As Australian charities see record demand for services, many are struggling to meet the needs of their communities due to a shortage of volunteers.
At the Jimboomba Community Centre south-west of Brisbane, volunteers are run off their feet.
The centre is run by not-for-profit Able Australia and relies on volunteers to cook and deliver meals-on-wheels and operate a community pantry to support the region's most vulnerable.
But with demand almost doubling in the past three months and volunteers significantly lower than pre-pandemic numbers, those in charge are worried about the centre's future.
Volunteering Australia said this was an issue across the country, with the number of volunteers dropping by 2.3 million (12.2per cent) between late 2019 and April 2021.
Volunteers and staff 'drowning in work'
Edmund McMahon is the manager of a number of Able Australia sites, including the community centre at Jimboomba.
"We provide many services including community transport [and] meals-on-wheels," he said.
"We operate a food pantry for people who might be experiencing some financial distress, we provide emergency relief, we support the homeless and we also provide support to those living with a disability.
"Normally we would be producing about 500 meals a month [but] last month we were up to 900 consistently.
The organisation relies heavily on volunteers to provide its much-needed services.
"Through this site we have 60 to 70 volunteers, so they underpin all of our activities," Mr McMahon said.
"We just can't do the job without our volunteers."
Food services coordinator Tanya Rose said low volunteer numbers and a lack of freezer storage meant the organisation was struggling to keep up.
"We actually have waiting lists for meals-on-wheels because we just don't have the space to store and manage the need for the community," she said.
"We're running six weeks behind every week because of a lack of storage.
"It's a bit sad. We could provide much more if we had a bit more space with freezers.
"We're drowning in workload and volunteers are needed."
Volunteer shortage a national issue
Volunteering Queensland CEO Mara Basanovic said there had been an 80 per cent drop in volunteering programs across Australia when the pandemic hit.
"They either closed down completely, or they suspended their programs," she said.
"We worked through the first round of COVID [and] almost all of those organisations came back in some way, or merged, and most of the volunteers came back, except the older cohort.
Ms Basanovic said charities were working to get back to pre-pandemic levels but many elderly volunteers were nervous about getting back out and about.
"There is an awful lot of angst among volunteers, particularly older volunteers," she said.
"Every time there is a new COVID scare — and the Delta variant now has created lots of anxiety — we've seen lots of volunteers, again, drop out."
Ms Basanovic said charities had to work hard to be flexible for volunteers while staying engaged with those who left in 2020.
"With older volunteers dropping out, we're losing such richness of experience and also, numbers in our volunteering cohort," she said.
"What's really important is that we're trying to support organisations to keep in touch with their volunteers.
"We might be seeing a dip now, but that dip will hopefully reverse itself and volunteers will be comfortable about coming back."
Volunteers urge others to put hands up for rewarding role
Michael Grabi has been a volunteer driver for the Jimboomba Community Centre for five years.
He helps prepare, pack, and deliver food with the meals-on-wheels program.
"It's a lot of work because we do have a lot of customers," he said.
Mr Grabi said being a volunteer was incredibly rewarding and urged more people get involved.
"I see in the faces of the customers that they want to talk to somebody, they want to have interaction," he said.
"It's not just delivering a meal, it's the interaction with the people, the connection."
Mr McMahon said the centre would continue doing all it can for the community and applauded the work of his current volunteers for keeping the centre running as best they can.
"We are grappling with COVID; it's a constant flux and there's a lot of chaos from that but what's astounding is the commitment and passion that's coming through in the staff and volunteers in my organisation," he said.
"That support sees individuals working every day with vulnerable people [and] providing that support to individuals in our society who without that, are in real trouble."
