Maridee was our May 2024 volunteer spotlight! She discovered HIP through a friend who had volunteered with us. She has been volunteering with HIP for over ten years! She started out in the kitchen with senior meal prep and attended the meal service occasionally before the Lake City Community Center burned down. Currently, she delivers meals to seniors one day a week. Maridee likes our dedicated staff, volunteers, and an authentic chef who plans the made-from-scratch and nutritious meals.

Maridee has liked volunteering with HIP because it gives her a sense of doing something useful and meaningful. Seattle is an expensive city to live in, so there are so many folks who benefit greatly from HIP’s meals. Maridee has also volunteered outside of HIP — from helping at a baby boutique to reading to preschoolers. Her most memorable moment was the surprise of COVID-19. People of a certain age were told to stay home yet had no idea what was to come.

Maridee is long retired and is able to choose what she wants and how much time she wants to devote. Retirement has been very helpful in allowing Maridee to have time to volunteer. Maridee would recommend volunteering with HIP because “It is such a worthy cause, appreciated by so many in the community. The summer meals for children, senior meals at the church, meal deliveries, shelter meals for the unhoused, and afterschool meals for school children.”

If you would like to join Maridee in volunteering with us, feel free to check our signup genius page for opportunities.