Congratulations J.J. Hughes, our Volunteer of the Quarter - Rural routes - for the first quarter fiscal year 2025-26. J.J. is a great help in the warehouse, starting early in the morning before other volunteers arrive to pick up and deliver meals. He distributes the frozen meals for each route, puts together our ATI’s (Additional Tasty Items) that include fresh produce and other goodies for our clients and takes a cart out to unload the meals and ATIs into each volunteers’ car. J.J. has brought a great energy to our organization and is always willing to do whatever is needed. He started volunteering with MOWSV in December 2023 and recently, he recruited his wife, Donna, to become a volunteer too! J.J. shared, “I wanted to give back to my community and I felt that this was a great way to help.”

J.J. said that one of his favorite parts of volunteering each week are the interactions with his fellow volunteers. They all share the same joy in giving back to community.  “MOWSV is a great place to volunteer,” he stated. “I tell others who express interest in volunteering to go ahead and put in an application. It’s only a few hours a week and MOWSV offers flexible options to work with volunteers’ schedules.”

Prior to J.J.’s volunteer commitment with MOWSV, he worked for the Salinas Valley State Prison for 30 years and retired in 2023. The road that led him to Salinas started many years ago. J.J. grew up in Illinois outside of St. Louis. He joined the Army and was stationed at Fort Ord in 1989. Fort Ord is where he met his future wife, Donna. Settling in the Salinas Valley, J.J. and Donna married and raised two children, who are grown now. Enjoying all aspects of the Salinas Valley, they never thought about leaving the area and currently live in South Salinas with a cat and three dogs.

J.J. shared that, in addition to his volunteer time with MOWSV, he is involved with the Salinas American Legion Post 31 as a former Commander, a long-time member and a volunteer. Between their volunteer activities, in their free time Donna and J.J. enjoy traveling and camping.

Thank you J.J. for your time spent helping our homebound seniors at MOWSV and congratulations again on being honored as Volunteer of the Quarter!