HALIFAX - It's the peak of the Christmas gift-buying rush and Galen Aker hurriedly packs boxes.
They won't be adorned with shiny wrapping paper or bows, but it's what's inside that really counts: canned vegetables, dry pasta and jars of peanut butter for thousands of Nova Scotians in need.
Aker could be at home in Hubley, N.S., enjoying his holiday break from university, but the 22-year-old says volunteering beats "just sitting back on your couch."
"It's not a chore to come," says Aker, surrounded by stacks of cardboard boxes that fill one of Feed Nova Scotia's warehouses in Halifax.
"Pretty much all we have to give is our time and our effort. We can give money, we can give food - which is great - but if you want make that extra step, all it takes is really one shift."
Feed Nova Scotia collects and delivers food donations for 150 meal programs and food banks throughout the province. The services help feed some 38,000 people a month.
Seeing young people walk through the charity's doors, happy to lend a hand is encouraging, says its executive director."They want to do something, not because mom and dad said they should or have to, but because they have ... a heart and want to make a difference," says Dianne Swinemar.
"I think those are good, future citizens who will lead our country."
At the warehouse, chatter and laughter cuts through the humming of the overhead lights as Aker sorts tin cans according to Canada's Food Guide with other volunteers for a few hours.
Aker, who's studying communications and history at the University of Calgary, began helping out at Feed Nova Scotia last December with his family before getting hired on for the summer. This year it's another family affair, with Aker's parents, two siblings and uncle pitching in.
While the work doesn't take up much time, Aker says not everyone his age is willing to make the commitment.
"I would believe either they don't feel compelled that it's their problem or that they need to be part of the solution or they just don't know how," he says.
Jason Mikolajek, 19, understands first-hand the importance of all those cardboard boxes brimming with food.
Years ago, while growing up in Ottawa, Mikolajek says his family visited a food bank a couple of times when it was tough to make ends meet.
"Now that I've volunteered here, I can say that I've been on both sides of the food bank table," says Mikolajek, wearing a tuque over a baseball cap in the chilly warehouse.
"I wanted to put some work back into the system."
Mikolajek has spent three months chipping in at Feed Nova Scotia as part of Katimavik, a program that pairs Canadian youth with volunteer placements across the country.
"The feeling you get knowing that you're making a difference and helping people, it's very affirming," says Mikolajek, who hopes to eventually attend Carleton University in Ottawa and study earth sciences.
Swinemar, who's worked with Feed Nova Scotia for nearly two decades, says volunteerism provides valuable lessons for young people, whether they wind up working in the non-profit sector or the corporate world someday.
"You can't think they're not going to be socially conscious, socially aware individuals who will be talking to their peers and their employers about ways to contribute back to community," she says.
"They'll always be trying to find ways to give back to community because that's what they're doing now."
