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A Helping Hand

Neighbors: Profiles of our community

Kihei resident Jim Sheppard is a regular volunteer at the Maui Food Bank, where he sorts cans, stocks shelves and assembles bags of food — and always with a smile on his face. “It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be here,” he said.

Every now and then, while Jim Sheppard is out running errands, he’ll spot one of the Maui Food Bank’s donation barrels — and his heart will swell with pride.

“It’s a great organization run by great people,” he said. “I’m proud to be a part of it.”

On Thursday afternoons, you’ll find Sheppard in the Maui Food Bank’s Wailuku warehouse sorting cans, stocking shelves and assembling bags of food — and always with a smile on his face. The San Francisco native has been volunteering for the organization since he and his wife, Lynda, moved here nearly three years ago. The couple first visited Maui in the 1990s and were instantly smitten.

“It’s so easy to fall in love with this place — everywhere you look, there’s something beautiful,” he said.

They came back year after year and eventually, Sheppard says, they decided to make a permanent move once he retired as a senior vice president of finance at the San Francisco-headquartered Charles Schwab. In 2015, the couple packed their things and waved goodbye to the foggy city. Not long after they settled in, Sheppard began looking for a volunteer gig.

Jim Sheppard

“I wanted to contribute to the community in a meaningful way,” he explained. “Doing something to help others makes me feel good.”

In San Francisco, Sheppard had given his time and talent to a number of nonprofits and served on the Charles Schwab Foundation board of directors and the Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment regional board. He and his wife were also longtime supporters of the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, and throughout much of their tenure as snowbirds, they’d donated to the Maui Food Bank. So when he opened up his laptop, typed “volunteer opportunities on Maui” into his browser and scrolled through the search results, something caught his eye: The food bank needed volunteers.

Moments later, Sheppard picked up his phone and called Steph Kaplan, Maui Food Bank’s community relations manager. “She told me to just show up and wear closed-toe shoes,” he said.

And so he did.

Since then, Sheppard has become a familiar face in the food bank’s warehouse and his dedication to the organization has not gone unnoticed.

“We rely on volunteers to help us carry out our mission to help the hungry in Maui County,” Kaplan said. “Volunteers like Jim are a true asset to the work we do here.”

Every month, the Maui Food Bank serves 10,000 food-insecure people countywide (including the rural communities of Hana, Molokai and Lanai). Through its network of partner agencies and programs, the organization collects and distributes food to individuals, families, children and youths, seniors, the homeless — anyone who is at risk of going hungry.

The Maui Food Bank’s programs include monthly food deliveries to underserved areas, a senior mobile pantry, a holiday meal program and the Aloha BackPack Buddies program, which provides healthy weekend meals to students from food-insecure homes throughout the academic year. (Children who are on their school’s free and reduced priced meal program can pick up a prefilled backpack on Friday afternoons; it contains six meals they can take home with them for the weekend.)

Sheppard encourages others to consider signing up to volunteer.

“It’s an efficient operation, and it’s not difficult work,” he explained. And best of all, he said, “At the end of a shift, you leave knowing you did something to help others in your community. It’s very fulfilling.”

Sheppard said he plans to lend a helping hand for as long as he’s needed. “I feel like I’m part of a bigger effort,” he said. “And it’s a really good feeling.”

Warehouse volunteers like Sheppard are always needed to sort, pack and distribute food. The Maui Food Bank invites residents and businesses to participate in its annual spring food drive, which will take place on April 21, but you can provide immediate hunger relief by holding a food drive at your business, school, place of worship, community service club or in your neighborhood anytime of the year.

Kaplan said she’s looking for groups of volunteers — between 15 and 20 — to help assemble boxes of food for seniors, as well as fill emergency food bags.

For more information, contact Kaplan at 243-9500. To learn more about the Maui Food Bank or to inquire about donor or volunteer opportunities, visit www.mauifoodbank.org or call 243-9500.

* Sarah Ruppenthal is a Maui-based writer. Do you have an interesting neighbor? Tell us about them at missruppenthal@gmail.com. Neighbors and “The State of Aloha,” written by Ben Lowenthal, alternate Fridays.

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