Volunteers With Heart – Lotsa Heart!

Volunteers are the lifeblood of just about any worthwhile non-profit organization. And Meals From The Heart is no different. Well, we are sort of different because our volunteers happen to be the best volunteers ever! There are so many people who not only step up to the plate but do so time after time; it’s difficult to mention only a few. But these folks were lucky enough to find themselves in front of a camera, so we decided to feature them!

The smiling faces pictured at the top left of this page belong to Toby Hammer and Carol Robbins.

Toby is a retired Air Force and Air National Guard pilot now flying for Värde Partners, Inc. In fact, he introduced us to the leadership at Värde, and the company has become a meal-packing host as well as a financial supporter. He’s been a volunteer with Meals From The Heart for over seven years. In addition to coaching at countless meal-packing events, Toby has delivered hundreds of food bags to military bases over the winter holidays and packed meals with our Serving Beyond the Bars program in Minnesota State Prisons.

Always with an enthusiastic smile, Carol has been volunteering with Meals From The Heart since 2019. She is an energized event leader and now even helps organize and manage other volunteers for our various events – and that’s no small task!

You might know about Jack in the Box; this is Lou in the Box. In addition to being one of our most active volunteers, he is also our Board Chair. Lou retired from 3M in 2009 after 36 years, his last role being the Business Director in the Energy and Advanced Materials Division. He has also been on the board and deeply involved with Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity since 2009 and received the 3Mgives Global Volunteer Award in 2018.

Chuck Newman and his wife Joan have been with Meals From The Heart even before we were officially an organization. Chuck and Joan, along with our founder Tom Thiets and his wife Lisa, first packed meals together with a global starvation meal-packing organization way back in 2007. Coincidentally, the space used at that very first event is the space we now occupy as Meals From The Heart headquarters. Chuck and his tireless energy have traveled with Meals From The Heart to countless meal-packing events from Long Island to Boulder!