Maryland Food Bank honors Yolanda Adkins, volunteers helped share 43.6 million meals

Yolanda Adkins was named Maryland Food Bank’s 2026 Volunteer of the Year as 8,001 volunteers helped share 43.6 million meals, a scale that shows how recognition becomes more meaningful when it sits on top of a working volunteer system.

The honor was chosen by volunteer leaders and highlighted during Volunteer Appreciation Month, but the bigger story is operational. Maryland Food Bank said volunteers completed nearly 42,000 shifts last year, work it valued at $1.85 million. For a food recovery organization, those numbers are not just a feel-good metric. They are the difference between a program that depends on one-off help and one that can keep meals moving every day.

Adkins has volunteered for more than seven years and moved across multiple roles, including the kitchen, front desk, warehouse and garden. Her kitchen work mattered because it helped pack meals for children in after-school programs. Her garden work mattered for a different reason: it helped children see how nutritious food moves from garden to table. That mix of consistency and flexibility is exactly what strong volunteer programs need. People stay when they can find a place where their time feels useful, visible and well matched to the mission.

Doug Vitro, the food bank’s senior manager of the volunteer program, said Adkins’ energy and spirit were motivating and that her peers wanted to acknowledge her. That peer-driven recognition matters. It tells volunteers that leadership is watching not just the biggest hours totals, but reliability, initiative and the ability to lift the room around them. For A Simple Gesture, where doorstep bag pickup depends on repeat participation and neighborhood trust, that is a useful lesson: durable service comes from systems that notice steady contributors, not only splashy one-day helpers.

Maryland Food Bank’s broader numbers put Adkins’ award in context. Its FY2025 annual report said the organization distributed 43.5 million meals through 764 community partners and served more than 1 million neighbors. In 2025, it said 6,800 volunteers contributed 38,000 hours in FY2024, the equivalent of 20 full-time staff members. It has tracked volunteer activity since 2017, and 36,000 volunteers have contributed more than 295,000 hours of service.

The 2026 appreciation post also recognized Hollie Pakulla, Mike Popchak and Katie Quinlan, extending the message beyond one person. That is the real management lesson here: recognition works best when it reinforces a volunteer culture built for scale, with clear roles, dependable scheduling and enough support to keep people coming back. Maryland Food Bank’s model shows how a volunteer program can turn gratitude into throughput, and throughput into trust.