Meet the volunteers at heart of the NDG Food Depot

The NDG Food Depot attracts the young and old and that's not just those who turn to the community-based non-profit organization for food baskets or to eat a healthy meal. It also includes those who volunteer their time to lend a hand preparing them.

"You're serving your community, and people are people and they're in a vulnerable position. But they come in and so many of them are so kind and so appreciative that, really, I don't know who is getting more out of the interaction," says Elaine Arshinoff, a volunteer at the NDG Food Depot for the last two years.

• CBC Montreal's 2015 Christmas Sing-In supporting NDG Food Depot
• BLOG:CBC Christmas Sing-In: Confessions of an embedded chorister

Every year, hundreds of volunteers like Arshinoff help to prepare food baskets, make lunch boxes for children or teach healthy-cooking workshops.

"I think that the biggest eye-opener for me is that it's more than what you would expect there's education, there's cooking programs, there's the food bank, there's the baskets, but then there's helping people get housing, helping people find jobs and really just improve and encourage people to be an independent as possible," says Valerie Goldberg, a McGill student interning at the Depot.

Last year, 750 volunteers donated a total of 13,000 hours of their time and distributed more than 13,000 food baskets to people in the community more than half of them to families.

• CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE SING-IN CHARITY DRIVE

Mike Poirier, a volunteer since June, says the NDG Food Depot is also good for the soul.

"People come in here, they might not need a basket or anything like that, but they need human contact," he said."The soul can get just as hungry for human contact as the body gets for food, and it's just as important to life. So they come in, they sit down, they have a meal, they meet their community. They go home feeling human."

This is the second year in a row that the NDG Food Depot is CBC's chosen charity for its annual Christmas Sing-In. Last year, CBC collected a record-breaking $30,516.70 from its charity drive.

You still have time to donate. Save these dates:

Friday, Dec. 11

• You can drop off non-perishable food donations on Dec. 11, when CBC will be broadcasting live from the NDG Food Depot (2146 Marlowe Avenue) from 5:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m., with Daybreak, Radio Noon,Homerun and CBC Montreal News. Join in the fun and meet the CBC Montreal team.

Sunday, Dec. 13

• Join the chorus for the CBC Christmas Sing-In at the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul (Sherbrooke Street West at the corner of Redpath Street) at 3 p.m. and at Bourgie Hall at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Sherbrooke Street West, corner of du Muse). Doors open at 2 p.m. Admission is free.