Ways to Volunteer
There are serval exciting ways you can volunteer to help DMARC on a regular basis:
Emergency Food Pantry
The Des Moines Area Religious Council distributes nutritionally valuable food to nine separate Emergency Food Pantry sites throughout the Greater Des Moines area. The focal point of this distribution network is the DMARC EFP warehouse, located at 3816 36th St. in Des Moines, where all donated food is brought to be sorted and distributed.
Volunteers and the DMARC EFP warehouse have three main responsibilities.
o Count all incoming individual food items.
o Check each food item for container integrity and expiration date.
o Package food for distribution to the nine pantry sites.
The DMARC EFP warehouse operates Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. until 4:40 p.m. Volunteers normally work from either 8:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. or from 1:00 p.m. until 4:30 p.m. There is, however, a considerable amount of flexibility associated with times and frequency that a volunteer can participate.
Sack Saturdays
DMARC’s Red Barrel Program places the familiar red barrels in grocery stores throughout the Greater Des Moines Area to collect food contributions.
Sack Saturday volunteers encourage support of the Red Barrel program by working in local grocery stores and asking shoppers to:
o Purchase Hunger Sacks for the red barrels
o Provide cash contributions
o Purchase and donate individual food items
Sack Saturdays are staffed by groups of volunteers from churches, schools, businesses and civic organizations. Events typically run from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on a Saturday morning and require a minimum of four volunteers (two volunteers per two hour shift).
All food collected in the red barrels is collected and taken to the Des Moines Area Religious Council’s Emergency Food Pantry Warehouse. There it is sorted and distributed to the nine metro area food pantries.
Project Connect Mentoring
Project Connect partners with the Des Moines Public Schools to pair mentors with at-risk students. Research and experience show that mentored youth have increased academic performance, more enthusiasm for learning and school bonding, better attendance and social skills and less involvement in risky behaviors such as alcohol and drugs.
We are always in need of quality role models for our students. There are two ways you can mentor.
School-based mentors meet with their student a minimum of one hour per week in school while school/community-based mentors meet with students a minimum of four hours per week both in school and in the community.
Those interested in mentoring will need to:
o Fill out a volunteer application (visit helpakidfly.com to get one)
o Participate in a mentor interview
o Provide references and consent to child abuse, driving record and criminal background checks
o Participate in a training session
o Attend a school orientation