Happy Father’s Day to all the dads in our community! We are thankful to the many dads and grandads who lend their time, strength, and the occasional dad joke to our community at the CEC.
This Father’s Day, we wanted to introduce you to Frank (left) and Drew (right), a father-son duo who have been volunteering together at ACCFB for over a year.
It’s easy to see that they truly enjoy and appreciate spending time together. You can find Frank and Drew cracking jokes, laughing together, and saying hi to folks in the Community Engagement Center every other week. This relationship is remarkable to witness; how they’ve handled a situation they never thought would happen to them and how they care for one another.
Their lives changed when Drew experienced a stroke at the age of 21 and Frank retired early to focus on full-time caregiving. Drew shared, “My dad and I are a team.” During their volunteer shifts, Frank and Drew work side-by-side lifting, sorting, and tying bags of produce together. In his 30s now, Drew experiences weakness in his right arm and has aphasia – a disorder that affects communication in speech, writing, and sometimes cognition. It’s important to Drew to share his experiences with aphasia, regularly speaking at organizations and educating folks about how it affects nearly 2 million people in the United States.
For Frank and Drew, being able to spend quality time together in a space where they can work as a team outside of their daily routine at the Community Engagement Center is really meaningful to them and what they look forward to bi-weekly.
“We’re grateful for the path life took us on. It brought us to the Food Bank. We’re really pleased we’ve been able to help ACCFB and the community out. ACCFB has also helped us out.”
Many thanks to Frank and Drew and all the fathers in our Food Bank family for their excellent work throughout our community! We’re so grateful to work alongside folks who exude joy in all that they do.
