Volunteer

Our only restriction is age – we cannot accept any volunteers under the age of 15. Organizations, businesses, other non-profits, school groups, and community or religious groups are all welcome!

Because of how busy our distribution days are, we usually ask our group volunteers to come in on days when we don’t give out food, normally on Tuesdays and Fridays. However, in late November and throughout December we also ask small groups (around 3-5 people) to help us hand out hot chocolate to our clients on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays when we give out food.

There is some flexibility in the timing of group volunteering sessions, but they will generally fall somewhere between 10am and 3pm.

Due to our office hours and resource considerations, we are unfortunately unable to offer slots on evenings and weekends. If this is the only availability your group has, we recommend checking the Richmond Cares Richmond Gives (RCRG) website to see if there are any opportunities that better suit your group’s schedule.

We generally try and keep our volunteer groups to no more than 7 volunteers, and it is difficult for us to accommodate groups of more than 10. However, if your group is larger than this, you can still submit an application. On rare occasions, there may be the option to split the group up across multiple days, or in different slots on the same day. 

Our volunteering sessions are usually around 2-2.5 hours, in order to ensure that everyone in the group has enough to do.

Volunteer groups usually help us with activities our regular volunteer team does not get the chance to do. Activities vary from group to group and depends on our needs on a given day. Tasks may include packing hampers, repacking larger food items, and cleaning or reorganizing the warehouse. Most groups will typically sort through donations or give out food directly to clients.

Once an application is submitted, we will reach out if we are able to schedule a session with the group. If you don’t hear from us, it means that there is currently no availability for your group to come in, but we will keep your group’s application on file should anything come up in the future.

We are very appreciative of groups who enjoy their volunteering experience and would like to come back. Unfortunately, due to high demand, we are unable to offer any groups a regular volunteering slot. We can sometimes offer a group another volunteering slot at a later date, but this is not guaranteed and would generally be limited to around twice a year.

Yes! Monetary donations from either individuals or groups are always appreciated. Organizing a food drive within your organization or the wider community is also extremely helpful in ensuring that we have enough high-quality food to give to our clients. You can register for a donation drive online, and we can offer you support and guidance throughout the process.

If you have any questions regarding monetary or food donations, you can email us at info@richmondfoodbank.org. For more information about the services we provide, and how both monetary and food donations help with this, check out our 2023 Annual Report.