Michael Hildebrant unloading a food run.
We are so fortunate to have a lot of parents volunteering with their children. Our ChowMatch system and phone app make it easy for volunteers to view available food runs and sign up for a run that fits their schedule, and even sign up for a regular run. Annie Hildebrandt and her teen son Michael often do food runs together, as underage students are required to be accompanied by a parent. Annie works for herself in property management. Her work involves a lot of driving, and Annie often finds time to squeeze in a food run. Her son Michael attends Woodside Priory School, a school that places great emphasis on community service and giving back to the community. The Hildebrandt family started off with a splash in 2022: Annie’s husband Andreas delivered over 800 pounds of food in his truck to 5 recipients on his first day! To date, the family has done over 290 food runs, averaging about 10 runs a month. It’s quite a family affair: even Annie’s 9-year-old daughter and Annie’s mother have accompanied her on runs. Despite Michael’s after-school sports practice, he and his mom generously still find time to volunteer – even on Michael’s 16th birthday, two days before Thanksgiving! Delivering to Spring Street Shelter, Michael says, “It’sit’s so great to see everyone come outside smiling and happy to see the food arriving.” He enjoys spending time with family doing food runs together, and serving others. His school requires only a few hours of community service a year, but Michael volunteers several times a month, including volunteering at a soup kitchen.
We encourage our runners to choose food runs that are close to them to maintain a low carbon footprint. Fortunately, Annie purchased an EV last year that comes with two years of free charging. We noticed Annie signed up for some extra-long runs quite far from her home, around 30 to 40 miles. It turns out Michael had just gotten his driver’s license. So Annie picked out a few extra-long distance runs to give Michael more practice driving. The longest run was 64 miles round trip! Fortunately, Michael only needed to do a few such long distance runs. We immensely appreciate the Hildebrandt family’s dedication to serving the communityappreciate the Hildebrandt family’s dedication to serving the community immensely. It’s so inspirational!