Volunteer Warehouse Customer Assistant (FareShare Plus)

FareShare is a national charity that fights food poverty and climate change by tackling food waste.

We source food that is surplus to requirements from food retailers and manufacturers, and engage many volunteers to help redistribute this to local Community Food Members (CFMs), who provide meals to people and families experiencing food poverty.
We operate from our FareShare Greater Manchester regional centre, which is based on New Smithfield Market in Openshaw, and has been run by EMERGE 3Rs since 2008.

This role is vital to the work of FareShare; ensuring that the food delivered to our warehouse is correctly sorted, labelled and organised into the orders placed by our charities and community groups.

The role is perfect for someone who is looking for a practical activity; someone looking to gain experience in the food industry, warehousing and customer service, and/or someone just wanting to help others and tackle food waste.

We are seeking volunteers to assist in our busy surplus food warehouse, where the role includes:

• Ensuring food quality and safety by checking use by and best before dates.
• Sorting and unpacking deliveries, categorising and recording food quantities.
• Assisting our Community Food Member partners with food order collections during scheduled visits to our base. 
• Maintaining high standards of health and safety and food hygiene during sessions.
• Helping with cleaning and other tasks identified by warehouse staff.

What will I be doing?

• Ensuring food quality and safety by checking ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates.
• Sorting and unpacking deliveries, categorising and recording food quantities.
• Assisting scheduled CFM partners with food order collections.
• Keeping high standards of health and safety and food hygiene during sessions.
• Helping with cleaning and other tasks identified by warehouse staff.

Our requirements

• Physical fitness, in order to be able to carry out tasks, including lifting and loading.
• Reading and numeracy skills.
• Good verbal communication skills, to assist customers and provide the best customer service.
• Ability to work well as part of a team and complete tasks independently according to instructions.
• A positive, friendly and enthusiastic attitude towards working with diverse communities.
• Availability to commit to an agreed session/day.
• Adaptability – managing surplus food can be unpredictable, so day-to-day tasks can vary. 

Training

This will be given at the induction part of the first ‘Taster’ session, as well as continuous on-the-job training, and e-learning.  

For volunteers who have basic IT skills and attention to detail, there is the opportunity for progression in the role to become involved in our admin processes. Volunteers also receive training on the use of our food database, which we use to process orders, take card payments and prepare bills.

What you can expect from the volunteer role

• Reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses – up to £6 for travel and up to £3 for lunch, upon completion of a 4 hour shift.
• Experience of working in a team.
• Work experience to add to and improve your CV.
• A reference after 2 months.
• Knowledge of the importance and benefits of addressing food surplus and recycling.

You will be required to complete introductory sessions before you are confirmed in the role.