July 24, 2012

Good Job: Northwest Harvest's Jennifer Chew

• 4 Comments |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Volunteer program manager Jennifer Chew (right) chats with volunteer Michelle Murray at Northwest Harvest's Cherry Street Food Bank. (Courtesy of Northwest Harvest)

What do you do? I am the volunteer program manager for Northwest Harvest. Together with a volunteer team in western, central and eastern Washington, we recruit and manage thousands of volunteers to serve clients at our Cherry Street Food Bank, help with special events and pack food at our warehouses in Kent, Yakima and Spokane. Our volunteers are critical for us to be able to provide 1.7 million meals a month to more than 350 food banks and meal programs throughout Washington.

How does someone get a job like yours? Having experience overseeing volunteers is crucial. It also takes proven customer service skills and excellent interpersonal skills. Another key component to getting a job like this is being able to demonstrate a commitment to volunteering in your own life.

What’s a typical day like? There really is no typical day. Each day is different because of the volunteers, so there’s a wonderful opportunity to interact with a great variety of people every day. On any given day, I might be recruiting potential volunteers, interacting with current volunteers at our food bank and warehouse, managing volunteers at a special event or planning volunteer appreciation activities.

What’s the best part of the job? There are two best parts: watching our volunteers interact with clients on the food line and talking to our volunteers about why they choose to donate their time to us. The fight against hunger is very personal to many of our volunteers, and I never tire of hearing why they want to help us feed people in our community.

What surprises people about your job? The size of our volunteer program! This past year, volunteers gave more than 92,400 hours to help Northwest Harvest feed people. That’s the equivalent of more than 44 full-time employees! In one year, we can have between 10,000 and 15,000 different people who volunteer with us, some once a year and some every week. We are so fortunate to have such amazing community support! Thanks to volunteers and donors, “hunger stops here.”

--NWjobs staff

• 4 Comments |
• E-mail |
• Print
• • Share:
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Read more
Cool Jobs, cool jobs, featured, nonprofit

4 Comments

John Doherty on July 30, 2012 7:56 PM | Reply

I have had the pleasure of knowing Jennifer for just shy of 25 years. You will not find a kinder person, nor will you find a bigger heart of gold. She is, I'm sure, an asset to the Northwest Harvest Food Bank that will provide great dividends to their clients. Good luck to all involved.

Tammy on July 30, 2012 9:07 PM | Reply

She seems like a passionate person, who seems to love her job and the people she serves. How cool to have such a rewarding job.

Derrek Ellis on July 31, 2012 6:13 PM | Reply

I have the pleasure of knowing Jennifer! I interned for her at another company and I got to know and trust her very well. She genuinely cares about people and that is a very rare quality! If she were to run for president, I would vote for her!! Jennifer for president!!!

David Sammond on August 5, 2012 6:53 AM | Reply

Like Mr. John Doherty above, my connection to Jennifer stretches back over 20 years to our college days. Even then, Jennifer demonstrated the traits that she describes (and models) as critical to coordinating volunteers. Jennifer has natural instincts for leadership and organizing. Always has. More importantly, her senses of compassion and social justice suit her for this particular position at Northwest Harvest. Like the work she does there, Jennifer exists to help others. I'm grateful and proud to know her.

Leave a comment

* required field

Your name: *

E-mail address: (Will not be displayed)

Your comment: *

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.