Meet Stephen Rogers - A Volunteer Building A Legacy of Service

We're thrilled to shine a spotlight on one of our incredible volunteers — Stephen Rogers! Stephen brings a lifetime of experience and compassion to his service. A retired residential homebuilder, Stephen is now a dedicated and familiar face at Urban Recipe, where he volunteers regularly to support local food access efforts. But his commitment to serving others doesn’t stop there — he also travels the globe giving back through a service program with Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Whether he's lending a hand close to home or across continents, Stephen's heart for service inspires us all!

Learn more about Stephen in our interview below!

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Which Nonprofit Organization(s) do you volunteer with?

Urban Recipe. Peachtree Presbyterian Church. Habitat for Humanity.

What impact areas or pressing needs facing Atlanta do you care about most? Why?

Pressing needs facing Atlanta that I focus most on are food insecurity, or how will someone feed their family next week, and housing.

What do you love most about an organization you volunteer with? Why do you volunteer with them?

Many years ago while in high school, college, and graduate school, I worked in a grocery store. Fast forward to a couple years ago and my approaching retirement, I sought out Urban Recipe, which does tremendous work distributing food to help combat food insecurity. I appreciate Urban Recipe's model of cooperatives where people are invested in helping each other. A couple of times a month I'm able to work with other volunteers from all walks of life to package canned and frozen goods which are then delivered to the cooperatives where they are distributed equitably to the members of the co-ops. Urban Recipe is a wonderful delivery mechanism to help keep families and children from worrying quite so much about where their next meal will come from. It helps that the Urban Recipe staff are a joy to work with.

How has volunteering impacted your personal/professional life?

Whether volunteering with Urban Recipe, or Habitat for Humanity, or through my church, I always find that when I help others, I receive more reward than the effort I put into the volunteer activity.

What skills have you honed or what have you learned through your experience as a volunteer?

Something I have learned while volunteering with Urban Recipe is that because of their delivery model, much good quality food that might have gone to waste is finding it's way onto supper tables.

Can you share a memorable highlight or moment you've experienced that might motivate others to volunteer?

It was awesome to see a village in Malawi celebrate when a water well was dug and hit water. Women in Malawi are responsible for collecting water from creeks, often having to walk long distances to collect the water.

“Atlanta is home. I’m a member of Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, which supports numerous local charities and is how I learned about Urban Recipe. I’m a choral singer, and enjoy singing in our church choir as well as in the Emory University Chorus.”

— Stephen Rogers

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in getting involved with volunteering?

Find an opportunity to use your gifts, talents and interests to help others. Every person can make a difference.

Volunteering in April? Share where, when and if others can join you or how they can get involved.

In April I'm volunteering with Urban Recipe. Their sign-up is through Hands on Atlanta — sign up here.

Please list anything else you think our community should know about you, your volunteer service, or your commitment to Do Something Good! 

In the community, I regularly join with other volunteers to help out at Urban Recipe. Outside the local community, at the end of April I'm going to Guatemala with a group of men from Peachtree Church to support KidsAlive International doing construction work at a home for abused girls. At the end of July I'm going to Malawi to support high school and college kids through a program sponsored by Peachtree Church. Through the same program last summer, our church installed water wells in several villages, providing clean drinking water to those villages.