by Hannah Harvey
As a local community member, Anjuman Nyman is passionate about serving her neighbors through volunteering at the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank, but her connection to our mission doesn’t end there. Anjuman has witnessed a close family member experience housing insecurity in New York as a result of long-term mental health challenges. “This has made me a lot more empathetic, because I have seen up close what it looks like to struggle (with food and resource insecurity),” Anjuman shared. For Anjuman, working
with her local community is her way of giving back, and she hopes that someone in New York can return that same kindness to her loved one.
Anjuman first volunteered with the Issaquah Food & Clothing Bank in 2018 when she took a leave of absence from work. With more time on her hands, she was looking for a way to get involved in her local community and started volunteering in the food bank. Anjuman even got her family involved with volunteering at the farmers' market during the summer, collecting unsold produce from the Issaquah Farmers Market to sort and distribute at the food bank. Looking back on this time, Anjuman reflected, “I think it helped us more than the community! It helped us get out of our heads and be more present.”
A few years after she returned to work, Anjuman retired from her career in Human Resources and was thrilled to reconnect with the food bank. “Volunteering at the food bank gives me the same sense of community that I had at work and was really missing,” she shared.
Earlier this year, Anjuman was awarded the Excellence Award in our 2026 IFCB Valued Volunteer Awards. In addition to being hands-on in the physical operations at the food bank, she shares her professional skills in process improvement through supporting our client data intake processes. Her keen insights into our day-to-day operations as core volunteer at IFCB, combined with her years of experience working in process improvement, makes her insight invaluable to our team.
She loves the flexibility of volunteering and is happy to be able to contribute to the mission in different ways. “There are so many ways you can get involved using your own skills. Whether you are a decorator, writer, have technical or computer skills- there is something for everyone,” she shared. “Volunteering is fun! You’re going to have a lot of fun, and I promise you will get something out of it, too.”