The volunteers who walk through the doors at Midwest Food Bank not only make our operations better, they leave an impression on everyone around them.

With sadness, the New England location of MFB shares the news of the unexpected passing of Warren Zahner. Warren was one of the key people involved when MFB New England was established in 2021. He and his wife, Bonnie, volunteered to lead groups of volunteers for bulk repackaging projects.

In 2022, the couple assumed the role of volunteer agency coordinators.

"They flourished in this position, collaborating on learning the technology and managing the onboarding, scheduling, and ongoing communications with 140-plus agency partners," says Jan Young, MFB New England Executive Director.

In this role, they helped MFB establish relationships with food partners so their needs could be met while MFB New England was getting started and growing. "Warren especially enjoyed personally visiting many of our agency locations, exhibiting keen interest in both people and operations," says Jan. "He deeply appreciated the many new relationships and perspectives they brought to him."

Warren liked the physical work that is part of MFB, too.

"On distribution days, you could generally find him calmly loading boxes into trucks, assuring us it was all going to get done," says Jan.

MFB New England benefitted and is better because of Warren's investment of time and perspective in our mission. He will be missed. Bonnie plans to continue her role as volunteer agency coordinator.

Please join MFB in praying for Bonnie and supporting her as she goes forward.