Many in the community may remember Jackie Catalanotto as the beloved, long-time manager of the food bank along with her husband Sam. They retired in 2010 after 16 years but like so many others, started as volunteers during the early days of the food bank when it was an emergency food pantry. Although Northshore Food Bank is turning 40 next year and many things have changed, the importance of volunteers in running the organization has not. Northshore Food Bank has always counted on volunteers to run the operations of programs and ensure families have the food that they need.
We recently had the pleasure to visit with Jackie here at the new Northshore Food Bank facility. She had so many wonderful stories to share about the work she and other volunteers did as the Food Bank was just starting. Here are a few highlights:
Q: What was it like managing the food bank?
A: “The volunteers that we had kept saying ‘Oh Jackie runs the food bank.’ No; we worked with volunteers who ran the food bank.”
Q: What made you volunteer, and then know this was the place for you to be?
A: “Our son was in trouble and he needed rent money. Somebody told me go to St. Vincent De Paul (the food bank) in Covington. I’d never heard of it before, and we went and they gave Steve some help with his rent so we said ‘Well now we gotta come back and pay them back.’ So, we only went to volunteer, you know, a couple of times to pay them back and never left.”
Q: What left the biggest impression on you during your time of service?
A: “How much fun it was. I mean, to grow the family of volunteers that we had and to know that we could help people. I guess I was raised in a velvet box, not that my people were rich but we had food on the table and I had clothes. I guess I never realized how many people there were in the world that really did without and it shocked me and taught me to wake up and work as hard as I could to help these people. I guess that’s why I felt like the smallness of the food bank gave more of a personal touch for the people that needed help. To see so many people in the world that don’t have what they need... I would never have dreamed of such homelessness.”
Q: Did you think there would still be a need 40 years later?
A: “Maybe I thought we would be around but never as big as this. I had no vision of ever growing this big. This is tremendous, we’ve served so many people.“
