Date of Graduation

Fall 12-12-2025

Document Access

Restricted Project/Capstone - USF access only

Degree Name

Master of Science in Nursing (MSN)

College/School

School of Nursing and Health Professions

Program

MSN project

First Advisor

Danielle Jaramillo DNP, RN, PHN

Second Advisor

Ana Viera-Martinez, DNP, APRN-CNS, CNL, RNC-OB, CLE

Abstract

Due to recent budget cuts, the Cantlay Pantry has experienced a decrease in staff following layoffs. As a result, the agency intends to attract and retain more volunteers to support operations and balance staffing shortages. According to the agency's senior director, there is currently a high turnover rate among volunteers, furthering the need to enhance volunteer recruitment and retention efforts.

The limited number of workers has placed significant strain on remaining staff, leading to an increase in responsibilities and suspension of several programs, including the homeless distribution program. The population served by the Cantlay Pantry includes residents of Santa Ana and surrounding communities experiencing food insecurity. Individuals experiencing food insecurity are at increased risk for malnutrition and developmental challenges, making the pantry's services a necessity to the community.

This project aims to develop a more effective volunteer onboarding program for the Cantlay Food Pantry of Catholic Charities. We will focus on targeted outreach to recruit volunteers, update the orientation process, and implement an online system to track volunteer participation. The use of visual aids, an onboarding handbook for volunteers, and identification of nearby locations for volunteer recruitment. These efforts will help increase volunteer participation and improve task distribution in order to better serve the community that seeks services from the Cantlay Food Pantry.

Complete implementation of our project’s interventions has been delayed due to the holiday season and foreseen events for the Cantlay Food Pantry. The pantry director does not have enough time or staff capacity to implement these changes before the project's end date. This was partly influenced by the recent government shutdown, leading to SNAP benefits being put on pause and thus leading to an increased demand at the pantry to meet from the community. Despite this, the interventions have all been created, finalized, and handed over to the pantry for long-term sustainability and implementation in the near future. Instead of measuring the outcomes of the interventions, the team proposed creating a survey to assess staff's expected benefits. The anticipated benefits for the pantry include improvements with onboarding, staff training, pantry visibility, time savings from full-time staff, and enhanced volunteer tracking through automation. Overall, staff feedback from the evaluation survey expressed that these interventions will improve the volunteer recruitment and onboarding processes.

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