Needs From: Volunteer Houston

Wesley's Food Pantry needs volunteers for our drive-up food pantry to help our Houston neighbors who are in desperate need of food. 

Duties include:

Organize, sort and stock donated food items, including loading and unloading freezers, refrigerators, and shelves. Fill grocery bags with food to take out to client cars. Maintain orderliness and cleanliness of the pantry.

Skills Needed:

The ability to uphold our standards of client confidentiality. The ability to stand, walk, bend and lift up to 30 pounds.

Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays 8:30am-12:30pm: packaging bags, loading bags into clients cars (may require limited outdoor time), restocking, set up and clean up

Tuesdays 8:30am-11:30am: Unloading trucks, stocking shelves, pre-packing grocery bags

Our address is 1235 Lorraine St. Please arrive 10 minutes before your shift. Parking is available on the street, being careful not to block driveways, and enter at the large gate on Gano St. If you are running late for your shift, please call 713-821-8950.

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Enjoy current events? Help us stay up to date by contributing to our monthly newsletters! Like to write short articles or blurbs? Pair your talents with your service and volunteer at Wesley Community Center as a E-News Volunteer. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills. Experience with newsletter formatting and content generation. Ability to discern important facts from a large pool of information. Creative, forward thinker needed.

Wesley Community Center is seeking individuals for data entry into a client database. We have data that needs to be inputted into the system, so that we can continue to serve the Greater Houston Area. Personal information (name, age, address, etc) will be entered into the database by our volunteers. Your help, BIG or small, helps us accomplish this task.

A wonderful opportunity for you to help those in need living in the Greater Houston area by assisting customers that partake of our various programs.

Emergency Food: Food that is provided on as needed basis. Scholarship Program: Food provided to reduce financial pressure by covering a portion of household grocery costs. In turn, clients can focus on improving their lives through programs that promote education, employment, health, housing, and/or family finances.

Duties include:

Provide quality customer service to those needing our assistance. Organize, sort and stock donated food items, including loading and unloading freezers, refrigerators, and shelves. Maintain orderliness and cleanliness of the pantry and waiting area.

Skills Needed:

Great customer service, communication skills, and a personable demeanor. The ability to uphold our standards of client confidentiality. Be able to handle the stress of a labor-intensive job. The ability to stand, walk, bend and lift up to 30 pounds. Prior experience working in a grocery store and knowledge of food pantry operations helpful, but not required.

 

Must be able to commit to three shifts per month, or one Saturday a month. 

 

Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm 

All gardeners and amateur gardeners welcome! Wesley Community Center is home to the Lorraine Street Gardening Club. The land surrounding our Food Pantry is equipment with 14 garden beds and is also home to a hive of bees to help with pollination. 

We take a central planning approach and garden all plots together, maximizing the plots for the gardeners' benefit and the clients of the pantry. Because of this, we ask that you meet with our lead garden volunteer before beginning planting.

The garden is unique in that half of what we harvest goes to the food pantry to fill the grocery carts of those less fortunate in our community. The other half is split among the gardeners. The garden is open anytime the food pantry is open (9-3 T - S) and maintains a socially distanced garden get together on Saturdays. 

The Lorraine Street Garden Club started an apiary with one hive and are looking for interested future beekeepers who want to learn about beekeeping and see what all the love is about. 

 

Beekeeping work is usually done on Saturdays in the afternoon. There is a grant request pending for additional hives, clothing, and honey processing equipment. 

 

Join this small group of dedicated apiarists and help support local foods here in Houston. 

The need at Wesley's Food Pantry has dramatically increased since the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers are needed to help with our drive up food pantry to help our Houston neighbors who are in desperate need of food. We will limit the number of volunteers to keep in line with social distancing recommendations and volunteers must wear face masks.

Please see available shifts, updated in needs each month.

Duties include:

Organize, sort and stock donated food items, including loading and unloading freezers, refrigerators, and shelves. Fill grocery bags with food to take out to client cars. Maintain strict cleanliness and safety standards of the pantry.

Skills Needed:

Great customer service, communication skills, and a personable demeanor. The ability to uphold our standards of client confidentiality. The ability to stand, walk, bend and lift up to 30 pounds.

Hours: Tuesdays and Thursday 10:00am - 2:00pm, unloading deliveries, repackaging produce, pre-packing grocery bags for clients

            Wednesdays and Fridays 9:00am-1:00pm: loading bags into clients cars (may require limited outdoor time), restocking, set up and clean up

As a Community Outreach Volunteer, you will help coordinate (in conjunction with staff) outreach events and activities including; attending fairs and community events, tabling booths, networking meetings and more to help connect the community with Wesley's services for both external and internal community outreach purposes to communicate the mission and purpose of the organization.

Help identify potential outreach and awareness opportunities Attend community events to represent Wesley and the services we offer Engage community members

 

Location and Time Commitment: Our Wesley office is located in Near Northside of Houston. Opportunities are flexible and can fit around your routine. Time commitment and location is flexible and dependent upon outreach efforts and events.

Skills, Abilities, Knowledge:  

Must present self in a professional manner Ability to work independently or with others to manage multiple tasks with minimal supervision Light physical demands with transporting, setting up and taking down outreach materials, banners, tables, booths and more Ability to speak English and Spanish Must have reliable transportation Excellent oral communication skills and interpersonal skills