Breaking bread: Lyngblomsten volunteer finds connections and meaning in service
April 19, 2018
Longtime Lyngblomsten volunteer Len Eilts helps deliver bread each Tuesday morning to Lyngblomsten as part of the Wings of Nutrition Bread Program.
By Brandi Jewett
Tuesday mornings start early for longtime Lyngblomsten volunteer Len Eilts.
Around 6:30 AM, he and two fellow volunteers meet and board a Lyngblomsten bus headed to a nearby bakery warehouse operated by Brownberry Natural Foods. There, the group loads about 60 trays of bread, English muffins, and other baked goods into the bus for transport to Lyngblomsten.
Once back on campus, they are met by more volunteers who unload the bread and place it on tables for awaiting participants of Lyngblomsten’s Wings of Nutrition Bread Program, which provides free bread to anyone willing to pick it up. The program is of special value to Lyngblomsten’s low-income tenants and employees.
Those Tuesday mornings are a bright spot in the week for Eilts, who relishes the company of the volunteer group while serving people living in the community.
“I really enjoy working with the volunteers,” he said. “We have six or seven of us doing bread all the time, and we have coffee afterward. We have some good fellowship.”
Wings of Nutrition is the latest volunteering stint at Lyngblomsten for Eilts, who has more than 3,500 hours of volunteer service to his name. He started back in 2005 as a bus driver, taking residents and tenants to medical appointments or to grocery and retail stores for years.
Eilts also was actively involved with a café on the Lyngblomsten campus that was part of the former 5-5-1 Club community center. From his time there, he got to know many residents, tenants, staff, and volunteers, whom these days he gets to chat with when they come to collect their bread on Tuesday mornings.
For six years, Eilts’ service at Lyngblomsten extended beyond his role as a volunteer. From 2010 to 2016, he served on the Lyngblomsten Board of Directors. He said the experience allowed him to connect with many members of the Lyngblomsten community and support the organization and its mission in another capacity.
Since retiring from the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 2000, Eilts has looked to volunteering as a means of filling his time in a purposeful way. He has served through his church, St. Timothy Lutheran (a Lyngblomsten corporate congregation); Habit for Humanity; and other organizations.
“I just enjoy volunteering,” he said. “I needed something to do in retirement, and this is a great way to be of service to Lyngblomsten and the community.”
Volunteers like Eilts help Lyngblomsten fulfill its mission by supporting staff and bringing energy to their service. In total, volunteers provided more than 36,100 hours of service to Lyngblomsten in 2017.
Interested in becoming a volunteer for Lyngblomsten? Visit our Volunteering page for more information about volunteer opportunities: www.lyngblomsten.org/volunteer.
