Volunteer

We Love Volunteers

Niagara Christian Gleaners couldn’t operate without the involvement and dedication of hundreds of volunteers weekly. Tasks vary from cutting room work, to fellowship room prep, to warehouse tasks, and much, much, more. The atmosphere is pleasant and social.

Our volunteers come from all walks of life and share a desire to make a difference in the area of food waste and world hunger. We appreciate everyone who comes to help us with our mission of touching lives in Christ’s name.

Regarding Younger Volunteers

Parents, please be mindful of this important guideline regarding younger volunteers. Elementary school age children should be accompanied by an older sibling (high school age or older) or an adult. This is very important for safety reasons as the younger children will be under the supervision of the accompanying adult or older sibling. Thanks for your cooperation with this.

Pete Wierenga

General Manager

[email protected]
(905) 359-5028

Join our army of volunteers

Meet new friends and socialize
Have fun and stay active
Make a meaningful contribution to a global ministry of mercy
Make an impact in lives of people around the world

Join our army

What to Expect

8:00 am | Our day typically starts with volunteers arriving.
8:45 am | After filling out a name tag (we like to be on a first name basis) volunteers are directed to their work stations where baskets of washed produce are ready for chopping.
10:00 am | we stop for a brief time of devotion before sharing a coffee break together. Volunteers are asked to bring some baked goods to share with each other. This is always a good time of conversation and fellowship. Sometimes there is a presentation by members of the board or by one of our ministry partners.
10:30 am | Then it’s back to work, washing , chopping, bagging and boxing produce.
11:30 am | We put the knives down and help clean our work stations. Buckets are rinsed. Tables are wiped down. Mats are rolled up to be cleaned.
11:45 am |The stations are set up for the next day of work so they’ll be ready for the army of volunteers that will show up the following morning.
12:00 noon | Hi-fives and goodbyes!

Typical Tasks

Receiving | Unloading trucks.
Washing | Dumping produce into industrial washing machine and then distributing into smaller buckets.
Supply | Keep workstations supplied with fresh buckets of produce.
Layering Trays | Involves spreading chopped veggies on trays.
Scraping Trays | Involves removing leftover dried veggies from trays.
Chopping | Involves cutting up veggies for further processing.
Dicing | Supply the dicing machine with freshly chopped produce.
Drying | running the drier requires special training and those running the dryer will stay longer than the other volunteers.
Packaging | Fill bags with dried ingredients.
Clean up | Everyone helps!

Volunteering at Gleaners was a real eye opener for me. I was impressed with the organization of it all and the efficiency of the entire operation. It was so easy to step right into their assembly line and start contributing right away. I was unaware of how much of our food (perfectly good food) gets thrown out and it felt good to be rescuing that food from landfills to feed hungry people around the world. I was impressed with with the volume of food that Gleaners produces and the number of lives they impact around the world. It was rewarding to be given the opportunity to contribute to their success.

– Jason Bouwman

Principal, Compass Creative | Author, Just Thinking

One-Time Volunteer Registration

To join our volunteer roster, please complete the below form,
call (905) 359-5028 or email [email protected]

Name

Phone

Location