Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - With a new poll saying there may be fewer older Americans retiring, there are concerns nonprofit organizations may not have as many older volunteers in the future.
Major Annette Lock of the Salvation Army says her organization relies on numerous volunteers. Last year, Lock says 2,000 volunteers gave more than 10,000 hours of volunteer time. "We do depend on many of our retired individuals of the community who helped with some of our specific programs like our food pantry, and even in our family shelter," says Lock. But she says it's not surprising people are making the decision to work longer. "We know everyday we see that families and individuals are struggling to cover basic needs, housing and health care and transportation and even food. So delaying retirement is not a surprise to as it's an unfortunate situation, but not terribly surprising to us," says Lock.
Lock says she's concerned about the prospect of fewer older Americans having time to volunteer. "We can't do what we do without them, and so we will have to be creative in our approach in recruiting individuals to come and work alongside of us," says Lock. That includes advertising volunteer opportunities. "We have various events that come up, so through our committees that plan those fundraising events, they will reach out to the community, looking for volunteers to support the events, we have ways of of promoting our programs and services," adds Lock.
FeedMore WNY's Collin Bishop says there's always a need for volunteers no matter the age. "We do benefit from a lot of retirees who choose to share their time and their talents with us, and they will always be in need," says Bishop. He says contributions include helping with the home delivered meals program, working in the warehouse, and even at the front desk.
Bishop says the business community has stepped up, citing volunteer efforts this week from employees at Starbucks and M&T Bank. "I think that large picture of how people, organizations, individuals want to volunteer and help organizations like FeedMore that's going to make that up. So if the number of people who are shifting away from retirement, hopefully the business community and organizations are able to work together to replace them, on our home delivered meal side," says Bishop. He says FeedMore offers an adopt-a-route so businesses can choose to help deliver home delivered meals during the week, they just pick one person from their team who comes out and delivers that route.
He says word of mouth alerts about the need for volunteers help with the recruitment effort.
