Volunteer Appreciation Month: Molly and Jenna!
By Jade Fisher, Communications Specialist
Last year, 6,187 families and individuals checked in at Ballard Food Bank for the very first time. The process to begin shopping at Ballard Food Bank begins at the Welcome Desk: a 3-tabled counter that sits squarely between the Resource Hub and Kindness Café. New and familiar faces begin the check-in process with Welcome Desk volunteers like Jenna Santos and Molly FitzMorris before they enter the market.
Jenna and Molly are part of the “Tuesday night crew.” A moniker for the group of four people scheduled every Tuesday who handle shopping check-ins, orient new clients to the food bank, hand out No Cook cards, and distribute No Cook bags. The Welcome Desk role is unique in that every volunteer is scheduled and committed for long term to their shifts. These folks are dedicated, compassionate, and excited to be some of the first faces you see when you walk through our doors. Molly and Jenna are exceptional volunteers who commit to centering relationships and meeting people where they are in the moment. A core value at Ballard Food Bank.
Here is how they came to be apart of the Tuesday night Welcome Desk shift!
Molly’s Volunteer Story: Giving in creative ways
Molly checks people in to shop at our Free Community Market
Since Molly moved to the neighborhood around six years ago, she’s been a Ballard Food Bank supporter. She hadn’t ever visited the space before deciding to attend a volunteer orientation and knew exactly what kind of role she wanted to do – a front facing role where she could meet neighbors.
She couldn’t give as much of a financial contribution as she would have liked due to student loan debt. She recalls thinking, “I’ve got to volunteer. I’ve got to give time because that I do have.”
Seeing inequity for as long as she lived in Seattle, right in front of her, it left her feeling sad and even a little bit hopeless about her ability to do anything about it. That was a big motivator for her to volunteer her time at our Hub for Hope. She says, “I wanted to humanize a ‘problem.’ I knew there were a lot of unhoused folks living in Ballard and I wanted to have a way to get to know people so when I thought about homelessness as a problem I didn’t think about anonymous people that I don’t know. Instead, I could get to understand real stories of real people experiencing this crisis and how it impacts them. I would say that has been one of the most valuable things that I’ve gotten out of the food bank.”
Originally part of the Thursday night shift, she switched to Tuesdays only a few months ago. Regardless of the day, she says you get to know folks you’re working with and you build camaraderie very quickly.
Building relationships with neighbors is clearly one of her main joys. Molly says, “I have certainly seen Food Bank clients outside of the food bank around the neighborhood and have said hi to them. That makes such a big difference. Like just knowing people from this community, knowing folks' names. Yeah, that is a big thing for me.”
Another favorite part of the role is when she can remove a No Cook card from someone’s profile (the card that indicates someone can grab No Cook items from the counter within the market.) She says, “That's my favorite thing to do because, sometimes clients who have been coming to the food bank for a long time will come to the front desk, we'll check them in then they'll say, ‘Oh, actually, I don't need this No Cook card, because now I have a place to cook. I have housing.’ And that, to me, is like, my favorite”
Her volunteer role is also greatly compatible with her job. She feels encouraged to give back to community and has successfully combined the work and volunteerism many times. Once for a work sponsored event that bought ingredients for 900 No Cook bags. Her work team constructed the bags of ready-to-eat items in assembly lines! They’ve also hosted fundraising events on campus, encouraged employees to make charitable donations (while matching them), and she’s brought team members on-site for Friday volunteer work when the food bank is closed.
Molly has found creative solutions to be able to show up for neighbors in the best way possible for her specific situation. It’s very inspiring to see and we thank her for her bright presence in our space!
Jenna’s volunteer story: community care through food
Jenna, originally from Boston, moved to Ballard in 2023. She first saw our space on her very first drive into Ballard. She says, “If I’m being honest, the very first thing I did after settling in was get a library card and the second was fill out the volunteer interest form for Ballard Food Bank. I had moved to Seattle ... knowing only one other person in the city. Volunteering felt like a meaningful way to build connection, meet people, and ground myself in Ballard.”
Food is central to Jenna’s life and identity. She shares our fundamental belief that food is a human right.
“I come from a large Italian-American family where cooking and sharing meals is how we connect. Growing up, my family owned and operated an Italian market—Frank Anthony’s—in Boston’s Seaport neighborhood. I spent years working there alongside my brother, aunts, uncles, and cousins—after school, on weekends, and during summers. I watched my aunts thoughtfully stock shelves based on what neighbors needed and wanted, and create meals inspired by regulars’ requests. Over time, I came to understand how food can build relationships, create belonging, and serve as a form of care. That experience shaped my belief that access to nutritious, culturally relevant food is not just important—it’s foundational.”
Jenna calls out numbers to the line of shoppers
The importance of choice. The need for culturally relevant food. Having a great time connecting with your neighbors over what they’re eating or making. That was nothing new to Jenna.
She explains, “What I love about my regular Tuesday night shift is having the opportunity to connect with the other regular volunteers, Meg, Molly, and Connor at the immediate front desk, and the opportunity to build relationships with our regular and first time clientele. Over the past three years, I have seen babies grow into walking, talking, toddlers, I have seen clients get housing and move on to greater stability, I have met countless adorable dogs and cats, and I have also had the opportunity to celebrate the lives of clients who have passed on. Whether someone is a regular, or someone who I only see once, I hope to show up for them all the same. I see my fellow front deskers do the same.”
This role also worked well with her remote job that operated on East Coast hours. She says it was easy to head to our building right after her workday ended. After changing roles, one of her first concerns was about maintaining her Tuesday schedule. Jenna’s manager was immediately supportive while recognizing that investing in local community benefits us all.
Jenna also shares, “I was inspired to get my organization involved with the food bank after learning that a fellow volunteer and friend, Molly, had successfully engaged her company. That made it feel both possible and tangible.”
She connected with Jee Hye, our Community Engagement Manager, to explore how they might build a partnership. It felt especially fitting to align the effort with the chosen International Women’s Day theme: Give to Gain. For her that idea is deeply personal.
Jenna says, “because through giving my time and energy to Ballard Food Bank, I’ve gained a sense of community, purpose, and belonging that made Seattle feel like home much faster than I expected.”
We are incredibly proud to call Jenna a neighbor of ours. We are so thankful for the work she does and the role she plays in bringing food and hope to our neighbors.
If you are interested in balancing volunteerism with a 9-5 job, molly and jenna have advice!
Molly says: You don't have to volunteer in evenings after work. You could donate funds if you have them. You could donate food. You could set up a food drive and deliver that to the food bank. There are a pretty significant number of volunteer opportunities that are not after work. Like events on weekends.
The other thing is, the front desk takes commitment. You have to commit to a shift. You don't have to do that for all of these [volunteer roles]. So maybe you feel like you can volunteer one evening per month after work and that's your limit. That's incredible. Do that.
Jenna encourages folks to: Bring your workplace into the work and mission of BFB. Organizations have both reach and influence, but sometimes they just need a clear connection point. Remind them what it means to live and work in our community. When individuals and companies engage in that way, it creates meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships—and the potential for impact grows exponentially.
Jee Hye [Ballard Food Bank’s Community Engagement Manager] joined us at my company for a fireside chat centered on the theme The Power of Shared Tables. The conversation explored what it means to share food and resources within the context of the Ballard Food Bank, while also expanding into the broader cultural significance of food as a connector across communities.
The response from my colleagues was incredibly encouraging. We raised $1,000 for BFB, and we’re continuing that momentum by volunteering together as a group on March 27th.
Jenna and Molly ground themselves in community through many warm greetings, helpful conversations, and volunteer shifts on Tuesdays. We are so incredibly thankful that they have brought their joy, dedication, and skills to Ballard Food Bank.