John Anderson has participated in our Home Team Volunteers program for 3 years. He is an outstanding representative of the values and goals of Home Team Volunteers. Recently, he was recognized for scoring a perfect 100% on a “Secret Shop” for customer service at Petco Park. For his achievement he received a $100 gift card to Walmart. I had the chance to ask John a few questions about his experience.- Scott Whan

SW: What brought you to your Sober Living program and to participating in Home Team Volunteers?
JA: I had 28 years of chemical dependency and 5 years of homelessness. I finally decided I wanted to serve God instead of my addiction.

SW: What stand did you work at Petco Park?
JA: I worked at the Bayview Grill Stand 107 as a cashier initially and then as the Inventory Manager.

SW: How has Canning Hunger/Home Team Volunteers impacted your journey in life?
JA: It built my confidence up and renewed my belief that I had the ability to succeed in life.

SW: What is your favorite part of the volunteer work that we do?
JA: I love the public relations/customer service aspect. The highlight for me was scoring that 100% when I was tested on the secret shop.

SW: What are your plans for the future and how has Home Team Volunteers helped prepare you for that?
JA: It has helped prepare me to rejoin society as a productive member. I look forward to helping and serving others in the future.

It's always great to work at a stadium where the home team is doing well. There's just so much excitement in the air, the fans are into the games, and business is usually really good. Home Team Volunteers has had the privilege to work for many winning teams in the past and this year has been exceptionally successful for the home teams. Go Home Team!

• Texas Rangers- 2010 AL Champions and 2011 AL West Champions
• Dallas Mavericks- 2011 NBA Champions
• Arizona Diamondbacks- Leading the NL West in 2011
• Detroit Tigers- Leading the AL Central in 2011
• San Jose Sharks- 2011 NHL Playoff participants
• Stanford Cardinal Football- BCS Orange Bowl Champions and ranked in the top 5 in 2011

Home Team Volunteers mounted it’s most ambitious effort ever for the 2011 MLB All Star game at Chase Field. Over the 3 day event Home Team Volunteers provided just over 800 volunteers. We staffed over 25 concessions stands each day. Countless hours of preparation and coordination went into planning this event.

Canning Hunger brought in Home Team Area Coordinators from Detroit (JaRon Wilson), Dallas (Stacy Williams), San Diego (Mick Jenkins), and Orange County (Gretchen Whan and Rocky Whan) to assist Karen Haskell, the Phoenix Area Coordinator, to orchestrate a smooth operation. Dr. Norm and Scott Whan were on hand to help oversee the event. Add to that over 120 volunteers that came from California to bolster our local volunteer team. The volunteers from California were housed by our “Angel in Tempe”, Michelle Cruz, who provided apartment units for our volunteers to stay in.

Our core volunteer team in Phoenix prepared for weeks in advance by training up new leads and assistant leads to take on new stands and provided the leadership to work alongside of their brothers and sisters from Southern California. In addition, we worked hand in hand with our Corporate Partners, Levy Restaurants, who matched our energy, dedication, and commitment every step of the way. They provided the highest level of professionalism, expertise, and cooperation. In the end, I believe it was Home Team Volunteer’s, Levy Restaurant’s, and Chase Field’s “finest hour”. It is reported that the President of Levy Restaurants deemed the event to be, “nearly flawless”.

Canning Hunger could not be prouder of the 270 Home Team Volunteers team members that brought their A game every day and made this event a monumental success.

For 3 years the Home Team Volunteers National Director, Scott Whan, has been talking with Delaware North Company Operations Manager Charlie Millerwise, about the possibility of Home Team Volunteers launching in Detroit. In 2011 the dream became a reality.

Dr. Norm and Scott began developing our Detroit team late in 2010. After several plane rides, a few setbacks, transplanting a new Area Coordinator, JaRon Wilson from Arizona, and a lot of prayer, Home Team Volunteers arrived at a cold and rainy opening day with 75 volunteers. DNC at Comerica Park dedicated some of their largest stands to Home Team Volunteers with high hopes and high expectations that we would shine for them.

As with all new ventures, this one has come with its challenges but we hit our stride and finished the year strong. We are proud to be part of the DNC team at Comerica Park. In a depressed economy and a town that is lacking a positive outlook for many people, Home Team Volunteers Detroit has offered men and women in transition a positive experience, hope, and brighter future.

In 2010 Home Team Volunteers expanded into Northern California to provide staffing for HP Pavilion in San Jose and at Stanford University in Palo Alto. Our team is small but successful and we look forward to building on a solid foundation of capable, reliable, and enthusiastic volunteers. We are proud to work for Aramark at HP Pavilion for the San Jose Sharks games.

At Stanford University we are staffing one of the marquee stands at the football stadium for the nationally ranked Cardinal football team, and we have worked several Basketball and volleyball events at Maples Pavilion and for the Stanford baseball and softball teams. We have been well received as a new concessions team and are excited about the future in No Cal!

For five seasons Home Team Volunteers has been a part of the Aramark team at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. Our volunteers have the privilege of working in one of the truly magical venues in America. The hottest and brightest acts in the world line up to play this beautiful outdoor amphitheater. There are only two permanent concession stands that serve the hungry and thirsty concert goers.

Since our start at the Greek, we have provided the volunteers to work the South Stand. Building on a reputation of hard work and success we were granted the opportunity to take on the North Stand this season. We jumped at the chance and are thrilled to have 30 volunteers on hand for every concert. Aramark has placed a lot of trust in Home Team Volunteers and we are dedicated to providing the best volunteer staff we can. Home Team Volunteers is proud to make the Greek Theater one of our flagship venues in Southern California.

In 2009 Home Team Volunteers was invited by Levy Restaurants to join its new venue: Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA. Building on a strong history with Levy Restaurants and our relationship with the management from the new venue we were confident of a successful launch.

However, we hit an unforeseen snag. At the volunteer training we joined a few of the other groups lined up to fill the 5 permanent stands at the arena. The other groups were comprised of a soccer club, a high school volleyball team, a fraternity and a sorority. Needless to say our volunteers from transitional living homes stood out in that room. To be blunt, we weren’t as young and cute as they were.

The owners of the new building were on hand to see their concessions team first hand. I (Scott Whan) was called over by Levy management and informed that the owners were a little concerned about our team. That perhaps they would prefer to work with the younger, prettier groups in the room. I had just one request of the new owners: Don’t judge a book by its cover. I knew we looked a little different than the other groups but I also knew that our volunteers can usually run circles around most other groups in a concession stand. I asked them to give us just two weeks. If, after two weeks, they still had their concerns then we would bow out gracefully.

Well, it only took an event or two for everyone to realize that Home Team Volunteers was comprised of smiling, enthusiastic, hard working men and women that knew how to run a concession stand really well. We quickly earned a reputation for being reliable and competent. In 2011 we are firmly entrenched in the Levy family at Citizens Business Bank Arena and have expanded to take on more of the work at the arena than we were originally assigned. We are thankful for the chance that Levy and CBBA gave us to prove that you can’t always judge a book by its cover.

San Diego is known as America’s finest city. Spend a day at Petco Park and you would have to agree. It is a beautiful downtown stadium that has great architecture and features wonderful views of the nearby bay.

Since 2007 Home Team Volunteers has been privileged to be part of the Delaware North Company team at Petco Park. They were the first to dedicate multiple concession stands to us and count on us for 100 + volunteers for each event. It was your textbook risk vs. reward situation. DNC risked counting on one group too heavily. The reward would come only if we could satisfy such a large portion of their staffing needs reliably and capably with a team of volunteers that was well managed and highly committed to the task.

After nearly five seasons we are still going strong and we hope to have made good on the trust DNC placed in Home Team Volunteers. The rewards extend far beyond a reliable staff for Padres games. Hundreds of Home Team Volunteers have capitalized on their experience at the ballpark to develop their job readiness, gain confidence to enter the work force, and enhance their qualifications to show future employers. Many of our volunteers have been hired on as hourly employees at Petco Park and countless more have graduated their programs and found gainful employment, securing an independent and self-sufficient future for themselves and their families. Now that’s a Petco Paradise!

One of the unique demonstrations of the strength of Home Team Volunteers is shown in the willingness of our groups to hit the road and fill large staffing orders in other territories. On numerous occasions groups from Southern California have travelled and stayed in Phoenix to ensure that we met the needs of our Arizona venues. We could not have staffed 5 Spring Training locations, MLB All Stars, and several high profile Diamondbacks games if it weren’t for our SoCal road warriors who went the extra mile (600 of them actually) for Home Team Volunteers in Phoenix.

In Detroit, we were in need of a new group of volunteers to bolster our staff at Comerica Park. Who would have known that we would find that group all the way in Texas. One of our Home Team groups in Dallas, A Solid Foundation, hived off 10 volunteers who agreed to pick up stakes and move to Detroit for the rest of the baseball season. They brought with them a wealth of experience, sold out dedication, and just the right infusion of new volunteers to help make our first season at Comerica Park a success.

In Dallas, Texas we have developed a territory and a team of volunteers that stays busy year round. We have the privilege of working 81+ games at the Ballpark at Arlington, 82 + Mavs and Stars games at American Airlines Center, plus dozens of additional concerts and events, and all of the FC Dallas soccer games at Pizza Hut Park. This all adds up to our busiest year round territory in the country totaling well over 200 events per year.

One of the inevitable challenges we face each year are the overlapping events when the end of one season coincides with the start of another. That is only compounded when we are working for championship contenders whose seasons are extended with playoff success. The past two seasons have challenged our Home Team Dallas operation to build up our volunteer staff to provide double coverage for multiple venues that are operating on the same day.

Three or four years ago the reality of staffing 130 + volunteers spread out at two high profile venues seemed like an impossibility. But our Dallas team rose to the challenge time and time again. With the tireless efforts of our Area Coordinator, Stacy Williams, and the dedication and cooperation of our volunteers and group directors we have met every challenge along the way. Sometimes it’s all you’ve got to answer the bell on an ordinary day. Then there are those times when you find out that you can run a little longer, a little harder, and a little faster than you ever thought possible. Home Team Dallas reminds us that nothing is impossible!