Northwest Harvest — Washington State

Building a Community Volunteer Committee from the ground up

Northwest Harvest, a food bank serving communities across Washington State, partnered with Connecting the Cause to do something most organizations only talk about: put community members, volunteers, and staff in the same room and actually listen.

Together, we built a Community Volunteer Committee — a living advisory council where people wearing different hats, identities, and lived experiences came together to shape how the organization engages volunteers. This was accountability being built in real time with community members advising on upcoming changes before decisions were made, reflecting how those changes would land on real people, and serving as a permanent bridge between the organization and the communities it serves.

The council was given clear, meaningful scope: to champion equity and dignity, to identify barriers to participation, and to simply say out loud, when something doesn't make sense. The meetings filled my heart and were beautiful moments where people were heard and were connected with. It serves as a blueprint of what happens when leaders and an organization prioritize what matters most. The result: volunteer engagement changes at Northwest Harvest are now shaped with the community before they're finalized and in alignment with their solutions.