Lacey Food Pantry Volunteer Internship (Unpaid)

Are you looking for an opportunity to make a positive impact on your community? At the Thurston County Food Bank, our mission is to eliminate hunger within our community, in the spirit of neighbor helping neighbor. We currently provide groceries to about 6,000 families a month throughout Thurston County!

SUMMARY JOB DESCRIPTION:

This unpaid placement will support our work to eliminate hunger in our local community in an atmosphere of neighbor helping neighbor. Our organization provides food programs and services to more than 71,000 residents of Thurston County.

This position focuses on distributing food at our Downtown Olympia Pantry, our Lacey Pantry, helping staff our seasonal Saturday Farm Stand, grounds keeping, and light general building maintenance. This position will provide support to all aspects of our pantry operations. The member will be supported by staff and volunteers with opportunities to learn about food insecurity in Thurston County and how our collective community efforts work to reduce barriers to accessing food for marginalized, underserved, and underrepresented members of our community.

If one is not already set up, the Food Bank would love to work with your school to create an internship/work study opportunity in partnership to support our community.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist Volunteer Coordinator in setup and keeping stations well-stocked throughout the day
• Directing client traffic when necessary
• Receive, rotate and put away weekly food orders/shipments
• Receive in-house Client Intake training
• Seasonal Saturday Farm Stand: client intake, quality control, restocking, sorting, consolidation, cleanup
• Help staff with grounds keeping to include: weeding, trimming, planting
• Help staff with building maintenance including cleaning fans, mopping, and sweeping
• Use of equipment such as pallet jacks and walking-stacker
• Maintain receiving area and other work areas to acceptable operating standards
• Sort, pack, restock and distribute food to clients
• Work in cooperation with Food Bank staff and volunteers in groups and independently
• Possible off-site work supporting deliveries, pickups, distribution of food

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Able-bodied enough to lift 50-pound boxes using team or tool support when needed.
• Willingness to be flexible with types of tasks given.
• Willingness to learn to operate heavy machinery.
• A team player, but also capable of working independently.
• Bilingual – HELPFUL BUT NOT REQUIRED (Spanish, Khmer, Vietnamese, Korean)

Please begin your journey into volunteering excellence by applying to volunteer! You can do so by clicking this link and choosing "Apply Now": https://thurston-county-food-bank.volunteerlocal.com/volunteer/

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact Michael Dennis at michaeld@tcfb.org or via phone 360-352-8597 Extension 252.