Be a Food Runner

Our food rescue runners pick up excess food from grocery stores, hotels, caterers, schools, restaurants, and more and deliver it to one of our recipient partner organizations that feed those in need. Our average food rescue takes about an hour of your time and redistributes enough food to feed 160 meals to people, keeping over 190 pounds of edible food from going to the landfill!  You choose which food runs to volunteer for - do as few or as many as you have time for each month. Food runs are available every day of the week.

Please complete the following steps in any order below to join our team of volunteer food rescue heroes!

If you are looking for a group volunteering opportunity, unfortunately we do not currently have any opportunities that are suitable for groups.

Step 1. Request to join the Keep Austin Fed Group. Click on the “Join” button underneath Keep Austin Fed's name to start the process. You will be asked to upload a photo of your driver’s license and proof of current insurance.

Step 2. Attend an Orientation: Zoom or Asynchronous Module (there are two options)

a) Sign up to attend a 1-hour Zoom orientation session to learn more about the culture of Keep Austin Fed, some important things to know about rescuing food, and an opportunity to ask our trainers anything you want.

OR

b) Asynchronous Module: Go through our orientation module on your own time and at your own pace! Once you complete the orientation we will receive a notification and will follow up with next steps. Our volunteer orientation module landing page can be found here: https://keepaustinfed-8375.freshlearn.com/76111. You will need to create an account on FreshLearn to go through the orientation.

Step 3. You’re approved!‍ ‍

Once you have completed the 2 steps above, your membership will be approved and within one business day you'll be sent a link to Food Rescue US. This is our food scheduling platform where you will see our calendar of open food runs and be able to register. You'll also receive a link to tutorial videos on how to use the platform.

Thanks so much for your interest--if you have a question, email volunteer@keepaustinfed.org!

We encourage you to complete a Food Handler's Certificate that covers more food safety best practices. However, this is not a requirement to become a volunteer. You can obtain this certification at https://safefoodtest.com/courses/texas-online-food-handler-training-and-assessment/ or any of these other state approved websites . It generally costs $10-15 depending on the site, is good for 2 years, and takes 1-2 hours to complete.