Hospice Whanganui's fundraising, communications and marketing manager, Kelly Scarrow, said many people who previously volunteered at hospice stores had stopped coming.
While the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions brought some volunteers back to the stores, Scarrow said there was still a need for help.
"A lot of those volunteers are vulnerable, they've got health conditions and it's wise for them to stay away a little bit longer but, in the meantime, there's nobody back-filling those spaces."
Hospice hoped a younger generation of volunteers would come forward to help out.
Paula Joss and David William-Joss had been volunteering for Hospice Whanganui for seven and four years respectively.
They said they enjoyed volunteering because it gave them something social to do as they were both retired and it also enabled them to interact with the community.
"I feel like I have more self-worth because I feel good about what I'm doing," Joss said.
The married couple thought volunteering was a way of giving back to hospice after relatives needed palliative care.
For Joss, it was also a way of helping people with something her family didn't get. Her mother died of cancer while the family was living in South Africa and was not offered hospice care.
"She couldn't die at home, she died in the hospital and it was the worst thing ever."
When she came to New Zealand, Joss found hospice and wanted to give back by volunteering when she had the chance.
Scarrow said anyone interested in volunteering just needed to ask to get involved and there was a wide range of roles.
"There is the shop and then we have the reception team up at our facility, there's a gardening team, we have people that go and visit patients in their homes, there's a whole raft of different activities and roles that people can get involved with," Scarrow said.
Around New Zealand hospice services have been struggling with a lack of funds, with some potentially needing to reduce their services as a result.
For Hospice Whanganui it is no different, with less than half of their yearly funds coming from the Government.
"The reality is that the costs of running a service like ours are going up year by year, but the actual income stream isn't keeping pace with that," Vroon said.
The Government's 2022 Budget did not indicate there would be increased funding for hospice and palliative care services.
Vroon said she wanted to see increased Government support for palliative care.
"It's not something to sweep under the carpet because it's hard to talk about, it needs to be taken really seriously because this is a very important and transformational time in people's lives."
Vroon said she hoped the reforms coming to the health sector, with the DHB system becoming Health New Zealand, meant funding would become more equitable for all hospices across the country.
"Whether you're local, whether you're rich, poor, Māori, Pakeha, Pasifika, Asian, whatever, whoever you are, wherever you are, you should receive the same level of service."
She said a more equitable and centralised system would recognise the different costs needed for operating hospices in different areas and allow all hospices to operate at the same level of care across the country.
Hospice Awareness Week runs from May 16 to May 22.
People can offer to volunteer for Hospice Whanganui by going into one of their three stores in Whanganui Central, Whanganui East and Gonville.
Direct donations can also be made to Hospice Whanganui via https://hospicewhanganui.org.nz/donate/.
