There are people in need in every community, and Veronica Haymore is an expert at finding them.

Haymore taught high school math before becoming a stay at home mom to her four children. The oldest is now 18 and the youngest is 10, giving Haymore time to fill while the kids are in school.

“Actually, most of my days are filled with volunteer work,” Haymore said.

She volunteers at Northwest Harvest, a hunger-relief agency that provides food to local food banks. Haymore also helps at Union Gospel Mission.

But her forte is finding needs – and filling them – in the communities she circles in on a more regular basis.

She is an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints and can always find someone in her church community who needs a helping hand, Haymore said. During the COVID-19 pandemic, those needs have grown, and Haymore has been busy helping out.

A huge part of their church culture is “recognizing the needs of others and filling them in any way possible,” she said.

Simple things like checking in on older friends, going to the store for neighbors who are home alone with their young children and seeing how she can help people who have lost their jobs are all things she has done in recent weeks.

“I don’t think people have to look too far in their community to help,” Haymore said. “I feel like I take advantage of talking to people in my life.”

It’s easy for people to forget how many communities they belong to, Haymore said.

“Everybody has communities, even if they don’t recognize it,” she said. “They have school communities, neighborhood communities, church communities, family communities.”

When it comes to more formal volunteering, Haymore often chooses places where she isn’t actually in contact with people in need.

“I had worked at other food banks and this one was definitely the most organized and always had endless needs,” Haymore said. “I loved the people. I loved how efficient and prepared they were for their volunteers.”

While she never comes in contact with the people getting the food, Haymore said it’s easy to see how the work she does at Northwest Harvest directly impacts the community.

“I love that the work stays within our community,” Haymore said. “They explain point A to point B, we’re doing this and this is how it gets there.”

At Northwest Harvest, Haymore packs boxes for the “Three Square” program that provides food for children with limited resources to eat outside of school.

Packing food donated by local grocery stores or from nearby farms also offers a chance to see people come together.

“I just feel like I’m a small piece of something the whole community is working on,” Haymore said.

Haymore said she also gains inspiration from those volunteering around her and thinking about those her service affects.

“I feel like I get outside of myself and it’s helping other people, but it’s actually also helping me,” Haymore said. “In turn, it blesses my life.”

While Haymore said she has been practicing social distancing, she continues to brighten peoples’ days, even if it’s just by sending someone an encouraging text or email to empathize with the disruption the pandemic has wrought in their lives.

“I think that everyone knows somebody that they can shoot a text to and say, ‘I’m thinking of you and say I’m so sorry this didn’t happen as planned,’ ” Haymore said.