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Readers' Choice: Banking the hours away

Having spent much of her working life collecting donations for the Richmond Food Bank, it seemed an obvious choice for Lola Merenda when it came to where her volunteering time should be devoted to.
Lola
When Lola Merenda isn’t volunteering at the Richmond Food Bank, she helps out as a classroom assistant at Spul’u’kwuks elementary, even though she has no relations there.

Having spent much of her working life collecting donations for the Richmond Food Bank, it seemed an obvious choice for Lola Merenda when it came to where her volunteering time should be devoted to.

When Merenda retired seven years ago as an elementary school administrator and teacher, she wanted to jump straight into volunteering, rather than slow down and take the life easy.

So, she started working two days per week at the Richmond Food Bank, where she now wears a number of hats.

“I work at the check-in desk on distribution day and on Fridays, I re-pack items, do data entry and I’m on the board of directors as well,” said Merenda, who’s been with the bank’s selfless, hard-working team for five and half years.

“As well as organizing food bank donations from the school, I had a couple of family members who used the food bank in their communities, so I knew how important it was.”

Merenda also volunteers some of her retirement time as a “parent” assistant in the Grade 1/2 class at Spul’u’kwuks elementary, making things for the teacher, helping out where she can.

“My friend was the principal there. But I’ve no relations at the school,” she said.

Merenda manages to find “spare” time to go walking with friends and is a member of a local book club.