Volunteer Positions
MovetheFood depends on a truckload of community service volunteers to get food to people who need it. Can you help? Here’s what we need:
Meals from the Market at the Downtown Des Moines Farmers’ Market
We need Saturday morning volunteers throughout the duration of the Downtown Des Moines Farmers Market to work the MovetheFood booth in partnership with Meals for the Market, and to help get the donations of fresh produce and other great stuff to our warehouse and partners. In 2012, the Meals from the Market Program contributed to our distribution of over 300,000 pounds of fresh produce to our 13 pantry sites, a key aspect to our focus on health. To sign up, please go to the Meals from the Market volunteer website. Thanks so much! It’s going to be a great summer! Here are the Saturday dates volunteers are needed at the Downtown Farmer’s Market:
- May 11 & 25
- June 8 & 22
- July 6 & 20
- August 3, 17 & 31
- September 14 & 28
- October 12 & 26
DMARC at the I-Cubs
The Iowa Cubs is supporting the DMARC Food Pantry Network by inviting fans to bring three food items in exchange for one general admission ticket. (General admission tickets may be upgraded to reserved grandstand for $3. Cash donations may be accepted but not for tickets.) All dates are Sunday afternoon games. Gates open at 11:35 a.m., volunteers are asked to arrive before that time. DMARC warehouse staff will have the donation area set up and will deliver food to the warehouse at the close. If you and your friends, family, or group would like to sign up to help accept donations for one of these dates, simply send us an email with the date you’d like to volunteer.
The Sunday afternoon home games include:
- April 14th 1:05 PM
- May 5th 1:05 PM
- May 19th 1:05 PM
- May 26th 1:05 PM
- June 2nd 1:05 PM
- June 9th 1:05 PM
- June 16th 1:05 PM
- July 14th 1:05 PM
- August 11th 1:05 PM
- August 25th 1:05 PM
Warehouse Workers – We always need lots of help. Sign up now! Contact: volunteer@MovetheFood.org
Volunteer in the main warehouse of the DMARC Food Pantry Network. Welcome people who stop by to donate food. Sort and pack donated items. Shifts are 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. or 1-4:30 p.m. with considerable flexibility. Weekdays and Saturday shifts available. One time, weekly or bi-weekly schedule can be arranged. (For child safety, warehouse volunteers must be at least 16 years old unless accompanied by a parent or other adult chaperone.)
Truck Drivers
Volunteer to pick up food donations on Tuesday and/or Thursday afternoons. BYOT. (Bring your own truck!) Seriously, truck driver volunteers need a reliable pickup or van to collect donations from local sources. Time commitment: 1-2 hours, once or twice a week.
Events Specialists
Volunteer to work a MovetheFood table and collect food at a special event exhibit such as community races, concerts, I-Cubs games, farmer’s markets and food drives. Chat with people, answer questions, distribute information and gather names for our newsletter.
Sack Saturday Workers
Volunteer to gather donations from partnering Dahl’s, Fareways, Hy-Vee, or Walgreens stores. Sack Saturdays are a terrific way to involve entire groups including employee departments, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Kiwanis and youth groups.
On-Call As Needed
Volunteer to be a part of an on-call base of helpers. The pool is multi-functional: substitute for warehouse volunteers, events specialists, and trucker drivers who are unavailable. And of course, other duties as needed.
For all of the above volunteer positions, please contact the DMARC main office to be routed to the key volunteer liaison: 515-277-6969 or mktg@movethefood.org.
Or, click here to go to DMARC’s secure site to get more information and to sign up to volunteer.
