Young but mighty MEND volunteers

The Community Cupboard has a couple of volunteers that are starting early on giving back to their community. Seneca (9) and Levi Devlin Effland (12) regularly volunteer at the Cupboard with their mom, Kristin Effland.

Volunteering is a value Kristin grew up with—she has memories of volunteering as a child herself. She has also been on the other side of the counter, shopping at a food pantry in Seattle while she was a college student.

Kristin and Levi volunteered at the Cupboard together before COVID, when Levi was 5 years old. They stopped during the pandemic when the Cupboard had to limit the number of people in the space at any given time for social distancing. The three of them began to volunteer again in August 2025. Kristin usually brings one of the kids at a time for their shifts.

“I thought they would like it because it’s so practical,” says Kristin. “You can see why you’re doing it. It’s such a basic need.”

The family mainly does back-of-house work—instead of signing up for weekly shifts, back-of-house volunteers sign up for one 1.5-hour shift at a time as often as they like.

Since a lot of the Cupboard’s supplies come in bulk, Seneca and Levi help repackage goods from their original packaging to smaller packages for shoppers. Some of that work is more fun than others, they say.

“Dog food and lentils are funner than eggs,” says Seneca. “My favorites are the diapers because you get to write numbers on the bags.”

Learning the importance of giving back

Levi’s favorites are slightly different than his sister’s.

“Eggs and lentils,” he says. “Lentils are satisfying.”

“They often have us do dog and cat food because some other volunteers don’t like the smell,” says Kristin. “But we don’t mind.”

Discovering which supplies they prefer to package is just one thing the siblings have learned.

“I didn’t really realize how it helped the community before,” says Seneca.

“I didn’t realize how many people use it,” says Levi.

But the lessons go deeper than that. Seneca and Levi have also learned why having the Cupboard as a resource in the Upper Valley is so important.

“It’s a place for people who don’t have lots of money for basic needs, like food and kitchen supplies and food for pets,” says Levi. “People should just have rights to [getting those needs met], even if they don’t have enough money.”

Kristin has also noticed ways the volunteering has helped both of her kids that maybe aren’t as obvious. When she first started volunteering with Levi before COVID, he didn’t like practicing his writing at home. But when he was at the Cupboard, he worked hard to carefully print “dog” on all the bags of dog food during his volunteer shift.

“He wrote ‘dog’ maybe 100 times that day,” said Kristin. She could tell he was thinking, “I need to do this. It’s important for people.”

The family’s contributions—like those of all MEND volunteers—ensure tasks get done that staff may not have time to do on top of their other responsibilities.

"Kristin, Seneca, and Levi are a joy to have at the Cupboard,” says Food Access Coordinator Alana Springer. “We can count on them to do whatever is needed that day. In fact, Seneca and Levi are so efficient that it can be hard to keep up with them! I always look forward to the days they volunteer because I know we'll get lots done and laugh a bunch along the way."

This fall, Levi and Seneca both started at new schools. Levi is attending Icicle River Middle School and Seneca is at Alpine Lakes Elementary. Although tighter schedules may mean adjusting their volunteer schedules a bit, Kristin is confident they can still make it work—especially because both kids enjoy it. Seneca in particular gets sad when she can’t go.

“[The Cupboard] is a place to help the community get help when they need it,” says Seneca. “It’s important to make sure that everyone has access to food.”