Do you love to shop at Costco or Smart and Final? Does the sight of thousands of pounds of food make your heart flutter? The Excelsior Community Food Pantry is looking for some Thursday food shoppers, Friday food receivers, Saturday pantry volunteers, and steering team members who are interested in joining a team of folks who will help with the food-obtaining-operation end of the food pantry.

Thursday food shoppers

Must attend a one-hour shopper training and orientation at the SF Food Bank in Potrero Hill to be authorized as a shopper.Shopping dates are the first and third Thursdays of the month (the Thursday prior to the bimonthly Excelsior Community Food Pantry event held on the first and third Saturday of each month). Shopping times are flexible, but we’ve found that it’s best to shop on Thursday mornings between 8 AM and 9 AM. Shopping takes about one hour (often less).

Shoppers need to be able to lift and move boxes with maximum weights equal to approximately 24 cans. (Food packages are placed on rolling carts, so shoppers do not need to carry packages very far or for very long.)

We recommend that two people shop together to assist with lifting the occasional 50-lb. bag and with food selection decisions.

Upon checkout, the shopper will need to set up a Friday delivery time and communicate this to whoever will be receiving the delivery.

Email the food pantry to sign up, or for more info! If you’re not ready to commit quite yet, please talk to us about shopping with one of our authorized shoppers next month to see what it’s like!

Friday food receivers
We are looking to create a list of people who might be available midday on the third Friday of the month to receive the SF Food Bank delivery at MBCC. You would serve as potential backups in the event that a staff person is not available to receive the delivery. If you agree to be on the list and we do end up needing your help, you would typically be given several days notice (if not more). The exact delivery times are not set until Thursday, when the shoppers go in to shop, but the delivery window is typically between 11 AM and 1 PM. Once you arrive at MBCC, all you need to do is wait for the delivery, open the door to the storage area so that the food can be dropped off, and lock the door. No lifting is necessary. Key access will be arranged in advance. Email the food pantry to sign up, or for more info!

Help drive a pantry
ECFP is forming a steering team of people who want to help shape the vision of this ongoing community-building mission. We will meet once a month to talk about the immediate and long-term growth needs of the pantry and each steering team member informally helps find information, organize volunteers, contact pantry support partners, etc. Please email ECFP if you would like to join the steering team!