VOLUNTEER ​

Dalhousie Food Cupboard is a great way to connect with your community!
Volunteers

Dalhousie is currently looking for energetic volunteers with the following skills and experience:
  • Design (website, promotional materials)
  • Fundraising
  • Event planning

From time to time, we recruit assistants for
​our day-to-day operations and special events:
  • Greeters
  • Food distribution
  • Kitchen organization/food sorting
  • Special event helpers

Organize an event to support Dalhousie Food Cupboard:
Are you looking for a way to connect your organization to the community? Funds raised from third-party events help support our mission to provide healthy food to people who need it in our community.
If you are interested in volunteering with the Dalhousie Food Cupboard, please  
email mail@dalhousiefoodcupboard.ca
call (613) 230-3982
 or fill in this contact form . . .  

    I am interested in volunteering 
    ​at the Dalhousie Food Cupboard . . .
Meet Our Volunteers!
The Dalhousie Food Cupboard and its clients depend on the incredible work of our dedicated volunteer core. Each volunteer has their own story - this month, meet  Michael Salter!
My name is Michael Salter and I was in the Royal Canadian Navy for more than 36 years. Following my retirement in 2014, I decided I needed to do something worthwhile with my time when not traveling, and began to look for a volunteer opportunity. I contacted the Dalhousie Food Cupboard in July 2015, met Mai Lee, the DFC's coordinator, and started volunteering three days a week. 
 
The most enjoyable thing about volunteering with the Dalhousie Food Cupboard is the people - both volunteers and clients. Seeing the change in some of our clients' lives is always an inspiration. And my fellow volunteers are the best. In my time with the DFC, I have worked with good, compassionate and non-judgemental people who volunteer, donate and give of themselves in order to help others. Despite everything that is happening in the world, when I volunteer I get to work alongside everyone from students to senior citizens, people from around the world with all sorts of different life experiences, all of whom inspire me with their optimism, good humour and willingness to work hard for their fellow citizens. In volunteering with them, I have often had my world views challenged, but each of them feel it is important to give back to their community.
 
I chose to volunteer with and have stayed with the Dalhousie Food Cupboard for a few reasons. It is obscene and inexcusable that Canadians go hungry in a country as rich as ours. I realize there are myriad reasons for our clients needing our services, but by volunteering I can at least aid in alleviating the symptoms by helping the DFC run a little bit more smoothly and efficiently. An unexpected result of volunteering with DFC is that I now recognize the poverty that is hidden in plain sight in our city and far more widespread than I previously believed. 
 
At the DFC, I supervise our food distribution operations. To do this I keep aware of what food we have on hand, accept deliveries from various suppliers, supervise volunteers in the food distribution area, revise our menu as required, advise our coordinator of shortfalls and items to order, and also ensure interviewers are aware of menu changes. In addition to this I have acted as an interviewer, greeted clients upon arrival, and have carried out general cleaning duties.
 
One weekend last winter, I came in to do some work at the DFC only to discover that we had been robbed. I was both angry and devastated when I realized that someone had taken food from the poor. The DFC's Board gave me permission to talk to the press and I was subsequently interviewed by many newspapers and radio stations. I hoped that by talking to reporters we could help recoup some of our losses through donations, but I was astonished when the entire city of Ottawa came to our rescue. Donations of food and money far exceeded what had been taken, so much so that during one of the last interviews I requested listeners to donate to their local food bank and not the DFC because we simply could not absorb more food. 
 
A new volunteer can look forward to meeting people of all ages working as a team toward a common goal. When you are finished for the day at the Dalhousie Food Cupboard you can be sure that you have done something good for someone and that's not nothing.