like a pickleball tryout. And I mean that as a compliment. These were people who showed up early and ready to work. The elderly get a bad rap in this country (including from me). But they’re the ones who vote, volunteer, and care for their family, friends and neighbors. Watching them made me wonder: why can’t the rest of us be more like them?

Some of the volunteers moved slowly and carefully. That didn’t stop them. They still managed to pack boxes while sitting in a chair. There was even a blind woman contributing in the way she could. It was genuinely moving to see people do anything they can, give anything they have, to help the greater good.

The writer George Saunders has said, as we get older we come to see that it’s useless to be selfish. Standing there, watching people quietly help strangers they would never meet, I saw that.

ACCFB itself is a massive warehouse — part logistics hub, part assembly line. My primary job was opening flat plastic bags so they could be quickly filled with food. I also worked the apple station, pulling Granny Smiths from enormous boxes and packing them into mesh bags. A bag of apples may not seem like much, but it can mean a great deal to a family.

The work was repetitive, but deeply satisfying. It’s rare these days to be able to point to something and say, I helped solve that specific problem. ACCFB does a great job making the impact clear. In a three-hour stint, our group helped create 291 meals. That’s a productive afternoon by any measure.

ACCFB is impressively run: it’s efficient, thoughtful, and mission-driven. They treat the volunteers like kings for a day. Their mission is straightforward: to partner with the community to end hunger and its root causes. Simple to say. Hard to do.

After the volunteering session, one of the Board Members (pictured above) thanked us and told us about the four T’s of giving:

Time – volunteering your hours

Testimony – telling others about the experience and encouraging them to get involved

Treasure – donating money (ACCFB purchases much of the food it distributes)

Talent – offering your skills like accounting, marketing or scheduling—not just your arms and legs

There are food banks in every town that need one of the four T’s. Or all of them. And there are thousands of organizations doing critical work, including the one I’m on the board of (First Place for Youth), that could use your help.

Maybe you are already doing this in your own way. If so, kudos to you.

We need an engaged society if we’re going to nudge our way out of this current morass. We can’t leave all the volunteering to the pickleball crowd. That wouldn’t be Aging Gracefully.