Each month during the off-season, the Charleston RiverDogs close the office to complete one day of volunteer service with a local nonprofit organization. In October, the Charleston RiverDogs Front Office Staff spent their monthly Staff Volunteer Day with the nonprofit organization Fields to Families. Members of the staff gleaned vegetables from a local farm to donate to local food banks and soup kitchens.
“It was awesome to get out there and get our hands dirty,” says RiverDogs Director of Media Relations & Broadcasting Sean Houston. “It was rewarding, and fun, and I hope we get to do it again soon.”
Fields to Families is a nonprofit organization, founded in 2006, that helps the hungry in the Charleston community gain access to nutritious fruits and vegetables.
Fields to Families’ operates as a three step process. The organization depends greatly on local farms who generously offer unused fruits and vegetables to Fields to Families, which are then harvested by volunteers, like the RiverDogs staff. Those fruits and vegetables then make their way to Lowcountry organizations that feed the hungry, including food pantries, soup kitchens, Meals on Wheels, shelters and churches. It is these recipient agencies who complete the process and distribute the harvested foods to the hungry and needy.