Longterm Food Shelf Volunteer (Mondays & Tuesdays)

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Long-term Food Shelf Volunteer Needed

Every week, the Shelf of Hope food shelf at St. Stephen's Human Services / House of Charity opens to the public on Wednesdays and deliverrs bags of food to nearby apartments on Tuesdays. In order to make this happen, we order food shipments that come every other Monday and use those items to make up the bags we hand out and deliver. We are currently seeking another Long-term Food Shelf Volunteer to help with these operations. This differs from our usual volunteer program and would require weekly attendance and consistency.

On Mondays, the Food Shelf Volunteer’s role is to help break down these pallet shipments, bring them inside, unload them on to shelves and into refrigerators/freezers. It is crucial that the Food Shelf Volunteer is strong and able to bend down, stoop, pick up, and put down heavy boxes. After the pallet is finished, the Volunteer would then help make up 70+ food bags for hand outs and delivery. On Mondays when there is no shipment, they would help organize bags of food. Some shipments come as early as 8:30AM and that would be an ideal arrival time for this volunteer.

On Tuesdays, the Volunteer helps load up the Delivery Driver’s vehicle with 50 or more bags of food. They also ride with the Delivery Driver to the designated apartments to help unload bags. There might be a couple of trips. A big reason we need someone strong is because many of the people involved in this work are older and prone to injury. The delivery driver usually arrives between 9:30AM and 9:50AM, so you would arrive around 9:00AM or so.

On Wednesdays, the food shelf operates out of the front, middle door of the Food Centre 10:00AM - 1:00PM. There is a table in the doorway, creating a distance barrier between the "shoppers" and the Shelf of Hope volunteers. There, we hand out shelf stable, refridgerated, frozen, and ready-to-eat foods, as well as hygenic necessities. We need your help finishing food bags before opening, handing out food bags, recording information, being a runner, and helping close up shop. We usually need help setting up ahead of time, so 9:00AM start would be perfect.

We recognize that not everyone has the capacity to commit to volunteering three days a week, so if you are interested but aren't available for all three, please still reach out! We need some extra help, even if only one to two days a week.

Duties:

• Be strong and able to bend down, stoop, pick up, and put down heavy boxes
• Show up at the Food Centre every week to help out
• Unload pallet shipments
• Make food bags
• Load food bags into Delivery vehicle
• Unload food bags designated apartments

Requirements:

• Must strong and be able to bend down, stoop, pick up, and put down heavy boxes
• Must be dependable, consistent, and on-time
• Must provide reliable contact information for changes and updates
• Must be wearing a mask and either submit proof of vaccination or commit to weekly COVID-19 testing (we have free testing on-site).

If this is something you are interested in, feel free to contact Noah Chan, the Volunteer Coordinator: n.chan@houseofcharity.org