We Asked, You Answered, We’re Listening

SHA Volunteers, thank you so much for taking the time to fill out the volunteer survey in April! I’m so excited to share the feedback we collected as well as breaking ground on the wonderful ideas and insights you shared. 

88% of you said you are “very” or “extremely” likely to recommend a friend to volunteer with us! I’ve said it before, but I’m constantly in awe of how many of you feel so strongly about this mission that you share it with others–please know that we consider your referrals of friends and family interested in joining our volunteer network to be a tremendous compliment!

98% of you feel that the time you spend volunteering is “usually” or “always” valued by us, our donors and agencies, AND is personally enriching–we are so happy to hear it! See Q4 graph for more results.

85% of you cited reducing food insecurity as one of your top reasons for volunteering with us. That was closely followed by 74% who are interested in reducing food waste, and 69% who appreciate the flexibility of our routes to individual schedules. See Q7 graph for more results.

52% of respondents told us that it is “very” or “extremely” easy to find a route, and 32% of you said that it’s “fairly easy”–but another 16% said that it is “only a little bit” or “not at all” easy. Several of you also mentioned that you’re interested in more routes that remain in the North Atlanta suburbs, and while we’re excited to continue to serve agencies in that area, it is also an organizational goal of ours to support agencies in areas where there are fewer grocery options available for families to find fresh food. We’re always looking for volunteers to fill these routes as well, so if you have a friend who lives below I-20, send them our way! 

We were thrilled to hear from 48% of volunteers that routes take, as planned, around 90 minutes to complete. (Shoutout to our amazing operations team!) Another 36% said that they take you “less” or “much less” than 90 minutes, while 15% said they take longer. If one of your favorite routes is consistently taking longer than 90 minutes, please let us know by putting a note in the “pickup problems” box while reporting pounds–we want to troubleshoot those routes and make the most of the time you spend with us. 

We also asked what we could do to improve your volunteer experience, and 49% of respondents told us that they’d love to hear more stories of impact from SHA partner agencies. With that I’m happy to announce we’ve decided to dedicate more time to highlighting the incredible work our partner agencies do, and those stories will be included in future volunteer newsletters, as well as on the SHA blog and social media. So stay tuned and definitely make sure you follow us on social media (@SecondHelpingsATL most places) to stay up to date with all things SHA! 

As always, feel free to reach out with any and all feedback. I’m excited to continue making your volunteer experience great and can’t wait to see what else this incredible community can accomplish.