Food Pantry Volunteer

Assemble fresh produce boxes. Each family who visits our pantry receives a box/bucket with fresh produce. The amount of fresh produce varies depending on season and the amount of produce that God provides for ICOA to share. Volunteers place the produce into boxes or buckets.

Assemble boxes of food. Depending upon family size, families will receive either a small, medium, or large size box of food. Volunteers load empty boxes onto a cart and walk through the panty placing food into the boxes. The pantry shelves include signs with the amount of each item to place in the different sizes of food boxes.

Stocking pantry shelves. Pantry stockers open boxes of food and place them on the pantry shelves to make it easier for those who are loading food boxes. Stockers change signs of the quantity of food to put into boxes as food items and inventory levels change.  

Box creation and tear down. Some cardboard boxes are too small to be used for boxes of food. Those must be torn down so the cardboard can be recycled. Other boxes may be used if the flaps are taped up for extra storage space.

Volunteers unload a trailer full of food from Harvesters on Monday morning and again on Tuesday morning before the pantry opens. Other volunteers arrive before the pantry opens to setup tables outside, move food from the walk-in to the pantry area, and unload the trailer.

Greet our neighbors as they wait in line and ask how we could pray for them. The ability to speak Spanish is helpful.

Greet those in line and ask their names and family size and record this information. Family size is used to determine what size food box they should receive. This position also asks where in the vehicle they'd like the food placed (front seat, back seat, back of truck). Family size and preferred box location are communicated to those loading the food. The ability to speak Spanish is helpful.

These volunteers work as a team to greet those in the car and to bring the food and produce boxes outside, place meat and bread into the boxes, and place the food into the vehicles.

All volunteers help with tear down and cleanup at the end of the food pantry drive thru.