Helping Hands Food Distribution (Outdoor Event!)

*UPDATED 4/7/2025: CHFB has been averaging 1,800+ families each Saturday and as high as almost 2,000! Be prepared to hustle! If 3-4 hours of high-pace activity is not for you, you may want to reconsider this opportunity. 

Helping Hands is an assembly line & drive thru food distribution. There are volunteer roles that are inside, outside, and both! There will still be a great chance you have some outdoor exposure so please dress appropriately. 

This includes:

• COATS / LONG SLEEVES / LONG PANTS
• Hats
• Gloves
• Scarves
• Sunglasses

CHFB is very limited in what we can provide with these items. Thank you! 😎

Saturday Helping Hands is CHFB's primary food distribution volunteer event! We strive to have ~50-60 volunteers join us each Saturday morning as we distribute tens of thousands of pounds of food to an average amount of 1,500 - 2,000 families. The process works like this:

1. Volunteers and staff work to load food into boxes on our assembly line.
2. Boxes are lifted into shopping carts.
3. Carts are pushed outside to staff/volunteers waiting to load the boxes into vehicles.

Staff and volunteers also work to motion cars into place, and direct traffic from surrounding roads. Saturdays are busy but are a surefire way to feed your soul. This distribution makes a massive impact on the families in our nine county service community. Bring your muscles and your dance moves - this is a well paced activity! 

Please arrive at 999 E. Tillman between 6:45 & 7:00 AM. You will need to park in the Fire Police, City County Credit Union, Midwest America Credit Union, or Domino's Pizza parking lots. All of these are directly next to CHFB. 

Enter in through the “Volunteer Entrance” near the three flagpoles. Please check in with me, Mis Embury, at the Volunteer Manager Desk / check-in table. You can sign in on the iPad (if you registered online) or by using the paper sign-in sheet. On average, Helping Hands finishes early (10-10:30), but every volunteer will receive a minimum of four hours credit for volunteering here.

On the day you volunteer:

Please be aware of the weather forecast and dress accordingly. 😎
Please wear clothing for walking, bending, and reaching. 👕
Please wear closed-toe shoes! This is a must! 👟

We have bottled water on site. 💧

Be ready for a good workout! This is a well-paced physical activity.💪

Valuables are best left locked securely in your vehicles.

Secondary options to help on Saturday are sometimes asked of volunteers. If we have spare hands, we may ask if you'd like to help stock shelves in our on-site food pantry, or decorate bags for our low-income seniors program :) 

We so appreciate your volunteering at the Community Harvest Food Bank. We could not come even close to doing what we are able to do without you. Thank you so much!

Mis Embury, Volunteer Manager
Community Harvest Food Bank