30 million meals delivered with your help
Volunteering as an Individual
Meal & Grocery Deliveries
We rely on the assistance of delivery volunteers who use their own vehicles to bring nourishment to our clients across the region. A typical delivery route is six to ten households and can take between one to three hours.
Meals can be picked up at Food & Friends or from one of our convenient Neighborhood Distribution Partners. You choose how often you deliver and no matter how busy you are, we can find a route that is perfect for you!
Food Prep & Packaging
In order to prepare thousands of meals each day, we spend a lot of time prepping ingredients and packing meals. Volunteers join us for all stages of our food preparation, from chopping vegetables to packing groceries. Shifts are generally two to three hours.
Administrative Support
It requires many helping hands to make sure our day-to-day operations run smoothly. If you enjoy filing, data entry, stuffing envelopes, making phone calls or helping with administrative projects, we are the place for you!
We also have seasonal internship and skills-based volunteer opportunities for you to bring your skills to Food & Friends.
Youth Opportunities
We welcome youth volunteers to Food & Friends and there are many ways for young people to gain service hours for school or to get the whole family involved.
Volunteers of all ages can join their adult family members delivering meals to our clients’ homes, making this an ideal volunteer opportunity for parents with young children. Volunteers must be at least 14 to work in our kitchen preparing and packaging meals.
Any MCPS student who wishes to earn SSL hours for service with Food & Friends will need to submit an Individual SSL Request form (MCPS Form 560-50 – https://bit.ly/SSLPreApproval) to their school’s SSL coordinator for review and approval prior to serving with your organization in order to earn SSL hours.
**For safety and liability reasons, MCPS students CANNOT earn SSL hours for time spent in vehicles delivering items to community members. MCPS will not approve Meal & Grocery Delivery hours.**
Volunteering as a Group
Meal & Grocery Delivery
Whether it is a one-time, weekly or monthly commitment, this activity has an immediate impact on both the delivery volunteer and the client who receives the meals. In addition to providing nourishment, your smile and a warm greeting will go a long way for our clients, many of whom are homebound and socially isolated.
Meal & Grocery Delivery requires the use of your own vehicles. Drivers need to be over the age of 18, with a valid driver’s license. We have no age requirement for passengers. Most organizations team up volunteers and carpool so that each driver has a navigator. A typical route is six to ten households and can take between one to three hours.
Food Prep & Packaging
Volunteers work together to help get meals out the door, making it a terrific team-building activity. Volunteer shifts are generally 9:00am to 12:00pm, 1:00pm to 4:00pm, and 6:00pm to 8:00pm. We typically schedule groups from 4-26 people and can occasionally accommodate larger groups for our 9am-12pm weekday shifts with advanced coordination. Organizations are also welcome to use our classroom space upon request to serve breakfast or lunch to their volunteers. Volunteers must be age 14 or older, and all youth groups must be accompanied by an adult chaperone (one for every 10 students).
Service Learning
Food & Friends provides students with the opportunity to relate classroom learning to real-world experiences while instilling the value of community service. Through this experience, students will gain valuable knowledge and see, first-hand, how their service impacts the lives of individuals facing HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-challenging illnesses.