Volunteer

ROOTS is a monthly grocery delivery (or pick up) program for income-qualifying people aged 60 or older. Once a month, on the second Thursday of each month, staple food items are delivered to the doorsteps of seniors who may have transportation or mobility challenges. Volunteers help on the assembly line packing food to be delivered the following day or delivering groceries in their own vehicles to homebound seniors & elders.

Kids Table is a summer & after-school program that provides healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks to children in our community. Volunteers in this program work in groups to help with snack and meal prep and are expected to maintain excellent food safety practices. There are also Kids Table volunteers that deliver food in their own vehicles to participating organizations during the school year.

Food Circle is a program where we accept prepared, perishable food from local restaurants and caterers to be repackaged into microwaveable, oven-safe entrees. Using sanitized containers, excess prepared food is collected at donor establishments by a driver trained in safe food handling. Volunteers in this program use their creativity to put together meals for distribution in our food bank store and are expected to maintain excellent food safety practices.

Kids EmPower Pack is a weekend nutrition program helping students to stay healthy & nourished when school is not in session over the weekends. Regularly scheduled volunteer opportunities for this program include building EmPower Packs on an assembly line or delivering EmPower Packs, in your own vehicle, to schools in our community. Subscribing to the volunteer newsletter or reaching out to Jamie (jamie@missoulafoodbank.org) is another great way to stay connected to these opportunities!

EmPower Place at Missoula Food Bank & Community Center is a fun space that welcomes all children to learn, grow, and play. Each day in EmPower Place there are activities and fun programming to enjoy. Volunteers learn and play with children and help supervise this space. We also have meal distribution volunteers in this space to hand out Kids Table meals.

Greeters are the first face our customers see when they walk in the building, so must be welcoming and friendly people. Volunteers in this position greet new and returning customers, explain how our process works to people who have never been here, receive incoming donations from donors, and can answer general questions. They will also explain our intake survey to our customers and describe the different food service options, and also keep track of these forms. Volunteers in this position work in a team, are good at multi-tasking, and are strong communicators.

Resource Assistants sit down with every customer who decides to shop the choice-model in our Store, taking time to connect people with other important resources in our community. Volunteers in this position are kind, knowledgeable about community resources, good listeners, and can maintain confidentiality. Volunteers in this position get the opportunity to do some extra training. It is required that Resource Assistants attend one, hour-long community resource training per month. Volunteers in this position have the best opportunity to focus time and energy on upstream resources that can positively impact people’s lives in a meaningful way.

Boxers work in a team during our distribution hours to help pack bags or boxes of groceries once customers finish shopping, and sometimes help customers to their car when needed. They also help build boxes, tidy up the boxing station, retrieve shopping carts, and support Grab & Go customers. Boxers are kind, patient, free of judgment, and have excellent customer service skills. Boxers can lift up to 25 pounds and are able to work well under pressure during busy hours in a high-energy environment.

Data entry volunteers enter customer surveys into our Salesforce database. This takes place in a setting away from the front to be able to focus on detail without rush or pressure. Data entry volunteers will get training to accurately enter customer information into our system. Volunteers in this position pay close attention to detail, have good focus, are comfortable on a computer, and can maintain strict confidentiality.

Sorters help us organize and quality check the food we receive in donations. This includes carefully checking and adhering to guidelines around expiration dates, quality checking for dents or ripped packaging, and placing like items into crates. Volunteers in this position pay very close attention to detail, should be comfortable with bending, twisting, etc., and lifting up to 25 pounds.

Stockers replenish the shelves in our store at various times throughout the day. This means making sure things look nice, neat, and presentable like a grocery store, in a way that is easy for our customers to see and choose from. Volunteers in this position also quality check while stocking, making sure to only put out good food items. Stockers are well organized, can work independently, and should usually be able to lift up to 25 pounds.

Repackers will package bulk food items up into smaller portions so that they can get stocked in our store for our customers to take home. This job can be done standing or seated. This job requires excellent food safety practices and can be done independently or with a few other volunteers. This job happens in the afternoons.

Produce Sorting, each day we receive large bins of produce donated from grocery stores in our community. This produce is mixed and needs to be organized and cleaned up. Volunteer Produce Sorters sort, bag, and portion out produce items so that they are ready to put on display in our store. Produce Sorters use their best judgment to only put out good-looking food items. Volunteers in this position like to make things look nice and are not afraid of a little mold! This job happens around 10:30 each day.

Rovers do whatever it is that needs to be done! They are an extra helping hand that is scheduled all throughout the day as we always have things that come up. This could mean sorting a big donation, shelving items in our mid warehouse, sweeping, etc. Rovers can generally lift up to 50 lbs. and are able to work on their feet for up to three hours. Rovers are fast learners, flexible, and willing to work both independently and as part of a team. Rovers are task-oriented and self-guided.

We use bus tubs and bins to display food items in our store as well to hold food items that need to be repackaged, and we also use lots of dishes to help with food preparation in some of our programs. Dishwashers practice excellent food safety skills and will run all our dishes through an industrial sanitizer so that we always have clean dishes for our programs. Dishwashers enjoy working independently and are good at organization.

Grocery Rescue volunteers generally use their own vehicles to retrieve perishable donations from different grocery stores in our community and bring them back to the store to be weighed out. We also have one volunteer each morning who rides along with our truck driver to help pick up and load donations from Albertsons. Volunteers who do grocery rescue are comfortable bending, twisting, and lifting up to 30 pounds.

Box Delivery volunteers use their own vehicles to help pick up boxes and deliver them to our store for use at our boxing station and for our other programs. This is a flexible volunteer position that can happen a variety of times throughout the week.

Every Saturday during the summer growing season, we receive produce donations from Farmer’s Market patrons wanting to donate produce or from the vendors themselves. During peak summertime, we sometimes receive over a thousand pounds of food! Farmers' Market volunteers help drop off donation bins on Saturday mornings at the market, and also spend time retrieving the donations from the market, loading them back up into personal vehicles or food bank vehicles, and haul it back to the food bank where they will unload it and weigh it out. Volunteers in this position must be able to lift up to 50 pounds with a partner.