This month’s staff highlight features Cynthia Sandoval, Customer Service Representative in our Wallingford warehouse.

My day begins with phone calls. “Good morning… I need assistance with…” or “I’m having trouble placing my order…” to… “May I please have a copy of an invoice?” I love to hear from the agencies, and I try my best to assist. Changing from the Operation side to Customer Service Representative has given me an opportunity to build a relationship with our partner agencies. I enjoy this!

My experience with Food Banking has been over 14 years; 12 years at the Chicago Food Bank and 2 ½ years at Connecticut Food Bank | Foodshare. It is a different setting but same concept, from the morning hustle to get the food out to opening the inbound mail with donations. The teams at the Food Bank work hand in hand. It doesn’t matter what department you are in. Each department holds a connecting dot to each other that makes our mission possible.

Food banks rely on our partner agencies. They are the key to distributing food to our communities. Some struggle with obtaining volunteers, space, and even cash flow to stay open. Are there bumps along the road…YES! Communication is the key to feeding the communities. From rescheduling orders to helping when an ordering deadline has passed. When challenges occur there is that adrenaline that takes over and agencies go into high gear, and the work sometimes feels like we are ants working together trying to scramble to collect something useful and take it home.

To all the agencies… Kudos for your hard work and dedication! Without you, our mission would not be possible.