When Priya Khangura went to work for Food Gatherers two years ago, she developed a pilot program delivering fresh produce to needy families at their kids’ schools. And she didn’t stop at handing out fresh fruits and vegetables–the recent U-M grad distributed recipes, promoted the program to teachers, and did a follow-up survey to see how the food was used.
Food Gatherers director Eileen Spring calls Khangura “amazing”–and points out that as a VISTA volunteer, she did all this for just $11,000 a year. VISTA paid Khangura’s “stipend” her first year, and Food Gatherers picked it up to keep her on.
The food bank currently has three full-time VISTA volunteers. Five more work at the Community Action Network (CAN), which provides services to residents of public housing complexes; nine more work on summer projects there. One produced an “extremely helpful” video to train volunteer reading tutors, says CAN executive director Joan Doughty. Volunteer Ryder Comstock worked on improving CAN’s fundraising strategies–but after a fire damaged a building at the Green Baxter Court townhouses in January, she also salvaged toys from the basement, and went home smoke-soaked and crying.
Competition for VISTA volunteers is keen. Alex Gossage of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living says the agency, which works with people with disabilities, has had about thirty over the past decade–Gossage himself started out as a VISTA volunteer. But funding cuts have been so severe, he says, that CIL decided it could no longer afford the staff time to develop and submit proposals.
Doughty says one worker quit because she found it too tough to live on VISTA’s stipend. Other volunteers build the experience into their educations. This fall, Priya Khanagura is headed for Duke’s law school–and plans to build a career in food policy.
