Providing Homes with Baskets of Happiness

Meet Daily Point of Light Award honoree Camille Coppola. Read her story, and nominate an outstanding volunteer or family as a Daily Point of Light.

Camille Coppola, a U.S. veteran originally from New York, spends her days volunteering at Our Daily Bread Dining Room in Middletown, Delaware. Camille has a life’s worth of accolades, from receiving her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hunter College and Queen College in New York to ranking as captain in the Adjutant General Corps to completing her MBA at Northwest University… and the list goes on. After finishing her career as an investigator for the Department of Labor, she retired in 2016, and not long after she began volunteering at Our Daily Bread Dining Room.

Our Daily Bread is an organization that strives to end hunger in the United States. It works with low-income families, individuals and children who need food in the Middletown, Odessa and Townsend communities of Delaware. Its goal is to provide the members of their community with nutritional and healthy meals to fill their bellies.

Each month, Our Daily Bread serves food to over 1,200 people by providing 3,600 meals and distributing over 5,000 pounds of food to their local communities. With the diligent help of their 300 volunteers, comparable to the work of Camille, they continue to provide food to their neighbors.

Camille uses her background and fondest memories with her mother to ensure that everyone who comes to Our Daily Bread leaves with full bellies and smiles on their faces. This reminds her of her Italian family and the importance of always looking out for others.

What inspires you to volunteer?

When I moved to Delaware, I found myself having a significant amount of time on my hands. And I started to wonder what I should do during Thanksgiving, since I had no family and I didn’t really have any friends. We saw an advertisement in the library for one of the local churches that sponsored a Thanksgiving dinner. We started going over to this place called St. Ann’s, and we volunteered and peeled potatoes and helped prep an entire Thanksgiving meal for people. After that, I saw an advertisement for Our Daily Bread. My friend and I signed up, and we took the training and volunteered to do whatever needed to be done. I started as a server and did dishes, and as the organization evolved, the role I took on changed as well.

In my opinion, food equals happiness, and happiness is what we need a little more of in this world. I think Mother Teresa said it best, you know, what are we here for? It’s not your cooking. It’s not your wealth. You have to take care of people. Get outside yourself. So that’s what brought me to Our Daily Bread.

Tell us about your volunteer role with Our Daily Bread Dining Room.

At Our Daily Bread, I am a Serve Safe manager, kitchen manager and member of the board of directors. I oversee food safety preparation to ensure the food is prepared and served correctly according to restaurant guidelines. I also create weekly and monthly menus for the 200 meals we serve each day. My role includes recruiting and training cooks and many other day-to-day tasks.

But I am just a little cog in the wheel. I may be allowed to be a cog, but Our Daily Bread is a team effort that accomplishes a lot with the help of 300 or more volunteers. With the work of so many incredible people who give themselves every day, it’s essential to recognize them as well.

What are your long-term plans or goals for the organization?

Our Daily Bread hopes to expand and offer more meals on Saturdays and Sundays. It would be great to expand our services to seven days a week. The challenge we face with executing this is our high turnover rate. Currently, volunteers consist of seniors and students who only volunteer when school is in session. We should get more volunteers to help fill the gap and who can cater to supporting those in need. I can see myself doing this for another few years, but beyond that 80, I still need to find out.

What’s been the most rewarding part of your work?

The most rewarding part of our work at Our Daily Bread is the smiles on the faces of the people we serve and getting “thank you” from strangers. There was a family of seven we helped serve during COVID-19. The mother and father lost their jobs, and they would come in a great big van and pick up food for the family. One of their little boys, maybe around 4 years old, comes outside the truck, turns to his mother, and goes, “Mommy, you know, broccoli. Can we have broccoli?” And we all looked at each other and just smiled. Our joy is the difference we make in people’s lives. If it’s just recognition or having them say, “I haven’t had that in so long. That’s wonderful. Thank you so much.” It’s not for us. It’s for them.

What have you learned through your experiences as a volunteer?

I’ve learned to be humble, appreciate the little things in life, not take anything for granted and smile and say thank you.

Tell us about future partnerships, programs or events that you are excited about.

About two weeks ago, we had our annual fundraiser, and we plan to have two more in November and December. During these fundraisers, we provide food baskets to guests. We give them a complete meal, and they have to go home and cook it, but we give them the turkey and all the trimmings for Thanksgiving and Christmas. We are really looking forward to our end-of-year food donations; it just makes everybody feel good.

Why should others get involved with causes they care about?

That’s a hard one. We hear so much about what’s wrong with the world and the United States, but what are we doing about it? Volunteering and lending a hand are the right things to do, and we should all be involved in what’s right.

Any advice for people who want to start volunteering?

Just do it! Check out our website, sign up, drive by, come in and bring your kids. It’s a learning experience for children of all ages. They get to see how the other half lives, and it makes them a little less focused on their tablets and themselves when talking to different people. We serve many groups of people, and with Veterans Day coming up, the more, the merrier. But in all, do something!

What do you want people to learn from your story?

Well, if I can do it, anybody can. If you have a talent, whatever it is, whether it’s construction, cooking, sewing or knitting, just do it. Somebody can use your talents. There’s no need to keep your talent under a bushel. There is a tremendous need in America, and we should make it a better place for ourselves or for someone else. And the best part of your reward is watching them.

Do you want to make a difference in your community like Camille? Find local volunteer opportunities.