Volunteer
The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana relies on volunteers to help us address hunger in our community on a daily basis. Each year, more than 4,000 individuals, families, and groups, share their time and talents to assist with our hunger relief efforts throughout Lake and Porter Counties. Each volunteer experience is unique and fulfilling for our volunteers, and makes a tremendous difference in the lives of the families we serve. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana offers a number of dynamic and flexible volunteer opportunities for individuals or groups. We welcome ages as young as 8 years and older. For every 3 children ages 8-13, at least 1 adult must be present. Scroll below to view a list of our current volunteer opportunities.
Interested in volunteering? Email volunteers@foodbanknwi.org
Corporate & Community
The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana has a variety of opportunities for corporate and community teams to volunteer together. Promote team building while making a significant impact in the community.
Mobile Market Distribution
Assist with the setup and distribution of food during our weekly Mobile Market distributions. Mobile Markets take place outdoors, Monday through Saturday, in Lake & Porter Counties.
Senior Grocery Deliveries
Deliver groceries to seniors who are disabled, high risk, or immuno-compromised. We provide the items and the route. Pick up of the items to deliver occurs at the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana.
Facility Improvement
Major cleaning & organizing of our warehouse, facility, and grounds. such as deep cleaning storage areas, painting walls & traffic lines in the warehouse, landscaping, etc. Ages 16 and older are welcome.
Special Events
Assisting with pre-event set-up, day of event execution, tear-down, and post-event day tidying.
Administrative Assistance
Assisting with office and event tasks, including filing, organizing, correspondence, and more. Short-term and long-term opportunities are available.
Packing & Sorting
Assist with packing food boxes and sorting grocery items for our food assistance programs. Additionally, volunteers will on occasion assist with general warehouse cleaning and organizing needs during these shifts. Packing & Sorting work includes Backpack for Kids and Senior Food Boxes.
Event Leadership Committee
Assisting with the planning, soliciting, and execution of the Food Bank of Northwest Indiana’s 10+ annual fundraising events. Tasks include using the individual’s network to magnify fundraising, soliciting sponsors, in-kind donations (food/drinks/auction items), other resources, and participants.
Members also assist in the brainstorming and planning of event ideas, logistics, budget, as well as helping on the day-of to assist with execution and volunteer training/leadership.
Frequently Asked Questions
During the warehouse shift, your duties will include some, but not all, of the following:
- Assist with packing food boxes and sorting grocery items for our food assistance programs Additionally, volunteers will on occasion assist with general warehouse cleaning and organizing needs during these shifts. Packing & Sorting work includes:
- Backpacks for Kids – Assisting with the assembling of meal bags for children relying on weekend support on the weekends and during school breaks. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana provides approximately 300 backpacks weekly.
- Senior Food Boxes – Assisting with the assembling of approximately 50 pounds of shelf stable food for seniors on a fixed income. The Food Bank of Northwest Indiana provides approximately 1500 senior boxes each month.
- Sorting Food Drive Items– Assisting with the sorting, inspecting, and packing of food drive items received from the community. These are assembled and distributed to partner agencies to assist with their hunger relief efforts.
Yes but please dress for the weather. It can be hot when it’s hot outside and cold when it’s cold outside. We do our best to maintain a pleasant temperature but know that you’ll be doing physical labor–so you’ll definitely end up warmer than when you started. All volunteers must wear closed toed shoes.
The projects during warehouse shifts are mostly standing duties. Depending on the project, there will likely be an option for one or two volunteers to sit and build boxes for distributions, or to sit and tear boxes down so that they can be put into our trash compactor. Let us know if any volunteers have a strict need to sit and we can try to find a separate administrative task for them.
Children must be 8 years and older.
