A soup kitchen in Saginaw is asking community members wanting to help out over the holidays to consider monetary donations instead of volunteering their time.
The holidays are a time when more people think of giving their time to help those in need - but soup kitchen workers say they need volunteers year-round, and the holidays can become overcrowded.
Dawn Goodrow is the Director of the East Side Soup Kitchen in Saginaw. She said during the holidays they don’t have time to train everyone who wants to help out.
“A lot of people that come in want to serve but with those big meals we need people that are trained in our kitchen, that know where things are at because we have one cook. We don’t want it to be more stress on her.”
Goodrow said when serving as many as 500 people they need trained volunteers - not new recruits.
“Cash, I’m sorry, but any non-profit will tell you that is the best gift you can give a non-profit. It’s money that can be used for anything.”
Goodrow said volunteers are essential to keeping their doors open - and the kitchen needs help outside the holiday season.