Volunteer Warehouse Customer Assistant (FareShare Plus)

EMERGE 3Rs

Openshaw, Greater Manchester
Voluntary
Full or Part Time
Closing date not specified, apply soon!

SustainabilityFood, Farming & Horticulture


We are seeking volunteers to assist in our busy surplus food warehouse, where this customer-facing role includes:

  • Ensuring food quality and safety by checking use by and best before dates.
  • Sorting and unpacking deliveries, categorising and recording food quantities.
  • Assisting our Community Food Member partners with food order collections during their scheduled visits to our base. 
  • Maintaining high standards of health and safety and food hygiene during sessions.
  • Helping with cleaning and other tasks identified by warehouse staff. 

*This opportunity differs slightly from our regular Warehouse Volunteer role in that, in addition to the central tasks of receiving food deliveries, sorting and cataloguing goods, and assembling food orders, it involves assisting personnel from the community benefit organisations we support when they visit our depot to pick up their orders. It therefore requires a good level of confidence and communication skills.

Benefits and Perks

  • Career and CV advice and support
  • Practical experience to strengthen your CV, if you are job-seeking
  • A reference for future employers
  • Reimbursement of travel and lunch expenses 
  • The opportunity to give practical help to fight food poverty and reduce food waste (and associated CO2 emissions)
  • The opportunity to meet like-minded people and make new friends

Skills Required

  • Reasonable levels of physical fitness, to take on moving and handling of food orders
  • Ability to follow procedures and instructions
  • Reliability and ability to commit to pre-agreed volunteer shifts
  • Good verbal communication and interpersonal skills
  • High respect for Health & Safety procedures and standards
  • An interest in the work of FareShare and our values

This opportunity provides you with skills and training to boost your employability by gaining experience in the food industry, warehousing and customer service or, if you are not job-seeking, enables you to give back to your community, whilst tackling food waste and climate change. It is also perfect for someone who is looking for a practical activity to help boost or maintain physical and mental wellbeing, or just to make new friends.

We welcome volunteers who can reliably commit to a minimum 4 hour shift, one day a week.

The days and rota hours of volunteering are agreed around your availability.

FareShare is a national charity that fights food poverty and climate change by tackling food waste.

We source food that is surplus to requirements from food retailers and manufacturers, and engage a large friendly team of volunteers to help redistribute this to local Community Food Members (CFMs), who provide meals to people and families experiencing food poverty.

We operate from our FareShare Greater Manchester regional centre, which is based on New Smithfield Market in Openshaw, and has been run by EMERGE 3Rs since 2008.

This role is vital to the work of FareShare; ensuring that the food delivered to our warehouse is correctly sorted, labelled and organised into the orders placed by our charities and community groups.

You will be required to complete introductory sessions before you are confirmed in the role.

We operate from our FareShare Greater Manchester regional centre, which is based on New Smithfield Market in Openshaw, North Manchester, and is accessed from the main entrance on Whitworth Street East (off Ashton Old Road). (For the precise location of our base, please see the Google Maps link: https://maps.app.goo.gl/c9YJYPWW24Xbjegg7).

The depot is well served by public transport, with the 219 bus running regularly along the nearby Ashton Old Road.

We also have free car parking on site and secure racks on our premises for cycles and eBikes.

We pride ourselves on being a friendly, inclusive and progressive organisation, which welcomes everyone into our volunteering family. In 2013, we were honoured to receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

If you would like an informal chat with our Volunteering team about this role, or just need a bit more information, you can call 0161 223 8200 (followed by option 6) or email [email protected]

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About EMERGE 3Rs

EMERGE has been at the front line of sustainability and 3Rs practice in Greater Manchester for over two decades, improving people’s lives and upskilling our wider community in the process. Our charitable activities include running the Greater Manchester operations of FareShare GM in partnership with the national food surplus charity, and our successful Volunteering and Employability Programme. The charity is supported by our sister social enterprise EMERGE Recycling which also runs innovative reclaimed timber workshop Touch Wood.

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