HFMA First Illinois Chapter members help at local food bank

For 2½ hours, 27 members of HFMA’s First Illinois Chapter and their families volunteered at the Northern Illinois Food Bank in Geneva on Jan. 31.

They packed 13,566 pounds of food (equal to 11,000 meals) for the organization’s Backpack Program, which provides food to supplement weekend meals for children.

“We are incredibly grateful to the First Illinois HFMA team,” said Colleen Ahearn, chief philanthropy officer, Northern Illinois Food Bank. “Partnerships like this are crucial to our mission and help make a real difference in the fight against hunger.”

Food bank tasks

As participants in one of multiple groups volunteering that day to pack food for children’s weekend lunches, Chapter members were assigned different roles, including:

• Opening and unpacking cartons
• Setting food products in containers on a conveyor belt
• Providing quality control checks
• Tying off filled bags and moving them along

Event planning and lessons learned

Key to gathering a group of volunteers was finding a date that worked for the Chapter and then coordinating with the food bank’s scheduling system.

“Chapter leadership really wanted to get as many people involved as possible,” said Victoria M. Levitske, CHFP, MPM, co-chair of the First Illinois HFMA Chapter’s Membership and Engagement Committee.

Committed to recruiting 30 volunteers, the Chapter’s marketing committee began sharing information two months before the event through its website, LinkedIn page and outreach to past community event participants.

The Chapter learned two important lessons:

• Begin recruiting efforts three months ahead of the event date to allow more time for volunteer recruitment.
• Clearly highlight that members must sign up to participate via the group-specific food bank registration link versus as individuals.

Time to socialize

After the event, the group had lunch at a local restaurant, sponsored by Humata Health. Levitske, financial director for the University of Chicago Physicians Group, noted the benefit of volunteering together while also engaging in a social activity afterward: “While contributing to a worthwhile cause, we had the opportunity to get to know each other and make connections in a low-pressure environment.”