It was a lucky day 10 years ago when Catherine Bitz walked into the Loaves & Fishes Resource Center and asked if we needed any office volunteers. She went to work that first day and has been faithfully volunteering three days each week ever since.

Catherine was born in South Dakota and moved to Oregon as a small child. She went to school in Portland, graduated from Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon State University) and began a 25-year teaching career in the parochial school system in and around the Portland area. She taught nearly every elementary grade and ended up as a principal. She then embarked on a second career as an assistant in the business office at Providence Medical Center. She retired after more than 20 years and began to look around for volunteer work. She spent four years as a volunteer with the Loyola Retreat House until they closed in 1995. Catherine had seen Loaves & Fishes Centers in her Southeast Portland neighborhood and decided to pop in one day to see if we needed help.

“I felt there was a place for me here,” Catherine said. “I was welcomed and needed and there’s certainly lots of work for me to do!” Catherine works primarily for the Development Department, assisting with correspondence, filing and special events.

When Loaves & Fishes Centers opened its new building in Multnomah Village, Catherine was not sure she wanted to venture across the river each day. But one of the employees showed her the way and she decided she’d try it for a couple of days. She’s still at it more than two years later! We are grateful to Catherine and the thousands of volunteers who each year help us achieve our vision that no senior will go hungry or experience social isolation.