Volunteer

Your time is valuable, and you want to help support your community, especially during difficult times. Thank you for choosing to do so with the Food Bank.

Questions? Send an email to volunteer@brafb.org.
We’ll respond as soon as possible (thank you for your patience).

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND GUIDELINES

If you want to help

  1. View current volunteer opportunities and create your online account—it’s an easy process. We use an online system to communicate with volunteers, and as an added benefit it puts you in control to manage your own experiences.
  2. Sign up for your desired shift. If you must cancel your participation in a shift, please let us know as early as possible so that others might take your spot to complete the assigned work. The process for cancellation will be in confirmation and reminder emails you’ll receive.
  3. You may have specialized skills that draw upon your professional experience or interests. Check out our Specialized Volunteer opportunities.

Health and safety

We fully support and encourage individuals who wish to continue wearing masks or face coverings at Food Bank facilities if desired.

You can review the revised Volunteer Waiver of Liability and COVID-19 AgreementAll volunteers are asked to review and abide by the updated Agreement as part of the registration process.

For the well-being of staff and fellow volunteers, we ask you to self-monitor for symptoms of contagion – any virus or illness (including COVID). Please cancel your volunteer shift as far in advance as possible if you need to stay home due to illness.

Other volunteer needs

If you’ve reviewed our current opportunities and you don’t find something that suits you, we encourage you to consider the needs of pantries closest to you. You can use our Food Finder to find nearby food pantry partners. Use their contact information to call or email and see what their needs might be. We know they can often use the help, and we couldn’t distribute so much food without them.

Or check out our Specialized Volunteer opportunities.

Hours

At this time, the majority of our volunteer opportunities are during the business hours Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Looking for evening or weekend opportunities? Check out our Food Finder to find a pantry open near you during the hours you can volunteer.

Age guidelines for volunteering

To ensure the safety of volunteers and staff in an active warehouse setting, we have age limits for all volunteer opportunities. Beyond these, some shifts include specific age requirements, so please read each job description carefully when registering.

Verona: Children between the ages of 12 and 16 may volunteer in the Food Recovery Area as long as they are accompanied by a parent or guardian for each shift. Volunteers aged 17 and older may work without an accompanying adult in the Food Recovery Area.

Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Winchester, and Offsite Locations: Children between the ages of 12 and 17 may volunteer as long as they are accompanied by a parent or guardian for each shift. Volunteers aged 18 and older may work without an accompanying adult.

To engage younger children in the fight against hunger, visit our Talk About Hunger page for ideas.

Groups

We can host volunteer groups of up to 15 people in our Verona headquarters. Group sizes at other locations range from 5 to 8 individuals.

  • All group volunteer opportunities must be scheduled at least 1 month in advance.
  • All individuals in the group must register on our online volunteer website before attending.
  • For youth groups between the ages 12-15, we require one adult chaperone per 3 children, and one adult present for every 6 youth, ages 16 and 17. An adult chaperone is required for organized youth volunteer opportunities.

Please email volunteer@brafb.org if you have questions about group volunteer opportunities.

Court-ordered/infraction-related community service

The Food Bank does not accept volunteers who need hours for legal infractions or court-ordered community service.