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Volunteer Resources

Everything you need to know to sign up for volunteering, manage your volunteer profile, what to wear, where to park, and more!

Are You a Returning Volunteer? Login Here to Sign Up For More Shifts!

If you’ve volunteered with us in the last year, we recommend logging into Bloomerang Volunteer, our volunteer management system. Once logged into your profile, you can sign up or cancel shifts, find new opportunities, view your schedule, add shifts to your calendar, and review your hours.

If you need help managing your volunteer profile please review this guide or reach out to us for support. Contact Melissa at Volunteer@SecondChanceFoods.org.

Returning Volunteer Login
New Volunteers Start Here!

"My favorite aspect of volunteering in The Kitchen is two fold. The feeling of knowing you’re making someone’s life better, especially those who desperately need nutrition, is a wonderful feeling indeed. Secondly, the fellowship of my kitchen co-workers is such a blessing. I’m always happy to get up early on Tuesdays and Fridays and get to work!
—Gail, Volunteer

Preparing for Your First Shift

Our facility can get hot in the summer and chilly in winter so please dress with this in mind. At Second Chance Foods, we are dedicated to maintaining high standards of food safety and hygiene for the meals we prepare and distribute. To support this, we ask all volunteers to follow our clothing guidelines while volunteering in and around our facility.

  • Clean, Covered Clothing: All Volunteers and Staff should wear clean clothing that fully covers the shoulders and armpits. Tank tops and sleeveless shirts are not appropriate for work near food.
  • Hair Coverage: All Volunteers and staff must ensure that hair is covered during food prep and cooking. You can wear one of our provided hairnets or wear your own bandana, ball cap or other suitable head covering to prevent hair from coming into contact with food.
  • Footwear: Closed-toe shoes are required for all to maintain safety and avoid accidents. Non-slip shoes are highly recommended. Flip flops or sandals cannot be worn anywhere in or around our facility.

Please bring water to stay hydrated while you work and snacks if you need. We have complimentary coffee and tea available for our volunteers with occasional surprise treats to say thanks!

When you arrive at our facility, please check in with the supervising staff member.

Our facility is located at:

120 Marvin Ave Brewster, NY 10509 

Please review the online or PDF map to ensure you park in designated areas and avoid tickets from the Village Police. 

Google Map
Life happens! We understand you may have last minute commitments come up. However, it’s easy for you to delete and add shifts using your Bloomerang Volunteer Profile—if you need help please review the training videos below!

***If you’re a transportation volunteer and need to cancel the same day as your shift—please call or text Melissa at 845-723-1309

Bloomerang Volunteer Training and Troubleshooting

Creating Your Login
  1. To create an account click the sign up button at the top of the opportunity you’d like to join (Kitchen Shifts, Sorting Food, Transportation, etc.). Don’t worry if you plan to sign up for more than one opportunity, you can always find and add those later. All accounts should be in the name of the person who is volunteering. 
  2. You can sign up for any opportunity to join our organization even if you aren’t ready to sign up for a shift!
  3. This must be done from a desktop or laptop computer —or from your web browser on your phone, it is NOT possible to create an account on the Bloomerang Volunteer Mobile app. 

All accounts should be in the name of the person who is volunteering.

Important terms to know:

  • Opportunities are groupings of similar volunteer activities—like “Kitchen Shifts” which contains all the different dates and times you can join us in The Kitchen.
  • Shifts are the specific date, time, and role you would like to participate in.

  • Why it matters—You only have to sign up once for an Opportunity. Then by logging into your account (either mobile app or website login) you can add new Shifts at any time.

All accounts should be in the name of the person who is volunteering. However, we understand sometimes you might be signing up a youth volunteer or on behalf of someone else. 

  • This can be done in a separate account using two unique email addresses -or- by using the group account feature.
  • Group Account: To sign up multiple people using one email address, you will first register and create an account with the primary person. Ex, JaneDoe@email.com, following all sign up steps.
    • Then, register the youth or additional family members you wish to use the same email address by adding “+FirstName” after the first half of the email. For example JaneDoe+YouthFirstName@email.com

For the best experience managing your volunteer shifts, we recommend using the Bloomerang Volunteer Mobile App from Apple or Android —or—bookmarking the login page on your computer: https://volunteer.bloomerang.co/

Once logged in, you can add or delete shifts, save shifts to your calendar, find other opportunities with Second Chance Foods, and more! 

We understand you may not want to download another app on your phone but if you volunteer often it does provide helpful shortcuts to manage your experience! 

  • Logging into the Mobile App and listing your phone number puts all automatic messages from the system to the app instead of your email.
  • You can turn off or customize the timing of reminders and notifications in the app *and* by using your phone settings.
  • It also makes it easy to sign up for shifts, cancel shifts, view your schedule and more!
  • Don’t forget, you must first register through the browser to use the mobile app.

Bloomerang Volunteer offers more videos and support for all of your questions! You can browse their support site and find more answers to common questions https://knowledge.initlive.com/en 

 

We’re also here for you! If you can’t find what you need please contact Melissa at Volunteer@SecondChanceFoods.org for assistance.

women wearing red handkerchief around neck smiles at camera in front of a white background and small cactus

More Questions About Volunteering?

Ask Melissa

Melissa Paladino
Volunteer Coordinator

Volunteer@SecondChanceFoods.org

845-723-1309

Contact Melissa for more information about volunteer positions, group opportunities, and more!

“Helping our environment and the food insecure simultaneously while working alongside like-minded people is inspiring!”

 

 

Not Ready to Volunteer?

Sign up for our weekly emails to get the latest news, stories, volunteer opportunities, impact, recipes and more! To kick things off you’ll receive our recipe for Roasted Carrot Soup—the first meal we ever made in the kitchen. 

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Get Our Recipe for Carrot Ginger Soup!

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Contact Us

Though we wish we could supply food to everyone in need, Second Chance Foods cannot provide meals or groceries directly to individuals. Our solution is to collaborate with existing programs in the community and supplement their food with our meals and groceries. If you or someone you know is in need of assistance, please refer to our resource page here for our partnerships and local options.

Our Mailing Address and Facility:

120 Marvin Ave
Brewster, NY 10509

*please note we do not keep "hours" at the kitchen at this time. If you are looking to donate food please contact Kathryn@SecondChanceFoods.org or call 845-723-1302

Volunteer Questions contact Volunteer Coordinator Melissa Paladino 845-723-1309

For all other questions please contact us at 845-723-1315