As Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mitchell (Mitch) Bloom has a long history of involvement and dedication to Poverello. It began in 2002, when he accompanied a friend who was a client to pick up his food. When he saw what Poverello was doing to provide for a community in need, he immediately wanted to get involved. And get involved he did. He started volunteering in the food pantry three to four days a week, and his involvement with the organization continues to this day.

Mitch was born in Queens, New York, but grew up in Kendall. He’s the manager of the Wilton Manors branch of Wells Fargo Bank, a position that keeps him closely in touch with the community. But it wasn’t always about banking and philanthropy for this dedicated individual. For Mitch it was music, and musical theater, that first inspired him. He started playing piano when he was five, and summers during his high school years were spent performing in summer stock in Petoskey, Michigan. He auditioned for and was accepted at age 16 to join the Young Americans Musical Theater Company. At 18 he moved to Los Angeles to perform with the group full time. “I performed with the company until I was aged out at 21,” he related. Not one to give up, he enrolled at Cerritos College in Orange County, California, and continued to study musical theater. But as with many young performers, he was wise enough to also pursue studies in business administration.

Mitch moved back to Florida in 2001 to take care of his dad. In quick succession, he started volunteering at Poverello the following year, met his partner in 2003, and started a career in banking as a teller with Bank of America. Now with Wells Fargo, Mitch moved up the ladder from a position in Oakland Park to his current role as manager of the Wilton Manors branch. What inspires him most about his position is his ability to work with the community. “Wells Fargo is very involved in community outreach,” he related. “As part of our Community Outreach Program, each branch gets to select a community organization to sponsor, and we’ve selected Poverello to receive a $1,000 annual grant for the past few years,” he continued. On top of that, Mitch was selected this past year as Volunteer of the Year for south Florida by Wells Fargo, and with the honor came an award of $5,000 to be given to the charity of his choice. He chose Poverello. And as if that wasn’t enough, as a result of his regional win, Mitch was entered into a global competition by Wells Fargo, and was subsequently named Worldwide Volunteer of the Year, and with it came another $5,000 award, which again he presented to Poverello.

Asked by the former CEO of Poverello, Mitch joined the Board as treasurer in 2012, and recently assumed the post of Vice Chairman. In addition to managing finances, he said the most important function of the Board is fund raising. “With the uncertainty of government funding in the current political climate, our biggest challenge is to keep raising enough funds to meet our needs,” he said.

From its early mission, Poverello has evolved into providing services beyond the food bank, and beyond the HIV/AIDS community. “Critical illnesses in a number of disease states are now part of our program,” he related. “We’ve also expanded in other areas that promote healthy living, such as exercise with our gym facility, and nutritional counseling.”

It doesn’t appear that this volunteer/Board member is going to slow his pace in helping Poverello achieve its mission and goals. “The level of commitment and importance of the volunteers who work here, and the amazing outreach of this organization, still keeps me excited to this day,” he remarked.

 “If our hopes of building a better and safer world are to become more than wishful thinking, we will need the engagement of volunteers more than ever.”

-Kofi Annan

Article written by  James Stoup, Poverello Volunteer

02/15/2018