You may have seen the Willing Hands truck around town. Maybe you see it regularly. From the outside, it’s just another box truck bustling around the Upper Valley. But those who have had the opportunity to spend a day riding along with our Delivery Coordinator, Tim, all agree: it’s delivering more than just food.
“In many ways, the truck is our mission on wheels: where collaboration meets community, and surplus becomes nourishment for those who need it most,” reflected Board Fellow, Alex, of her day riding with Tim.
A regular day for the Willing Hands truck begins at our headquarters in Norwich, with Warehouse and Delivery staff loading it full of fresh food. They work hard to balance what is available in food donations with knowledge of the day’s stops to ensure each delivery site receives the food it needs. With a busy route every day of the week, food never sits in the warehouse for long. Willing Hands delivers nearly 19,000 pounds of food on average each week.
Each day’s route combines food deliveries to hunger-relief organizations and food pickups from donor partners, strategically planned to minimize mileage while meeting the community’s needs. “It’s fascinating to see the logistical and physical effort that Tim puts in,” shared long-time Willing Hands Board member Jo Mirenda shared of her recent ride-along with Tim.
Each stop on the route is quick. All food picked up and dropped off is meticulously weighed, and the refrigerated back of the truck is reorganized as needed to ensure each stop goes smoothly for recipients. But even with the physical effort of moving heavy bins of food all day, the need to stay on schedule, and the logistics required to track food, our neighbors always remain the top priority.
“Tim isn’t just dropping off food. At each stop, he greets people by name, asks how they’re doing, and takes a moment to really listen. The food is important—but so is the way it’s shared,” said Willing Hands Administrative Coordinator, Beth, who has accompanied Tim on multiple occasions. “At the Claremont Soup Kitchen, he traded jokes with staff who were getting ready for service. We even paused for a few silly photos. There’s an ease and familiarity there, the kind that comes from people who see each other often and share a common purpose.”
Willing Hands completes about 80 deliveries every week, and each site is unique. Some larger sites have staff to meet Tim and help roll hand carts stacked with bins of vegetables back and forth from the truck to a kitchen or storage room. Smaller sites, like a food shelf, may have a few volunteers to meet the truck and trade last week’s empty bins for this week’s full ones. At some sites, the food goes directly into the hands of neighbors. “It’s more than a truck delivery. Our staff member Tim is an incredible relationship builder, and he has an amazing connection to the many volunteers who support the food access sites as well as the community members who visit,” said Willing Hands Board President, Stacey Chiocchio.
Fridays are the busiest day on the road for Tim. The Willing Hands truck drives a whopping 92 miles, traveling as far south as Claremont. The route includes multiple deliveries to residential sites, where neighbors collect food directly from Tim. Stacey shared, “I giggled at the negotiations that sometimes go over convincing folks to try a new vegetable, like the beautiful baby eggplant or lovely bright green kale, which they may be less familiar with, in addition to the dreamy fresh corn or broccoli or tomatoes.” At another site Stacey visited, a veteran in a wheelchair rolled over and chatted with Tim for his weekly catch-up.
According to Beth, “Moments like these don’t make headlines. They happen quietly, every day. And they’re a reminder that this work is, at its core, about community—people doing what they can, from the best place in their hearts.”
At the end of the day, Tim returns to the Willing Hands warehouse, where any remaining food and empty bins are unloaded and the truck is cleaned. It’s parked in our barn for the night, ready to once again be filled with connection, excitement, support—and lots of fresh food— in the morning.