Amazing Volunteer Corner - Denny Smith
15 years ago, Elkhart native Dennis “Denny” Smith was reading the newspaper when something caught his eye.
“I saw in the paper Church Community Services had a box truck, and I noticed it was just like the box truck I drove for a company I used to work for,” Denny said. “I thought, ‘Maybe they need help driving that.’”
Ever since then, Denny has become a vital member of the Church Community Services family.
“Boy did they put me to work!” Denny said. “I drove to South Bend two or three times a week to pick up from the food bank. Sometimes I’d have to go twice a day because there was too much to get in one trip. So, I’ve just been doing that ever since! Sometimes I go to Middlebury to get duck eggs, sometimes I go to the Milford Food Bank to get food there, sometimes I go to Nappanee to get beef and then to Wakarusa to get pork. Wherever they need me to go!”
Denny Smith has lived in Elkhart his entire life. The 82-year-old has been married for 56 years, has two children and five grandchildren. You’d think after all these years he’d want to slow down. But it’s the opposite… he wants to do more!
“I’ve been here 15 years… you got to have something to do!” Smith said. “You’ve got to have something to get you out of the house!”
Food Services Director Michael Downing has been working with Denny for more than a decade now and says the impact of Denny’s help cannot be measured.
“He is quite a support beam for our Food Services department,” Downing said. “He goes out and almost every day of the week he’s doing something for CCS.”
Denny uses a minivan and box truck to make pickups and deliveries on behalf of the Food Pantry. Over his 15 years, it’s estimated that Denny has picked up well over a million pounds of food for the Food Pantry.
“Denny has an impressive knowledge of all the County Roads,” Downing said. “He’s doing all these tasks, and he’s working a little bit above part time.”
A two-time winner of the Church Community Services’ Volunteer of the Year Award, Denny doesn’t just help CCS by driving. He also helps recycle large skids of cardboard boxes used to donate food.
“A lot of food is donated in boxes, and when it’s unpacked you have this large empty box you need to collapse,” Downing said. “Denny is dumping two huge skids of recycled cardboard that’s five feet tall, and he’s doing it three times a week!”
In addition to his volunteering, Denny also has advanced carpentry skills. Back in 2011, he helped CCS with the renovation of the current Food Pantry building.
“We took box trucks of steel out of (the current Food Pantry) before they got the people in to remodel it,’ Denny said. “We also had to put the freezers and coolers in, so a lot of the food we had in the old Food Pantry space (where the current Soup of Success workshop is located) we had to haul over. It’s nice now compared to what it was because it used to just be an old garage. It’s been fun but it gave me headaches sometimes.”
Denny also helps pick up food from local food drives. In those instances, he picks up 1,200 to 1,500 pounds of food at a time.
After 15 years of volunteering, Denny shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
“I need this,” Denny said. “I keep telling them ‘I’ll come until I can’t walk!’”