Courtesy photo The United Way of Greater Nashua, in partnership with the Greater Nashua Food Council, will be helping retirees learn how to stay connected with the community by helping them learn how to help with volunteering.

NASHUA – Retired community members will have an opportunity to learn how to get involved in volunteering, as organizers with the United Way of Greater Nashua and their partners at the Greater Nashua Food Council, Harvard Pilgrim Health Fund, and Southern New Hampshire Health are teaming up for the 2019 Retiree Brunch on Volunteerism.

During the event, scheduled for 9-11 a.m. May 2 at 10 Prospect St., Southern New

Hampshire Medical Center, retired and soon to be retired people are invited to join local nonprofits for a light meal and informative discussions on community engagement.

Speakers from organizations such as the United Way, the Food Council, Southern New Hampshire Health, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Grow Nashua, the Adult Learning Center and Hillsborough County Gleaners, retirees will be able to discuss types of volunteer rolls they are looking to fill, and how the organizations intend to work with those who want to get involved.

“We basically would like to talk to retirees and let them know about what opportunities there are in the community for volunteering, and also what general needs in the community they can get involved volunteering with,” United Way Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement Sara Ceaser said.

With a grant from Harvard Pilgrim Health Fund and the partnership with the Food Council, Ceaser said a lot of the speakers will be focusing on how retirees can help organizations provide food to the community.

“Harvard Pilgrim Health Fund is one of the sponsors for this event in their goal – by mobilizing the energy of local and corporate volunteers to grow, glean and distribute healthy produce for low-income families across our region,” Greater Nashua Food Council Director Jessica Gorhan said.

Gorhan worked in collaboration with Ceaser to organize the event.

“We want to create a movement of neighbors feeding neighbors – and expand the number of citizens advocating for fresh, local, healthy food equity,” Gorhan added.

Throughout the brunch, participating speakers will engage the potential volunteers: helping them find what type of volunteering they may be most passionate about, and how they would like to give back to the community.

“We will have discussion prompts at the table where people from a variety of the organization will be leading the discussion to see what the retirees see as needs in the community, and to see what they are interested in, within volunteering,” Ceaser said.

Gorhan, while echoing Ceaser’s sentiments, said the event will also serve as an opportunity for attendees to find which of the many demographics they want to focus their volunteer efforts toward.

“I feel like this is a way for them to identify what kind of opportunities are out there, and to identify their own passion project, and based on the work we’re doing there are opportunities across all demographics,” Gorhan said.

“An example is if they want to help children, there are opportunities to do that,” she continued. “If they want to help seniors, there are opportunities to to that.”

With the hope of getting as many retirees involved within the community as possible, Gorhan said seeing as many as 100 attendees at the event would go a long way in growing volunteer efforts. Each and every individual the Food Council and the United Way can get to volunteer brings with them an opportunity to get others involved.

Those interested in attending the brunch can register at www.unitedwaynashua.org/events/. They can also contact Ceaser at sceaser@unitedwaynashua.org, or 603-864-0201.

Those who are unable to attend but are still interested in volunteering can find an extensive list of opportunities at http://www.volunteergreaternashua.org.

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