Get Involved

What do volunteers do?
Volunteers transport and sort food donations; pack and deliver food orders; liaise with schools, businesses and other organizations conducting food drives; liaise with clients; promote the work of the Cupboard; and coordinate the Barrhaven Christmas Hamper Program. When you’re a volunteer, you choose how you want to help.

How many hours per week are volunteers expected to contribute?
How much time you spend as a volunteer at the Barrhaven Food Cupboard depends on the ebb and flow of donations, client demand and your function.

If you have volunteered to pick up food from the donation bins in local grocery stores, you could be asked to make one or two pickups per week.

If you are sorting or packing food donations your time commitment will depend on the volume of food donations. You will be assigned to a team and each team is responsible for one week out of every four. Team members schedule their own times.

Dispatchers (those taking orders from clients and putting out the food) rotate, working about 30 minutes per day over a two-week period, once every eight weeks.

If you are delivering food orders to clients, you will usually deliver one or two orders once every three weeks or so, depending on client demand.

Who can be a volunteer?
Most of our volunteers at the Barrhaven Food Cupboard are adults because they work autonomously (and, often, by themselves), scheduling their own times during their duty periods. We have some teen volunteers but they usually work alongside a parent.

I want to volunteer. Where do I sign on?
The Barrhaven Food Cupboard does not maintain an office or have paid staff, so to protect the privacy of our volunteers (who work out of their own homes) we ask that you contact us at our general telephone number 613-825-4505. That includes anyone who wants to volunteer. Please leave your contact information and you will be contacted by our volunteer coordinator