Food Pantry Volunteer

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Marillac Food Pantry is not only a well established resource for our community, but serves approximately 1,000 families each month. The communities we serve are in areas with insufficient access to healthy and nutritious food options, and we provide access to emergency groceries for those residing within or near our servicing zip codes. Our clients are able to choose what food items they wish to take, and can walk out with 25+ pounds of nutritious groceries once each month to help them tie loose ends. We have everything from canned goods and fresh fruit and vegetables (some from local farmers markets!), but dairy and meat products as well. Our food comes from the Greater Chicago Food Depository and their Food Rescue program, as well as private donations and USDA Food allocations. We are always looking for people to help us receive and organize food as it comes into the pantry, as well as participate in the actual distribution of food.

We are here 5 days a week, with three days opening the doors for food distribution, and two days focusing on receiving food rescue and donations. I've listed the schedule below, followed by a description of what tasks can be expected for specific days.

Monday: 9:30am - 1:45pm
Distribution from 11:00am-1:30pm

Tuesday: 11:30am - 2:30pm
Food Rescue

Wednesday: 11:30-6:15pm
Shipment recieval 11:30am - 2:00pm, Distribution from 3:00pm - 6:00pm

Thursday: 11:30pm - 2:30pm
Food Rescue

Friday: 9:00am - 12:45pm
Distribution from 10:00am - 12:30pm

On Food Rescue or shipment days, volunteers will sort food, repack produce, prepare bags, set up/take down tables, and aid in the restocking and storing of products.

On Distribution days, volunteers will assist in the set-up, take-down, and process of distributing food to clients. During actual distribution, the volunteers we need most are personal shoppers- these folks walk our clients through the shopping process!

If you are interested in volunteering on a specific day, you must contact the Food Pantry Supervisor prior to showing up! For a group wishing to volunteer as a service day, we are able to take groups of up to 5 at a time, on days where we are open for food distribution. The Food Pantry Supervisor's contact information can be found below.

We look for volunteers who are:

• Reliable
• Patient, kind, and compassionate
• Great listeners and communicators
• Safety-conscious
• Outgoing and positive

Volunteering at a food pantry can be an incredible experience. We see all walks of life, and we never know what type of day they had or where they are in their lives. Some clients might be having difficulty raising a teenager, while another may be battling homelessness for the first time.

If you are interested in learning more about volunteering, contact Marillac's Food Pantry at

Email: foodpantry@marillacstvincent.org
Phone: 773-584-4539