Maryland Food Bank honors Yolanda Adkins as 2026 Volunteer of the Year

At the start of Volunteer Appreciation Month, Maryland Food Bank put Yolanda Adkins at the center of a much bigger story: how a hunger-relief operation keeps its doors open when it can count on people who come back, not just people who show up once. The food bank named Adkins its 2026 Volunteer of the Year after volunteer leaders nominated peers and the Volunteer Leadership Council chose her.

The scale behind that choice is hard to miss. Maryland Food Bank said Adkins and 8,001 other volunteers helped share 43.6 million meals last year. Together, they filled nearly 42,000 shifts, work the organization valued at $1.85 million. In a system that serves 21 counties in Maryland plus Baltimore city through three branches and more than 760 community partners, that kind of repeat labor is not ceremonial. It is operational.

Adkins has volunteered for seven years, and the breadth of her work helps explain why she stood out. Her service has included kitchen work, front desk phone duty, warehouse shifts and gardening. She said she especially likes kitchen work because she can see a direct line between the effort and children getting fed. The gardening work adds another layer: it gives kids a chance to learn how nutritious food moves from garden to table. That range matters because the best volunteer programs at food banks rarely hold people in one lane for long; they keep them engaged by matching the work to their time, interests and sense of impact.

Maryland Food Bank’s volunteer page says demand for food remains high because of current economic conditions, and that volunteers can help as individuals or groups. Some shifts require volunteers to be at least 13 years old, able to lift 25 pounds and stand for three hours, a reminder that retention also depends on making the work clear, accessible and realistic. The organization lists opportunities at its Halethorpe headquarters and at branches in Salisbury and Hagerstown, giving recurring volunteers multiple ways to stay plugged in.

The numbers from the food bank’s FY2025 annual report show why that matters. It distributed 43.5 million meals through 764 community partners and served more than 1 million neighbors. Maryland Food Bank’s recognition of Adkins landed on April 20, the same day as Volunteer Recognition Day, during National Volunteer Week, which Points of Light says runs from April 19 to April 25 and dates to 1974. The food bank honored Kate Murphy as its 2025 Volunteer of the Year in the prior annual volunteer appreciation event, signaling that this is becoming part of the organization’s retention rhythm: recognize the people who already know the work, make the next shift easy to picture, and keep the food moving.