Volunteer Spotlight: Linda Vaughan, PhD & RDN

On any given day, the United Food Bank relies on a small army of volunteers to accomplish its mission of uniting communities to alleviate hunger in Arizona and provide nutritious meals to neighbors experiencing food insecurities. One of those volunteers is a remarkable woman named Linda Vaughan, PhD and RDN. 

Linda has been a dedicated volunteer with United for more than six years, participating in regular shifts of sorting and building hundreds of emergency food bags each month.

“I love sorting food. That’s just my happy place,” she says as she reflects on her history with United Food Bank. “I’m always in for food sorting, and it’s interesting because with my background in food and nutrition, I can answer questions about where food goes, if an item goes with grain or cereal, or I can identify food items that volunteers come across and don’t recognize. That’s always fun.”

Not only does Linda lead by example, she shares her extensive knowledge on food and nutrition with our volunteer community in her weekly contribution to a newsletter where she offers her experience and advice for living a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. 

Linda credits her father with inspiring her education in nutrition. Working in food chemistry and manufacturing, he often brought her along to conventions where they would explore new vendors. After finding much of his work engaging but realizing food science and technology was not the right fit, she decided to pursue an in-depth education in nutrition.

With a scholarship to Cornell University, Linda got her master’s degree and returned to Arizona where she completed her PhD at the University of Arizona in Tucson. After two years of teaching at the University of Nebraska, Linda spent the next 36 years teaching nutrition at Arizona State University where she inadvertently began her long-standing relationship with United Food Bank through a special project she facilitated in her introductory nutrition class.

“One of the things we studied was how to get nutritional information from food labels. I had my students bring in non-perishable food labels with nutrients that met the FDA definition of an excellent source, but the majority brought the actual food instead, some buying things in bulk which began our donations to the food bank,” Linda says with a smile on her face. “Food to me generally means joy and health. I strongly believe a person’s diet can prevent or manage chronic disease, making food a foundation for health.”

Linda went on to serve on United Food Bank’s Board of Directors, sitting on a variety of committees. Now she shares her love for food and a sustainable lifestyle with volunteers in her popular nutrition column. 

United Food Bank is proud to offer fun and efficient volunteer opportunities for individuals, teams and companies and is appreciative of all the hard work of its volunteers. For information on how you can help unite communities to alleviate hunger, check out unitedfoodbank.org/volunteer/.