The Greater Boston Food Bank
on Saturday, February 23, 2013
From 9:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Sign-up Sheet is on the Bulletin Board All Volunteers must be 16 years or older
The Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB) is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and among the largest food banks in the country. Last year, we distributed almost 35 million pounds of food, enough to provide healthy meals to as many as 545,000 people at risk of hunger.
GBFB acquires food through food industry product donations, food drives and financial contributions that enable us to purchase additional high nutrient quality food. We also benefit from the generosity of over 16,000 volunteers annually who help to sort and distribute donated food products.
GBFB works to acquire, store, organize and distribute food through local food pantries, community meal programs, homeless and residential shelters, youth programs, senior centers, and day-care centers embedded in communities throughout the nine counties of eastern Massachusetts. GBFB’s food assistance locator provides an easy way for people in need to find help nearby. GBFB also distributes food directly to those in need through dedicated programs that serve particularly vulnerable groups, such as seniors and children. The Greater Boston Food Bank is a member of Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger-relief organization
PROJECT DETAILS: All volunteers are trained in food safety at the beginning of the shift. Volunteers will inspect, sort and pack donated grocery products that are then distributed to hunger relief agencies. Volunteers work together as a team on an assembly line, and may be working alongside other groups. Some volunteers load boxes onto conveyer belts, other volunteers inspect products, others sort products, and others check and label boxes. A few of these “jobs” require the ability to lift a box of about 30 pounds, but the majority of positions simply require that a volunteer can stand and inspect products for a few hours. Your group project may involve frozen packaged meat sorting; we provide gloves for this project. If a volunteer strongly objects to working with meat, we can reassign a work area.
REQUIREMENTS: The age requirement for all volunteers is 16 and older. We have a CLOSED TOE SHOE POLICY (no sandals or flip flops) as we are a working warehouse, and please communicate this to your group as those wearing open-toed shoes will not be allowed to volunteer. Volunteers will want to wear clothes they do not mind getting dirty. Because of the machinery in our new sorting area, we require NO LOOSE CLOTHING OR ITEMS that could be caught in the conveyer belts. This would include untucked shirts, wide sleeves, jewelry including bracelets or long necklaces. LONG HAIR must be tied back or contained in a hat.
Come join us for this important outreach!
Please Note: All Volunteers Must be 16 years and older.
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