Daily Bread University
Daily Bread University is where you will find our repository of training materials for anything and everything you need to know about volunteering at Daily Bread. We plan to add new training materials regularly, so check back here frequently for the latest information.
Training Videos
Updated!
Food Safety
Food safety is our #1 priority. Every volunteer should review the food safety training manual at least once a year.
Once you have reviewed the manual, you can take a quiz to check your understanding - and receive a certificate to impress all your relatives and friends. If you are asked for the name of your agency it is "Daily Bread Food Pantry," and our Agency Number is A1137.
Civil Rights
Daily Bread is a recipient of food from the Federal government. As a result, all volunteers should review the government's "official" civil rights training. It's heavy going, so apologies in advance.
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Once you have reviewed the training, you can take a quiz to check your understanding - and receive a certificate to impress all your relatives and friends. If you are asked for the name of your agency it is "Daily Bread Food Pantry," and our Agency Number is A1137. The quiz is available in English and Spanish, but you need to switch to Spanish after clicking the button.
FAQs
Click on a question to get an answer.
Good-To-Know "Cheat Sheets"
Click on any of the "Read More" links below to find out more about each of the volunteer jobs at the super pantry. Hard copies of these handy reference sheets are also available outside the office.
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FAQs: The Answers
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How Do I Sign Up to Volunteer?
First, fill out our short volunteer application, after which a volunteer coordinator will contact you to discuss volunteering and explain how to use our staffing platform, called VolunteerLocal. Then we will change your status in VolunteerLocal to "Active" so you can sign up for shifts using the platform. You can use the VolunteerLocal Smartphone App (best for mobile users), or the fuller-featured VolunteerLocal Web App (best for desktop or laptop computer users).
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How Do I Sign Up for a Shift Using the Smartphone App?
First, download the VolunteerLocal App by searching the App store (iPhone users) or Google Play store (Android devices).
Once you get the App, you’ll be asked to enter your email address and will be sent a numerical code that you enter into the App to complete the process. Now you can sign up for jobs by clicking on “Search for more shifts” on the welcome screen and scrolling through the available shifts. Only jobs with openings appear on the App. Once you’ve selected a job and shift, simply click on “Add shift” to register your sign-up. Not sure you signed up correctly? You can confirm your sign-up by returning to the welcome screen (the one that displays “Hello, [Your Name]), and click on “View my shifts.” All the shifts you’ve signed up for are listed.
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How Do I Sign Up for a Shift using the Web App?
You can start from this page on the Daily Bread website and click on the "Sign up for a shift now" button. Or you can navigate to the sign-up page directly by using this link. Either way, you will be taken to the VolunteerLocal sign-up page.
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Click on the “Sign-up now,” button. You may be prompted to enter your first name and email address (use the email address you used when submitting your application). You can then view available shifts by job, date, calendar, or spot. Tip: listed to the right of each job is a number showing open spots, or if the job is filled.
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Note: signing up is a two-step process: once you’ve selected a shift, the first step is to click in the little box next to the job name (the box will only appear next to a job with an opening). The second step is to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on “Sign up to Volunteer.” (As a short-cut, after clicking on the little box, a small green screen pops up that you click on and takes you to the bottom of the page so you can click on that “Sign up to volunteer” button). Not sure if you signed up correctly? You can confirm your sign-up by going to back to the welcome page (the one that displays “Hello, [Your Name]”) and click on “Check your status” for a listing of all jobs you’ve signed up for.
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Why does the sign-up page sometimes ask for my email address again?
There are two situations where VolunteerLocal may ask for your email again.
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The first is when you are simply trying to sign up for a shift from the sign-up welcome page. Usually, VolunteerLocal can identify you automatically from information sent by your browser. However, for a variety of reasons, your browser may not send this information and VolunteerLocal needs to reconfirm who you are. In this situation, you will be prompted to enter your first name and email address. Normally, this will take you to the list of available spots. If VolunteerLocal does not recognize you (because for example, you are using a different email address than the one in your profile), it may ask you to resubmit an application. Do not do that! Contact a volunteer coordinator or Peter Kent (peter@dailybreadfoodpantry.com) and we will help.
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The other situation is when you are trying to access your VolunteerLocal profile. For security reasons, instead of taking you straight to your profile, the system will prompt you for your email address. If there is a match to that email in the system, a link to your profile will be sent to that email address.
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How Can I Cancel My Shift?
Using the Smartphone App: On the opening screen, click on “View my shifts,” go to job, click on “View Details,” and click “Cancel Shift” at bottom of the screen.
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Using the Web App: On the welcome page, click on “Check your status,” go to the job and click on “Cancel this shift” highlighted in pink at the bottom right under the job description.
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I Need to Cancel My Shift At The Last Minute—Who Do I Notify?
If you need to cancel at the last minute (volunteers can’t cancel themselves within 24 hours of a shift) PLEASE contact the Shift Coordinator responsible for that shift. A list of shift coordinators and their contact information can be found here. You will also find a link to this information in the confirmation email that is automatically sent to volunteers when signing up for a shift. Note: You can cancel a shift yourself more than 24 hours before it starts, but if it's within 48 hours of the shift commencing, please let the shift coordinator know so we can have more time to find a replacement.
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Where Can I Get Details About the Different Pantry Jobs and What Can I Expect When I First Go to Volunteer?
For a great overview of the pantry and how it operates before volunteering for the first time, the “Your First Day” video located right on this page is highly recommended viewing!
Brief job descriptions are located under each job by clicking on “View Details” on the App and “View Description” on the Sign-Up Page.
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For more detailed descriptions, check out the rest of this page, where helpful training videos can be found for the Checkout and Shopping Floor (aka Shelf Stocker) jobs, as well as “Cheat-Sheets” for each job. In addition, another great video describing the jobs and showing volunteers in action in the pantry can be found here.
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How Do I Know Who Else Is Signed Up On A Shift?
Using the Smartphone App, click on “Search for more shifts” and “View Details” under any job; if you’ve already signed up for a job, click on “View my shifts” and “View Details” under any job. Using the Web App, from the Sign-Up page, click on “View Description” under any job.
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