FOOD SECURITY & ACCESS RELATED VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Angel Food East was founded in 1992 to provide hot, nutritious, home-delivered meals, five days a week to people living with HIV+/AIDS. Now, we prepare and deliver more than 300 meals, fresh fruit, and salads 2 days per week to those who are homebound in Ulster County. Please join us in our mission of community care by volunteering or donating today! To volunteer contact Lisa at contact@angelfoodeast.org or call (845) 331-6538 or visit www.angelfoodeast.org
Family of Woodstock has been Helping with “Any Problem Under the Sun” Since 1970, Family offers an intensive, comprehensive training for hotline volunteers twice a year. This is one training experience we guarantee will open your eyes to where you live and open your hearts. We offer real skills to help our neighbors. We value volunteers who can help off the hotline too –with our Free Store, free counseling service, help at events, with our Food Pantries in Ellenville, New Paltz and Woodstock, the Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative, and with the new Home Share program. For more info contact (845) 679-2485.
Farm to Food Pantry Collaborative Led by Family of Woodstock, the Rondout Valley Growers Association, UlsterCorps and the Hudson Valley Farm Hub, the program addresses food insecurity by engaging local farmers to donate locally grown produce and training volunteers to glean, process and distribute nutritious food to the network food pantries, feeding programs and shelters in Ulster and surrounding counties. Volunteers are needed to assist with field gleanings and distribution of donated produce to local food pantries, shelters and feeding programs throughout the growing season. We are also in need of volunteers to help maintain the shared cooler hubs located across the County. If you’d like to learn more or help out, click here or contact glean@ulstercorps.org or 845-481-0331.
FeedHV – Volunteers keep the FeedHV running – literally – making hundreds of food runs a month. As a volunteer, you set your preferences in terms of availability and frequency, and have the option to accept or decline runs. Food runs can generally be accomplished in a short period of time – even as little as 30 minutes, while you are out and about anyway. More info or sign up: https://www.feedhv.org/volunteer
The Good Neighbor Food Pantry in Woodstock, NY is looking for team-oriented volunteers to: Greet our neighbors and input their visits into an online database; Monitor food distribution; Stock shelves; Help with light cleaning of the pantry space. We ask our volunteers to commit to a weekly two-hour shift, either 11am-1pm or 1-3pm any of the days we are open – Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, or Saturdays. If you would like to volunteer please drop by the pantry, visit goodneighborfoodpantry.org/ email feedingwoodstock@gmail.com.
Happy to Help Food Pantry, located in the basement of St. James Church at the corner of Fair and Pearl St., Kingston, NY, seeks volunteers ages 12 and older. For youth volunteers, a parent or adult from the school should accompany the students. We have both weekday and weekend opportunists available to assist with our pantry: assisting with food deliveries, Saturday pick ups at the farmers market, Sunday morning to set up pantry, Sunday afternoons to assist while the pantry is open. Please contact Meghan at 845-212-3141 or happytohelppantry@gmail.com to see how you can participate or visit our FaceBook page for more info.
Live Well Kingston brings partners and residents together in focus teams to facilitate programming, communications, policy, and systems changes that increase access to healthy opportunities. The Eat Well focus team works on increasing access to healthy, nourishing foods, and Grow Well works on supporting community gardens in the City of Kingston, NY. Reach out to Emily Flynn to learn more at eflynn@kingston-ny.gov, 845-334-3909, or LiveWellKingston.org.
At People’s Place, we rely on the heart and energy of our volunteers to help us serve families in need across Ulster County. We’re calling on all ages—but especially young adults—to lend a hand! Whether you’re looking for a way to give back or gain experience, we have opportunities in our Food Pantry, Community Cafe, and Wellness Empowerment Center. Visit https://www.peoplesplace.org/volunteer/ or call 845.338.4030.
Phillies Bridge Farm Project is CSA farm in New Paltz that focuses on sustainable agriculture, food justice, and education. Volunteers are always welcome to come help the crew with a variety of tasks including harvesting, weeding, planting, seeding and more. If you are interested in volunteering you can check out our upcoming events to see community harvest days, or you can email Farm Elle at farm@philliesbridge.org to coordinate a time to help out the crew. www.philliesbridge.org/upcoming-events
Regional Food Bank Hudson Valley is looking for individuals and groups to help screen and process incoming food donations in our dedicated volunteer sorting space. At our Orange County Distribution Center in Montgomery, NY we have morning, midday, afternoon, and evening volunteer opportunities throughout the week. Whether it’s frozen meats and entrees, fresh produce, or assorted dairy items, we need help checking donations against food safety guidelines before they can be shared with our network of partner organizations across our six county service area (Orange, Ulster, Sullivan, Dutchess, Putnam, Rockland counties). More Info: https://regionalfoodbank.net/volunteer or Contact: Corey Almeida, Manager of Volunteer Services coreya@regionalfoodbank.net 845-534-5344 ext.102
The Salvation Army is seeking assistance in several areas, including cleaning, light office work (such as answering phones), and helping with food distribution through our food pantry. Our main food distribution takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We are looking for volunteers during those days from 10:30 am to 1:00 pm or 1:30 pm. Our food pantry distribution hours are as follows: Tuesdays and Thursdays: 9:30 AM – 2:30 PM. Any time and support you can offer would be greatly appreciated as we continue to serve our community. If you can assist, please contact (845) 331-1803. We look forward in staying connected.
THRIVE ON! is seeking volunteers to assist with our Kingston-based food initiatives. These opportunities include collecting food donations, running our food pantry, tending to our community garden, and shopping for and producing meals for families experiencing homelessness. For more information contact Candace Lindenlauf at candace@thriveon.network or 617.903.2407
Volunteer opportunities with Ulster Immigrant Defense Network (UIDN) can be found at ulsterimmigrantdefensenetwork.org. Food security related: work set-up shift for Wednesday Food Distribution in Kingston. Shift hours are 12:30 -3:00 p.m.; with own large vehicle, pick up fresh produce at Regional Food Bank locations in Montgomery or Latham, Wednesdays between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m. Bring the produce to Kingston. Must be able to lift 40-50 lbs.
Please also see the directory and map of Ulster County Food Pantries and Meal Programs, or contact us at 845-481-0331, volunteer@ulstercorps.org
