EASTHAM — Nauset Neighbors, an all-volunteer nonprofit that assists more than 300 older adults living alone on Cape Cod, began turning away new members requesting the organization’s help in May.

The group’s 350 volunteers drive residents over age 65 to doctors’ appointments and grocery stores, assist with home maintenance, and pay social visits. But facing a labor shortage of its own, Nauset Neighbors decided it could no longer accept new clients without more volunteers to support them.

“We had one week in April where we had the most unfulfilled requests that we’ve ever had,” said Bob Nolan, the organization’s director of volunteer management. “We can’t live like that, because our members are really counting on us to get to their appointments.”

Nolan said that, as many of the organization’s current volunteers leave Cape Cod for the winter and grow older themselves, it has become harder to replace them and meet the needs of older people who live on the Cape year-round. He said that while the nonprofit, which started in 2011, had historically been able to fulfill more than 95 percent of the service requests it received, that level of dependability has become much harder to sustain.

The group still receives several calls a week from people living alone — many in their 80s and 90s — requesting help. “We just tell people to call us back in August,” Nolan said.

‘Desperate for People to Help’

Six different nonprofit leaders and volunteer coordinators said they face the same persistent challenge: recruiting and retaining enough people to volunteer their time. For organizations that provide essential services like elder care and food pantry staff, the decline could seriously weaken the Outer Cape’s community service support system.

Eastham Council on Aging chair Joan Lockhart said she has noticed a gradual decline in enthusiasm to volunteer, a trend that only accelerated because of the pandemic.

“Getting volunteers is really difficult these days,” Lockhart said. “In my view — just my personal observation — a lot of the younger people that are down here retired are still extremely active. They are traveling. They are socializing. They are having family visits, and they are not necessarily seeing volunteerism as a part of their lives.

“All of these organizations are just desperate for people to help,” she added.

Both the Eastham Historical Society and Cape Cod National Seashore have reduced public hours at museums by more than half because there are no longer enough volunteer staffers to operate in normal hours. Eastham Historical Society President Eileen Seaboldt said the 1869 Schoolhouse Museum is open only two days each week during the summer because that is all volunteers can cover.

And Marcia Bromley, a tour guide at Old Harbor Life-Saving Station in the National Seashore in Provincetown, said the museum’s hours were cut from seven days a week to four because of staffing constraints after the pandemic.

“You can only share so much in a couple of hours three or four days a week, whereas we would really like to be there longer during the season,” Bromley said. “We would like to be there more days a week, so we can share the story and tell about these incredible people. It’s just kind of sad to not be able to be open.”

Bromley wrote in a follow-up statement that the Park’s visitor center has recently been experiencing a surge in its volunteer base, primarily driven by recent retirees and new residents. “It’s quite the turnaround after the previous couple of kind of lean years,” she wrote.

Some organizations, like the Lower Cape Outreach Council (LCOC), face seasonal staffing challenges even with a strong group of long-term volunteers who work regularly. LCOC CEO Katherine Wibby said that group’s nine food pantries, which rely exclusively on about 200 volunteers, are in greater need during the summer when regular workers have additional commitments or family members visiting.

Wibby said the concern is greatest at the pantry in Provincetown, which has a particularly low number of year-round residents. She said that while the volunteer base has now surpassed pre-pandemic levels, the number of people that rely on food assistance has grown with it.

“The demand for the pantries continued to grow, so the need for volunteers has also continued to grow,” Wibby said. “Although we have more than we had, we are still looking for some more people that can meet the increased demand.”

A Cycle of Flexibility

Lockhart, who also runs the LCOC’s Eastham pantry, said she believes allowing volunteers to work on a flexible schedule has helped the pantry to avoid a shortage.

“I build in enough people so that when somebody needs to go away or has family visiting, I have enough volunteers who will backfill, which makes volunteering more attractive,” she said. “I don’t have trouble getting volunteers.”

But attracting volunteers with flexibility is possible only when others can step in to cover, an ideal scenario that could become harder to maintain without a steady inflow of new people who want to contribute. Fewer people available to help means a heavier workload for those who are.

And organizations like Nauset Neighbors that allow volunteers to answer service calls without a set weekly or monthly commitment are being as flexible as possible.

“Our flexibility is working for us, but we’re still not able to get enough,” Nolan said.

While LCOC uses social media and has taken out a few print ads, Wibby said the most effective means of recruitment is through word of mouth. She also said that because the pantries are housed in churches, the parishioners often volunteer.

Katherine Paradise, the chair of Eastham’s search committee, said her focus is to make people aware of the positions on boards and committees that are open. She said the best way to persuade people to volunteer is to ask them.

“I think people need to be invited,” Paradise said.

Andrew Scott began volunteering for Nauset Neighbors and Meals on Wheels last fall after retiring and moving from New Jersey to live in Eastham full time.

Scott started as a substitute driver for Meals on Wheels before committing to a regular shift delivering meals to older people across the Cape. He said he was called every week to cover shifts. “There is kind of always a need,” Scott said.

One of the people Scott drives to appointments, Margaret Menengas, heard about the group through her grandson’s wife, who she said paid the Nauset Neighbors $75 annual fee as a birthday present. “The people have been very nice,” she said of the volunteers.

Menengas has lived in her Wellfleet home for 50 years. She turns 95 in August.