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Box Truck Creates More Opportunities

Box TruckMaybe you knew, or maybe you did not, but Grace Klein Community needed a box truck. Transporting donations has always been a juggle of many volunteer vehicles, a loaned trailer we affectionately named “the goat trailer,” other borrowed trucks and trailers, and a few donated vehicles. Sometimes multiple trips were required or trips had to be rescheduled because of weather issues. We made it work, but nothing about pickups and deliveries were really simple.

The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham gifted us with an amazing grant, allowing us to purchase a box truck. The box truck has opened up many new opportunities, including our ability to receive more rescued food.

DonationDid you know businesses throw away food, every single day, because the food is too close to expiration to sell, they do not have the manpower to sort the good from the bad, the food shipment was larger than they needed, and/or they have no idea where they could donate the food! Grace Klein Community wants to help keep this good food out of the dumpsters and taken to the homes of the families who need it!

Thanks to the box truck, we have added five to seven additional food donation pickups, every single week, outside the original five food donation pickups our volunteers were originally securing before we received the box truck. The truck has doubled our ability to secure additional large donations.

With the box truck, our growth is exceeding our committed volunteer capacity, so we are asking that everyone who loves and serves with Grace Klein Community commit to serve at least one time every calendar quarter at the Grace Klein Community office. If you can do more, please do not hesitate!

We have created this VOLUNTEER SIGN UP where you can contribute your time as much or as little as your schedule allows.

The roles we need:

Office Host – commit to greet volunteers and donors who come by to drop off items in the Give and Take Room, helping them unload donations, helping the visitor find the rescued food they need to minister to the families they are headed out to serve, helping verify they complete the log of how many people they are serving, making sure they find what they need and helping them load their car.

Give and Take Room – commit to help sort donations into appropriate categories for the specific needs we are caring for. See board in Give and Take Room. Also host visitors who are looking for specific items in the donation room and help them find what they need and complete the log of what they give or take.

Food Rescue – commit to help unload food from truck, sort the spoiled out of the good and discard the spoiled into the compost bin, help organize the donations and load the fridges, encourage volunteers on ways to help preserve the food and distribute to families in need, clean out the fridges of any old food and wipe down the inside fridge walls and shelves, sweep and mop the basement floor, keep the food moving out to families in need, remind people to complete the log of how many they are serving.

Preserver – commit to come to office, collect food close to expiry, take the food to your home and preserve through canning, chopping and freezing, cooking down into sauce, drying, pickling, etc.

Non-perishable food organizer – commit to keep all the monthly food delivery purchased food and donated food sorted and organized by category, keep the shelves wiped down, neatly packed out, area clean, unneeded boxes broken down, recycling cardboard put in outside recycle bin, floors swept and mopped.

Chicken whisperer – commit to gather eggs, refill water, refill food, provide healthy produce that is NOT molded and approved for chickens to eat. If you don’t know, please research before feeding any produce to the chickens.

Bread sorter – commit to mark out dates on bread, store in freezers or deliver as Love Does. Break down all unneeded boxes and place in outside recycle bin.

Garden – commit to weed and care for the garden. Harvest veggies that are ready. Water the garden early morning or late afternoon if we have not had rain for several days. Help with planting at season changes.

Office cleaning – commit to clean any mess you may come across, counters that need wiped down, the bathroom, floors, spilled produce, a busted tomato can, the kitchen sink, whatever you see that needs cleaning.

Driver – commit to pickup donations from our various donors around town, must arrive timely and must be able to transport all donations to the office. If you have the comfort level to drive the box truck, we will need to verify your driving record. Times are sporadic, but generally 11:30am Monday-Friday, 9:15pm Friday-Sunday, 6:30am Tuesdays, 9:30am first two Tuesdays, 9pm Wednesdays, and 7:30am Saturday-Sunday.

Technology support – commit to share about Grace Klein Community events in social media groups, on your personal page, in your communications, to invite friends within the event to come to gatherings, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. As well as texting friends, emails and sharing with social and business contacts to raise awareness about Grace Klein Community.

Face-to-face – commit to build partnerships with local businesses, visit stores and restaurants to request and collect gift cards for community events, securing financial partners with businesses, distributing promotional flyers, and sharing upcoming Grace Klein Community happenings.

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