Volunteer With Us
Astoria Food Pantry is run entirely by volunteers, and we'd love to have you join us! Whether you just want to stop by once, or you're looking for a mutual aid community where you can get involved with on a regular basis, our space is open to you!
Before volunteering, please take a few minutes to get acquainted with our guidelines and organizing principles.
Food Pantry Mondays
Join us any time from 8am-1pm, no need to sign up ahead of time! The Food Pantry team can always use help with distributing lunch and groceries, bagging rice & beans, sorting donations of food or grocery bags, collecting donations at a nearby grocery store, or cleaning our space. Dress for the potential for a physically active day, in particular comfortable shoes.
Free Store Outreach Tuesdays
Join us from 11am-2pm to help distribute free items at Astoria Houses. Meet us at Astoria Food Pantry at 11am to load items into a vehicle, travel with us to Astoria Houses for distribution 11:30am-1:30pm, then back to the pantry to unload the vehicle at 2pm. It's a fun and an easy way to make new friends, plus it's all outside! Email freestoreastoria@gmail.com ahead of time to sign up. Dress to be outside and moving around.
Free Fridge Bread Packing Tuesdays
Join us 2pm-5pm at Astoria Food Pantry to help us pack and distribute bread donations to location free fridges all over Queens! If you have a car and are interested in helping deliver food, please let us know. Email freestoreastoria@gmail.com to let us know if you'd like to join.
New Arrivals Assistance Tuesdays
Join us from Tuesdays from 5pm-8pm to organize donations for families new to the country. We will meet at Astoria Food Pantry at 5pm to sort, pack, and accept donations on behalf of families living in transplant shelters. Email freestoreastoria@gmail.com ahead of time to signup!
Free Store Wednesdays
(Note: closed first Wednesday of the month)
Join us any time from 10am-6pm to help with sorting clothing donations, assisting shoppers, and wrapping bread for distribution to community fridges. You don't need to sign up but feel free to use this link ahead of time if that's better for you. Check out the Free Store Instagram to see what it's like. Dress for cuteness or for comfort!
Free Store Outreach Fridays
Join us anytime between 11am-2pm to help distribute free items at Queensbridge Houses. Meet us at Astoria Food Pantry at 11am to load items into a vehicle, travel with us to Queensbridge Houses for distribution 11:30am-1:30pm, then back to the pantry to unload the vehicle at 2pm. There will be free art workshops every other Friday. These workshops include woodworking, painting, creative writing, and more! It's a fun and an easy way to make new friends, tap into your creative side, plus it's all outside! Email freestoreastoria@gmail.com ahead of time to sign up. Dress to be outside and moving around.
Grocery Delivery Saturdays
On Saturdays, Astoria Mutual Aid Network sends deliveries of groceries to neighbors who are not able to go to their local food pantry. We need a few people for packing and clean up at the pantry, and more people for walking, biking, and driving the deliveries around Astoria. Because we create delivery routes ahead of time based on the number of volunteers, we ask people to sign up for Saturday volunteering. Sign up at bit.ly/amansaturdays or at the bottom of this page. But if you want to come join us last minute, you can just show up 8am-3pm.
Other Times & At Home Volunteering
If you are interested in helping out but can't make it during the times above, we also have ongoing administrative needs that can be done from home or at other times, like coordinating fundraising events, renovations to our space, accounting & legal paperwork, and more!
We also can never have enough donation drives, as they are one of our primary sources of food. Consider hosting one of your own!