volunteer at the food bank

Join us in sharing food and bringing hope. We thrive when we help each other.

Make Your Mark

Volunteer service is at the heart of The Food Bank’s mission, and we are grateful for each volunteer who generously gives of their time to serve neighbors in our community. Whether you repackage food in the Volunteer Room, work directly to distribute food at The Market or a Mobile Market, connect neighbors with resource through SNAP calls or introduce your children to service through Kids Helping Kids, your volunteer story is just the beginning of a neighbor's story of food security.

Read the Volunteer Impact Report: July 2026

Volunteers help get food to Columbia neighbors facing transportation barriers

“It’s a great way to start the day.” Angela and her husband Matt were all smiles after volunteering at The Food Bank Market on a hot morning in July. They spent their morning loading boxes of food into cars. They signed up for a volunteer shift to support our Project DASH Program, an important initiative […]

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Longtime Volunteers Grow Fresh Produce for Schuyler County Food Room

The Schuyler County Food Room sits on North Park Street in Lancaster, Missouri, just south of the Iowa border. It’s one of The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri’s 145 partner agencies. Each month, the Schuyler County Food Room opens its doors to share food with its community. In recent years, the pantry has […]

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Hope for Heroes 5K raises $65,000 to help support veterans

Hundreds of people gathered at Cosmopolitan Park in Columbia in June for The Food Bank's 9th Annual Hope for Heroes 5K. Devin Stevenson was one of more than 250 people who ran or walked. This year marked his second time participating in the Hope for Heroes 5K. He stood out in the crowd of runners, […]

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Columbia Pastor Celebrates 55th Birthday by Filling 55 Volunteer Shifts

A bowling alley, a restaurant, a movie theater, a miniature golf course. These are all places you might consider celebrating turning another year older. Grant Timbrook chose The Food Bank Volunteer Room. Grant, a pastor at Prairie Grove Baptist Church, and dozens of his church members packed The Food Bank’s Volunteer Room across three different […]

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High School Group 'Feeding COMO' Holds Annual Fundraiser

Food insecurity is personal to Mira Tosh, and an issue she has been passionate about for years. “I had a friend in middle school who faced food insecurity and received buddy packs, and I noticed that there was a stigma in middle school,” Mira said. Four years ago, a teacher assigned an optional project to […]

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Volunteer Feature: Battle High School Students Build Skills, Confidence, and Community

Nearly each week, a dedicated group of students led by Sarah Frost from Battle High School (Columbia Public Schools) arrives at The Food Bank Market, ready to help staff serve their neighbors experiencing food insecurity. Their enthusiasm and dedication embody the spirit of service, but for them, this experience is more than just a routine—it’s […]

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Nurturing Hope in Sacred Spaces

At The Food Bank, volunteers play an essential role in our mission. One recent volunteer member, Dr. Kathryn Fishman-Weaver, shared her time at The Food Bank Market and Loaves and Fishes Soup Kitchen. In a heartfelt post to her Facebook page, Dr. Fishman-Weaver described her experience working with neighbors and fellow volunteers, vividly detailing the […]

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Garden Giving: An Act of Hope

Interfaith Garden tells a story of collaboration, compassion and care. This labor of love was born from a partnership between Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS) and St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish in Columbia. The garden’s initial roots trace back to 2006, when CBS first established the garden as a servicelearning initiative for students. The concept […]

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Camden County Mobile Market Brings Hope to Many

In the Lake Ozark region amidst vast lake shorelines and rolling hills sits Camden County, a resilient community. Like others across the nations, many residents of Camden County experience - or know someone who is experiencing - food insecurity. While Camden County is renowned for its natural beauty, drawing thousands of visitors each summer, the […]

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time makes the difference

Volunteer Room

Prep food for partner agencies, special programs and Mobile Markets by repackaging items, sorting through donations, building boxes and more.

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The Food Bank Market

Serve neighbors directly by running check-in, guiding visitors through the shopping process, bagging groceries, restocking shelves, keeping the facility clean and more.

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Volunteer with a Group

Volunteer with family, friends, clubs or teams to make an even bigger difference for neighbors.

Register as a volunteer

New here? Create your profile to get more information and register to sign up for shifts.

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1000

hours

served by volunteers in 2025

million meals

shared with the help of volunteers in 2025

in funds

re-invested in our mission because of volunteer hours shared

Corporate & Community Impact

You can make an impact for your community – and demonstrate value-driven action - by volunteering with your coworkers just as you do with family and friends. Many local businesses and other organizations practice team building and enhance camaraderie and leadership skills by volunteering with The Food Bank. A team’s time and talent can serve our community even more effectively.

Group volunteers (5+ People)

Kids-Centric Programs

kids helping kids

The Food Bank’s Volunteer Room in Columbia regularly hosts special events for children 5 to 12 years old and their family members or other guardians. Kids and their grown ups tour the warehouse, help prepare food for distribution and learn more about the value of giving back!

One adult must join every two children.

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volunteers make a huge impact!

Volunteers are the foundation of The Food Bank’s work. Thank you to each of our supporters who chooses to share their time through service. Learn more about the scope and scale of our volunteers’ accomplishments in our most recentVolunteer Report.

Download the report

Health & Safety Precautions

The Food Bank often works with foods that include top allergens, like milk, eggs, wheat, peanuts and more. If you have an allergy concern, please choose a volunteer option that keeps you from interacting with our food items. For example, volunteer at one of our special events. Questions? Contact us.

The Food Bank takes steps to ensure the well-being of staff, volunteers and those we serve. In addition to cleaning and sanitizing procedures, volunteers are asked to complete a health survey before each shift. We will continue to monitor and be responsive to public health guidance related to COVID-19 and any other public health concern, from the annual flu to emerging issues.

Accessibility

The Food Bank is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity and inclusion. We strive to provide volunteer opportunities for all our community members. If you need an accommodation to serve at one of our opportunities, please contact our volunteer team.

Community Service

Any volunteer who must complete community service hours for legal reasons must complete a community service application via our volunteer portal. You must first create a profile in our portal and then submit an application. All individuals must be approved for court ordered community service hours before hours can be credited to you. Contact our volunteer team with any questions.

Volunteer in Other Ways

Beyond the other options described on this page, you can choose any of the following volunteer opportunities to support our mission of ending food insecurity in Missouri. If interested, please contact our volunteer team for more information.

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Internships

Get real-world experience, learn about nonprofit work and complete projects that make a difference by serving with The Food Bank.

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Special Events

Volunteer at one of The Food Bank’s annual events to raise awareness, collect food and bring in funds! Events run throughout the year. Check out upcoming events.

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Ballard Youth Leadership

Students between the ages of 14-18 are invited to apply for the Ballard Youth Leadership program, where they can gain leadership skills, help address communitywide problems and make a difference!

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DONATE BAGS OR EGG CARTONS

The Food Bank Market reuses all sorts of containers, boxes and bags to help neighbors carry their groceries. We also reuse egg cartons to store and distribute eggs. If you have a stash of gently used bags or egg cartons, The Market would love to have them! You can drop them off at either The Market or the Volunteer Room.

FAQs

What are the age requirements to volunteer?

Volunteers serving in the Volunteer Room must be 12 years of age and older.

Those who are 12-15 years old must be accompanied by an adult (someone 18 years of age or older) to serve alongside the youth during the entire shift.

Volunteers serving at The Food Bank Market must be 16 years of age and older.

Volunteers serving at special events will need to check the opportunity listing to find the age requirements.

Do I have to register before I serve a shift, or can I walk-in? Do I have to register if I am part of a group?

Yes! All volunteers are required to sign-up for each shift before they serve with us. We need to know who is serving with us for each shift for a variety of reasons including: safety and emergency situations, planning projects, counting and verifying hours, and more.

If you are part of a group, your group leader has reserved a slot for you. You must register for the shift to fill that slot. If you don’t register, we will release your reserved slot to other interested volunteers.

You can register for a shift by using our volunteer portal or calling our team at 573-474-1020. To confirm your registration, you will receive an automatic email with additional details about your scheduled shift.

The shift I’m interested in says full, can I still come to volunteer?

We have limited space and projects available for volunteers. When we have reached our maximum number of volunteers for a shift we won’t be able to allow more folks to join us that day. We do have a waitlist, and we encourage you to add yourself to the waitlist for an interested shift, if a spot opens up you’ll be contacted right away so that you will know that you can join us for that shift.

What do I do if I’m running late or can’t make it to my scheduled volunteer shift? Can I serve for just one hour?

Our shifts are built to include: a short orientation to cover food safety information, the project itself and clean up time. We ask that all volunteers serve for the full shift to ensure they are receiving all the important information and can help us complete our tasks in full. If you need to request a shift time accommodation, please reach out to our team first!

Volunteer Room: Please call our team at 573-447-6619

Market: Please call our team at 573-874-7848

What should I wear to volunteer?

All volunteers are required to wear close-toed shoes when volunteering with us. Both the Volunteer Room and the Market operate near or in a warehouse setting, and to keep everyone safe we require close-toed shoes.

We encourage you to wear short or long sleeve shirts. No tank tops or crop tops.

If you are joining us in the Volunteer Room we will provide you with a hair-net that you will be required to wear. Many projects will also require you to wear gloves, which we will provide.

How do I get a volunteer t-shirt?

After serving 40 hours of service you can receive a volunteer t-shirt! We encourage you to wear your shirt to your shifts.

After serving 100 hours of service you can receive a volunteer name tag! These name tags are ordered on a monthly basis and take some time be delivered to The Food Bank, once we receive the name tags our team will present them to you! We encourage you to wear your nametag during your shift.

I need to earn court-ordered hours. How can I sign-up to serve hours with The Food Bank?

In order for our team to sign off on any court-ordered community service hours you need to complete our application here.

What is the New Volunteer Training for? Do I have to attend this before I start volunteering?

If you are interested in serving at The Food Bank Market, we require that everyone attend a one-hour training before they can volunteer with us. We provide you with more context behind our work, rules and safety guidelines, best practices and more! Many of our neighbors have expressed their appreciation in interacting with volunteers who have more knowledge of our work and many volunteers have shared they have more confidence in serving with us after attending the training. We typically hold trainings on Mondays from 10–11 a.m., Wednesdays from 3:30–4:30 p.m., and Fridays from 1–2 p.m. You can sign up for a New Volunteer Training here.

I can’t access my account in the volunteer portal, what can I do?

Sometimes you have an account with an old email or phone number. Please contact our team at volunteer@sharefoodbringhope.org and we can help update our account and provide you access.

I am in need of food resources, or I know someone in need of food. Can I pick up some food resources while volunteering?

Volunteers in need of food resources are welcome to visit our Food Locator to learn more about the partner pantries they can visit to receive food resources. If you volunteer at a partner agency, we ask that you wait to receive food resources at the end of a shift. No one is required to volunteer to receive food resources.