Five Simple Ways to Volunteer on World Food Day

In a warehouse in Augusta, Georgia, a group of volunteers works its way down a pallet of donated boxes. One team opens the boxes and checks expiration dates and packaging. The next team sorts what passes into labeled bins—canned vegetables, soups, baby products, household goods, and cleaning supplies. By the end of the shift, all of it is ready to go out to food pantries and soup kitchens across the region.

That’s an ordinary Tuesday morning at the Faith Food Factory. It’s also a pretty good picture of what World Food Day can look like up close. World Food Day is global, but the needs are local. There is much you can do in the area you already live in and many ways to do something about it.

World Food Day is observed every year on October 16, the anniversary of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945. Communities in more than 150 countries mark the day by drawing attention to hunger and to the people already working to address it.

The efforts behind World Food Day are usually small, local, and hands-on: a few hours at a food bank, a box of produce that reaches a family on a Tuesday, a garden bed that keeps producing all season.

Service doesn’t have to be complicated; it can be simple. You don’t have to end hunger to make a real difference for one individual or family. Here are five places to start:

• Organize a food drive. Gather a group of friends, neighbors, or coworkers who are willing to help. Then, pick a collection point, set a deadline, and deliver what you gather to a local pantry.
• Sort and pack at a food bank. Most sorting warehouses run regular shifts and will train you on the spot.
• Deliver meals to neighbors who can’t easily leave their homes. Many meal programs need drivers more than anything else.
• Stock or maintain a community fridge.Check dates, wipe down shelves, and keep it running for the people who rely on it.
• Plant, weed, or harvest at a community garden. Gardening projects often welcome first-timers and volunteers of all ages.

In Rapid City, South Dakota, 25 volunteers packed 500 boxes of goods, filling them with items from a delivery of 40,000 donated pounds of food. The project started as an ordinary listing on JustServe. Volunteers found it, claimed a shift, and showed up—no experience needed, nothing to bring. The delivery itself was part of a nationwide effort to stock 250 food pantries in honor of America’s 250th anniversary, but the work on the floor was as simple as it sounds: open a box, fill it, pass it along.

Several of the volunteers decided one morning was not enough and signed up to come regularly. “I am going to make a weekly appointment to come and help,” one of them said.

In Rogers, Arkansas, volunteers at the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry serve families every Monday and Tuesday. On one recent day, they sent 32 families home with fresh produce. Two days a week, one pantry, 32 families—that is what a handful of volunteers with a few free hours can add up to.

World Food Day is just one day, but the need is year-round, and so is the invitation to help decrease food insecurity in your area. Get involved today! Sign up for JustServe and find a volunteer opportunity near you.