When Elijah Quinones was a teenager, he witnessed many of life’s challenges firsthand. During a whirlwind of change that he had no control over, he wasn’t able to attend high school often and felt like there was nothing he could do to better his situation. “I felt like, oh, I guess this is how it is. There’s only so much you could do,” he recalled recently. “And it made me realize I wanted to be at a certain place where I could at least help people […] who’ve been affected so harshly.”
Today, he does just that. Elijah is a real estate agent and arranges his work schedule with volunteering in mind. Every week, he comes to Food Bank of the Rockies’ distribution center in Denver to help sort, package, and organize food for his neighbors facing hunger. Using his past experience as a way to connect with people going through difficult times, Elijah recognizes that life can get hard fast, and every little bit he can do to lessen that burden drives him to give back even more.
“Everybody has a different story, and you never know what somebody is going through,” he shared. “Especially financially, people are very private about that. But a lot of people aren’t doing good. Being able to help them feed their family so they can focus on other things that are increasingly expensive — that’s a major factor that helps people go another week, another month, being able to pay their rent. I know that just being here is a blessing. Being able to have food is a blessing.”
In the video below, we invite you to learn more about Elijah’s journey to volunteering with Food Bank of the Rockies. If his story inspires you, please join him and us as a volunteer! More information, including how to sign up and available opportunities, can be found at our website: foodbankrockies.org/get-involved/volunteer.