On Wednesday mornings at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank’s Marin warehouse, Matelina, who goes by Mattie, sorts through pallet boxes of donations, checking expiration dates before anything reaches the shop floor. She’s been volunteering multiple days a week since 2019.
“[Volunteering at the Food Bank] gives me a purpose to live,” Mattie said. “It’s nice to have a schedule to get up and have a purpose.”
At 80, retired and widowed, Mattie could be doing anything with her Wednesdays. But purpose isn’t a word she uses lightly; she’s spent her life choosing it.
She keeps a folded piece of paper in her back pocket — a quote from Winston Churchill:
“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.”
Born in American Samoa, Mattie came to San Francisco at 13 to get an education and supported herself through school with office work and odd jobs. At 18, she was in the audience at a luau when the building caught fire. She was badly burned, spent three years in and out of the hospital, went through 19 surgeries, and lost the use of her hands. But the nurses who cared for her at St. Mary’s Hospital changed the course of her life.
“That’s what made me want to be a nurse,” she said.
Mattie regained use of her hands, went on to work as a registered nurse in orthopedics, married a wonderful man, and raised three step kids in Marin. But even in the good years, she remembers the challenges of her journey and how she got there.
“I’ve never forgotten where I came from,” she said. “So, I just keep giving and giving because it’s very satisfying and meaningful.”
Mattie found the Food Bank through an ad in a local paper. She started with two days a week. Then added a third, and then, during COVID, a fourth. 
Today she oversees the shop floor on Wednesdays and works the warehouse on Tuesdays and Fridays. There’s a spot on the table the staff calls Mattie’s World. As she sorts through donations, Mattie pulls aside items she thinks would suit a senior or someone living alone, extras to go with the produce, proteins, and groceries the Food Bank distributes.
“She’s just so integral to everything that we’re doing,” said Randy Rollman, senior warehouse coordinator in Marin. “The leadership, setting a good example for the rest of the volunteers. They’re very meticulous about the way they take care of business up there.”
On Fridays, Mattie helps pack bags of groceries for homebound seniors who can’t get to a pantry. Each one holds frozen food, vegetables, fruit, rice, pasta, and eggs.
“When we do the Friday delivery, I don’t see the people,” she said. “We just see the bags and the food.”
But Mattie knows they’re out there. She packs each bag around 30 pounds heavy, enough to feed a home for a week.
This April, for Volunteer Appreciation Month, we’re recognizing the people like Mattie who show up week after week to make this work possible. More than 55,000 volunteers a year help us provide fresh food to 44,000 households across San Francisco and Marin.
And Mattie has a message for anyone thinking about joining:
“We need to have you. We’d love to have you join us. We have a fabulous group of people and you’d really enjoy being with us.”
Share