What is the purpose of this system?

This system is specifically designed to meet the needs of both emergency feeding programs (EFPs) and volunteers. We greatly value the altruism, expertise, and commitment of all our volunteers, so we created this web site to help our volunteers use their time as effectively as possible.

Given that EFPs usually have more than enough volunteers around the holidays but struggle for volunteers the rest of the year, and further given that EFPs in Manhattan are less likely to have a volunteer shortage than those in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, this system is set up to showcase the great needs that agencies have year-round throughout the year.

The system is also designed to make it easier for volunteers to find opportunities to serve that are most closely aligned with their time constraints, geographical preferences, group sizes, and skill sets.

The Coalition Against Hunger’s volunteer matching system is also set up to maximize the effectiveness of volunteers by enabling those with professional training and/or advanced skills to use them to even more dramatically improve the ability of EFPs to help low-income New Yorkers obtain enough food and move “beyond soup kitchens” towards economic self-sufficiency. This system is based on the recognition that, while many EFPs generally have enough volunteers to serve and distribute food, virtually all of them are in great need of computer experts, accountants, communications professionals, fundraisers, lawyers, etc. Thus this system enables such professionals to “adopt” EFPs that need such long-term assistance.

Why do Emergency Feeding Programs need volunteers?

Because wages have not kept up with soaring prices, and because government policies restricted the social safety net, there are now more than 1.7 million new Yorkers living below the meager federal poverty line. Of those, about 1.2 million of them are forced to use one of the city’s more than 1,200 emergency food pantries and soup kitchen some time during the year. Despite the massive number of people these agencies serve, most have extraordinarily small budgets and must rely heavily on volunteers.

Why do I need to sign in/register?

It allows you to access your volunteer opportunities, make changes to your account, and most importantly, get matched with a site! Signing in also enables the forwarding of your information to the site at which you will be volunteering, letting the agency know they can count on you and allowing them to contact you directly should there be any last-minute changes in the volunteer assignment.

How do I search for a volunteer opportunity?

Every time you conduct a search, you will have a choice of either selecting a few volunteer preferences and obtaining a large list of volunteer opportunities, or narrowing your search by increasing the number of your preferences and thereby reducing the number of available volunteer opportunities. The available volunteer opportunities will always appear in the right hand column.

If you would like to further refine your search, you can narrow down your choices by one or more of the following screening criteria: tasks you would like to perform; subway lines close to the volunteer opportunity; borough of the volunteer opportunity; and dates of the volunteer opportunity.

Once you check a box or boxes, the refined list of volunteer opportunities will display on the right.

What if my search comes up with no unfilled opportunities?

In some circumstances, such as if you say you are available to volunteer only on Thanksgiving Day and only in Manhattan, your search may indicate that there are no open opportunities. In that case, you would need to broaden your search by making yourself available on an alternative day and/or in an alternative borough. The broader your search, the more likely you will find suitable, unfilled, volunteer opportunities.

How does the matching work?

When you have found a volunteer opportunity, select “Add to My Opportunity List.” When you are done searching, select “View My Selected Opportunities.” There you will see a list of your opportunities and a description of each one. Click “Sign Up” for whichever one or more that you would like. After you have signed up, an email will be sent to confirm the volunteer match.

Terms and Definitions:

Emergency Food Program (EFP)

An EFP is any program that provides food to the general, low-income population. EFPs include hot meal programs (commonly known as soup kitchens) and programs that provide canned and boxed groceries to families (commonly known as “food pantries” and “brown bag” programs).

They are sometimes referred to as Community Food Programs, Feeding Agencies, Food Programs, Emergency Food Relief Organizations, and Social Service Agencies.

Advanced / Professional Tasks

NYCCAH offers many long-term volunteer opportunities to engage in more intensive, professional work to help food pantries and soup kitchens build their capacities to feed more people and to help more of their clients move towards economic self-sufficiency.

Basic Food Tasks

These tasks include preparing and serving hot meals at soup kitchens and unloading, sorting, inventorying, packaging, and distributing groceries at food pantries.

Direct Service

Volunteers are working directly with community members or those being served. Direct service is great because you can actually see the change you are making in someone’s life or in the community. Examples are mentoring, tutoring, or performing basic food tasks.

Indirect Service

Volunteers work from a more “behind the scenes” approach. Examples are drives, collections, fundraisers, cleanups, community outreach events, as well as advanced/professional tasks. With this type of service you may not necessarily see the benefits of what you are doing in the community but it often has an even greater long term, positive impact.

Advocacy Service

Volunteers work for vital public policies improvements necessary to reduce both hunger and the poverty that causes it. Examples of this service are lobbying, speaking, performing, or letter writing. By participating in either direct or indirect service for an agency or an organization with a cause, you have become an advocate.

What’s the difference between a soup kitchen and food pantry?

Soup kitchens or hot meal programs serve cooked meals on-site and are open at least once a week. Often these EFPs focus on serving a larger percentage of homeless people than food pantries. This is because people struggling to find a place to stay often lack the means to cook for themselves. Soup Kitchens are the most labor-intensive of EFPs because serving and cleaning demands a great deal of time.

Food pantries distribute groceries, mostly for people who have cooking facilities. They are generally open at least once per week and are usually easier to run than kitchens. Some programs pre-bag food and use volunteers to pass it out. Other food pantries arrange the shelves like a grocery store, allowing guests to choose their own groceries.

What commitment do I make when I sign-up for a volunteer opportunity?

When you confirm a volunteer opportunity using this site, this means that we no longer advertise that opportunity as open and that the anti-hunger site is now very much counting on your help on the date and time you signed-up for. These sites rely heavily on volunteers, and when volunteers don’t show up, vital tasks often go unperformed. Thus, we ask you to make every effort to keep your commitment.

What do I do if I have to cancel my volunteer opportunity?

If you must cancel, please make every possible effort to contact the Coalition Against Hunger as far in advance as possible before the cancellation by contacting:

Neal Flowerman-Coordinator of Volunteer Programs

New York City Coalition Against Hunger (NYCCAH)

212-825-0028 ext. 210

Fax  212-825-0267

nflowerman@nyccah.org

Why does the Coalition Against Hunger also encourage volunteers to donate funds?

As you might imagine, it takes a great deal of staff time and technology support to enable ongoing and effective operations of our volunteer matching system. Your tax deductible donations help us defray the costs when you and others volunteer.

NYCCAH’s Privacy Statement

Your personal information will always remain private within NYCCAH and the site at which you will be volunteering. Your information will never be shared with a third party for the purposes of solicitation or communications.

What additional features or information can I receive from NYCCAH?

You may sign-up to receive our monthly newsletter electronically or by mail. The Hunger Headlines brings to you the monthly news update from the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. We bring you stories about “the month that was” in the New York City anti-hunger community. You can also visit the Coalition’s newsletter archive, which includes all issues of the Hunger Headlines. You may also choose to sign-up to have our quarterly, hard-copy, newsletter, Beyond the Soup Kitchen, mailed to you. You can also sign up to get policy alerts e-mailed to you, updating you on the latest developments in Washington, Albany, and/or NYC that impact hunger and poverty.

Can People Under the Age of 18 Volunteer?

In considering how much to use and/or limit the volunteer tasks of young people, feeding programs must carefully balance their desire to educate young people about hunger and build an ethic of service with their concrete need to efficiently perform crucial tasks and ensure program safety and order.

In general, most food programs prohibit volunteers under the age of 13, even if they have adult supervision, due to both concerns for the safety of the youth and the reality that volunteers below the age of 13 often need much more extra time to train and supervise, consequently hosting them actually makes it more difficult for the feeding program to do its job. Therefore, we suggest that, rather than volunteer directly at a food program, children under the age of 13 participate in a neighborhood food drive and/or an age-specific educational activity. For more information on one of those options, please contact Neal Flowerman, NYCCAH’s Coordinator of Volunteer Programs at nflowerman@nyccah.org or 212-825-0028, ext. 210.

For young people between the ages of 12 - 18, food programs often require on-site adult supervision at all times; large groups in that age range should have more than one adult supervisor.

If food programs have policies related to people under the age of 18 that is different than those noted above, those policies should be listed in the program and event listings on this site.