Wanda Riley started volunteering at Sojourner Truth House’s food pantry in 2016. One day each week, she helps visitors to the pantry who need food, clothing, or personal hygiene products. As a community intake volunteer, she greets all who drive or walk up to the pantry and makes sure that their information is correct.

Over the years, Wanda has helped many people who have touched her heart, like a man who needed food but did not speak English. Through a language translation app on a cell phone, the man was able to explain that he’d recently moved to the Gary area but was homeless and needed assistance. Using the app, Wanda spoke back to him in his own language and provided him with simple, ready-to-go meals with pull-tabs, pastas with lids, and other food that didn’t need to be heated.

“This makes you appreciate what you have at home,” Wanda said, adding that she devotes her time to volunteering at Sojourner Truth House because it gives her joy to help her neighbors.