Hunger Hero: Brian
Our mission is to mobilize resources to fight hunger in our community. Of course some of those resources are food and monetary donations. Equally important resources are our volunteers’ time, energy and compassion.
Brian McCabe has been volunteering every Saturday for three years. He has been with the Food Bank longer than many of our warehouse staff!
Originally from Boston, Brian has lived in LA for 26 years. He first visited the Food Bank during Hunger Action Month, which happens every September, when he was working as a talent agent. “I was going through a hard breakup at the time,” he said. “After I volunteered the first time I felt like this was a good way to distract myself. I decided I would start volunteering every other weekend.”
But Brian didn’t do that. Instead he decided, “Why not go every week? What’s so important that I can’t give up three hours of my time on Saturday mornings?” He’s been working with us ever since–he’s even brought friends and celebrated Birthdays here.
“I love everyone here,” Brian says. “I really do feel like these people are my family.”
Brian almost sounds like he is in competition with himself as he describes his work at the Food Bank. “I know how to do things efficiently and when I get going I don’t want to stop. It’s fun to beat my own records [in packing CSFP kits] and it’s also a great workout!”
Brian has been with us so long that he is responsible for training some of our other volunteers. You can usually tell which line is working with Brian because they work so quickly. “One time we sorted so many kits that we ran out of bins!”
Aside from helping his community, Brian says that his only goal is to inspire others to get involved. “I’m not special or anything,” he says. “So if I can do it, anyone can do it.”
“I think what a lot of people don’t realize,” Brian explains, “is that we aren’t just sorting food for the homeless. A lot of the people who need help are people who just lost their job, who need a little help getting back on their feet. People living check to check, as I have done myself.”
Thank you Brian, for inspiring all of us, and for being our Hunger Hero!