Volunteer Spotlight: Grant Murphy is Giving Back and Spreading Awareness about NTFB

The Volunteer Kernel regularly volunteers at North Texas Food Bank and speaks with groups to raise awareness of hunger in North Texas.

When Grant Murphy first began volunteering with North Texas Food Bank, he was mostly looking for a productive way to fill his time in retirement. 

The more hours he spent sorting produce and packing food boxes for seniors and school pantries, however, the more his passion for fighting hunger grew.

“The more you understand the situation, the more you get involved in it,” says Grant. “It just has drawn me in.”

A retired cyber security executive, Grant first began volunteering with NTFB during the pandemic, sorting and packing food alongside the National Guard. He was newly retired at the time but ended up returning to work for about two years. In September 2022, Grant decided to retire for good and registered to attend an NTFB Volunteer Kernel meeting just a few weeks after his final day at work.

He now volunteers twice a week as a Volunteer Kernel, leading pack and box shifts at NTFB’s Perot Family Campus. He also recently became one of just a few external members of NTFB’s Speakers Bureau, which is a group that speaks on behalf of NTFB at schools, companies and other community events. He’s given around 640 hours since beginning at NTFB.

“I really enjoy talking to people. It’s something I missed from my working days,” he says.

Grant’s first speaking engagement was during a school career day, and he says it was “so much fun” to see kids who were “engaged and enthusiastic” about NTFB’s mission.

In NTFB’s warehouse, Grant says he leans into his competitive nature to motivate teams of volunteers, enthusiastically ringing a bell whenever a pallet is completed.

“Get ready to compete,” he says, sharing his advice to volunteers. “Let’s do as much as we possibly can in the two hours that we’ve got together.”

Grant and his wife spend summers in Colorado, and he volunteers for a food pantry there, which he says has given him another perspective on supporting those experiencing hunger. Whether there or in North Texas, he says he believes people are aware hunger is an issue but that it’s tough to know the critical nature of the problem until you get involved.

“People are aware hunger exists,” he says. “Are they aware of how urgent it is? Frankly, I didn’t realize how urgent it was until I got involved here.”