FREE Fresh Food Friday Event Volunteer

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With much anticipation and planning, NorthPoint has decided to provide our Produce Distribution/Outdoor Markets again this year. Our new name is FREE Fresh Food Fridays!

The four remaining 2020 Friday dates are: 8/7, 8/21, 9/11 and 9/25. You can sign up for one date or more. The volunteer time is 7:30am-12:00pm. Volunteers will not have direct contact with clients coming for food. The customer time is 10:00am-12:00pm or until supplies last, whichever comes first.

We are looking for 7 volunteers per event to join our NorthPoint staff. Youth 14 to 17 years old can volunteer with us when accompanied by a parent or guardian and with prior written parental permission. All volunteers must be pre-registered with a volunteer application and scheduled through Sally Newbury at snewbury@npimn.org. Group volunteers can sign up through their group leader who will complete a NorthPoint group volunteer application.

Forms EACH volunteer should review/sign prior to volunteering at NorthPoint include: 1) Volunteer Requirements during COVID-19, 2) Publicity Release Form, and 3) Civil Rights Checklist. We ask volunteers to sign and return these forms via email if possible or bring completed forms the day of volunteering to turn in. These forms will be sent to you once an application is completed.

Health and Safety around COVID-19
Volunteers must consider this self-assessment below. Please do not volunteer if you are sick or experiencing any of the following symptoms:
* Fever
* Cough
* Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
* Chills
* Headache
* Muscle pain
* Sore throat
* New loss of taste or smell
This list is subject to change to reflect the current public health recommendations. For more information, see the Minnesota Department of Health website: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html

Required face coverings

* All staff and volunteers are required to wear face coverings that cover both mouth and nose and are secure with ear loops.

For the sake of health and safety, we ask volunteers to come with their own cloth-mask on. NorthPoint will provide face masks for those who need them, aprons and gloves. Two workers will be assigned to each pallet (keeping 6 feet distance between each person) to bag food. Customers will drive up or walk up to a designated area to receive their pre-packaged box (or boxes) based on household size.

Assignments
Volunteers will be assigned to sorting, bagging and packing boxes of food or directing customer traffic. Volunteers will not have direct contact with clients coming for food. NorthPoint staff and our community partner, Mad Dads of Minneapolis, will be assembling and taking down tents, registering customers, loading boxes into vehicles and walking customers with boxes on NorthPoint carts to a bus stop.

Our community partners who have staffed tables at these events in the past will be providing written materials about their programs and services ahead of time to be added to the food boxes for customers. These community partners will not be on site for the events.

When volunteers arrive at 7:30am, check in with Sally to get protective items including a face mask, apron and gloves. Pallets of food (i.e. potatoes, apples) will be sorted into smaller quantities in bags. Some items may not be good and need to be tossed for compost. Some volunteers will be shopping through the line to pre-pack boxes for customers. Volunteers will continue to sort, bag and pack boxes while more customers come to receive food in designated areas.

How to Dress and What to Bring
Please wear closed-toe shoes to protect your feet from boxes, pallets and produce. No sandals please. Please dress modestly with shorts that come to the knee or long pants and short or long sleeves. We ask volunteers to come with their own cloth-mask on and if needed you may swap it for a NorthPoint disposable mask once you arrive. Because these are rain or shine events, please dress for the weather. If rain is expected, a rain jacket or poncho is a great idea. You will be under a tent most of the time to sort and bag produce. There will be bottled drinking water on site but you are also encouraged to bring your own reusable water bottle. Hand sanitizer will be available throughout the site. A portable hand-washing station and portable toilet will be available too.

Directions and Parking
NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center’s Human Services building is located at 1256 Penn Avenue North in Minneapolis on the southeast corner of Penn and Plymouth Avenues. The parking entry to the building which includes a FREE parking ramp is at Plymouth and Oliver (one block east of Penn Avenue). Please park your car in this ramp on the first entry floor or the one below. Please do not park in the other parking lots on the campus as surface lot spaces are designated for patients and customers only.

The event takes place in the large parking lot at the Minneapolis Urban League at 2100 Plymouth Avenue North; the lot is at Oliver and Plymouth across the street from NorthPoint’s parking ramp. You will see NorthPoint staff and volunteers there starting to set up tents when you arrive.