We are delighted to recognize Joey Luna, manager at Revival Market and Volunteer with Eat This! Summer Camp as the September 2015 Volunteer of the Month. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about his experiences volunteering with Recipe for Success.
What sparked your interest to volunteer for Recipe for Success?
Joey Luna: I worked here at Revival before being a manager so I knew about the program and I just wanted to jump at it and I wanted to learn more about the inner workings of Recipe for Success. [Note: Revival Market has worked with Recipe for Success Summer Camps for the past 3 years and recently promoted the winning product from the 2015 Eat This! Summer camp sessions, the popular Figgy Piggies, fig-filled cookies.]
What keeps you coming back?
JL: The groups of kids -- it was surprising at how into food they were. My lecturing about butchery was kept to a minimum. It was great having the kids ask question after question about different foods, such as or "what kind of foods do you like?" and "how do you prepare this food?" or tell me "this is the food I like." It was really nice to see kids that young that they were that interested in food and already had a lot more knowledge than the patrons in our store!
What does volunteering bring to your life outside of the actual volunteer work?
JL: It gets me out of a working mindset. It was fulfilling to know I was just talking to the kids about food, not having to sell anything. You could see the excitement on their faces and they listened with open eyes and ears and gave a lot of feedback.
Do you have a favorite memory or story thus far?
JL: The unveiling party was a lot of fun! The kids were excited about not only finding out what product won, but they were asking me 'do you remember I came in with my mom the other day' and 'I want to try this [pointing at different charcuteries]' and were asking our Pastry Chef, Alyssa, tons of questions about how she cooks/bakes different items for the store. It was a great culmination of all of their hard work over the summer.
One last question, it's our 10th birthday this year, where would you like to see RFS in another 10 years?
JL: Well, I'm still a bit new to knowing the full reach of what RFS does now, but I'd love to see RFS in as many schools around the Houston area as possible. I feel lucky to see the elementary school down the street have a community garden and, being in the Heights bubble, I forget that not all schools have that. It's great that there's an organization like RFS that can provide nutrition and food education from the beginning to end, it'd be great to see that in as many schools as possible.
Thank you again, Joey, for all you do for Recipe for Success. Here's to 10 more years!
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