Our bright yellow refrigerated van collects up to a tonne of quality excess food each day that would otherwise go to waste from restaurants, cafes, hotels, supermarkets, wholesalers and caterers across Cairns. This food is then redistributed to a number of local charities providing assistance to people in need. Our food rescue and relief services are completely free of charge to both donors and recipient charities. Our regular and free food deliveries to charities enable them to provide crucial food relief services while reducing their food spending and redirecting vital funding into education, rehabilitation and other services.

Each week, we prevent tonnes of good food from going to landfill - which in turn prevents tonnes of warming gases entering our atmosphere. By preventing quality food from being wasted, we're valuing this essential resource, we're nourishing our planet and fighting climate change, and we're nourishing our community with nutritious, quality, surplus food.

We're recruiting the services of Volunteer Food Rescue Assistants (one volunteer per day, for a full day shift), to ride along in the passenger seat and assist our Food Rescue Driver in collecting surplus food from the food industry, checking it for quality, and distributing it, same day, to local charities who provide food relief to vulnerable people in our Cairns community.

THE ROLE WILL INCLUDE:

• Assisting the driver in physical collection of food from donors
• Loading food into the van following Food Safety and Manual Handling Guidelines
• Weighing donated food and assisting the driver to log details of volume/type of food collected in our smart phone app
• Assisting in unloading and distribution of food to recipient agencies. We recommend having the fitness to repeatedly lift boxes of up to 10kgs.
• Liaising with food donors, recipient charities, and fellow OzHarvesters
• Being an Ambassador for OzHarvest and represent us in a positive manner in all dealing with donors, recipient charity staff and clients, and the general public.
• Other volunteering roles may arise from time to time, including community events/market stalls, fundraising and education roles with our FEAST program.

WHAT YOU WILL GET OUT OF THIS OPPORTUNITY:

• A sense of contribution - making a difference to people in need, and doing something tangible to protect and respect our planet
• Be emotionally rewarded for your efforts in this community focused role
• An understanding of the various organisations that work with those doing it tough
• An understanding of the challenges that face people who rely on food assistance
• Increased community and environmental awareness
• Interaction with the OzHarvest team while assisting us achieve our positive social and environmental impact.

SKILLS THAT CAN BE GAINED BY THE VOLUNTEER

• Communicating and working with supermarket staff
• How to handle food safely
• How to safely lift object and work in a warehouse/loading dock environment
• Good customer service skills as we drop food off to agencies around cairns
• Using our logistics app, Crittah 9if you want to learn, or drivers are happy to manage this if not!)