We are so excited you are thinking about becoming a volunteer with the Denver Community Fridges! We have a few different ways you can volunteer with us:

– A point person is a volunteer who visits a specific fridge on a specific day to clean and report any relevant information. Each shift lasts anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how much food is in the fridge, the cleanliness of the fridge on a given day, and the number of community interactions taking place. Some of the tasks of a point person include: recording fridge temperature, fully wiping down and cleaning the fridge and freezer, organizing the pantry, picking up trash around the fridge, and taking an update picture to send to the group via Discord

– Distribution volunteers drive to our partner organizations on designated days to pick up food and other donations to distribute to our fridges. While we do have community members stocking the fridges on their own throughout the week, these scheduled pick ups by volunteers make up the majority of our donations. Each shift ranges from 2-5 hours depending on the location and the number of fridges you are distributing to. Primary responsibilities include: driving your car to a distribution location in the Denver Metro Area, recording the weight of food collected when possible, and distributing the collected items to our fridge locations

– Last minute help: Sometimes, we have a situation that needs quick attention. That may include: checking a fridge to confirm malfunction or needed repair, quick cleanup job at a fridge when no one else is available, putting up an ‘out of order’ sign at a fridge, cleaning up a broken pantry shelf, etc. We usually post these requests in our Discord server trying to find someone who is available to help.

If you have any questions about volunteering, don’t hesitate to reach out to taylor@denvercommunityfridges.com with “Volunteer Question” written in the subject line.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer and are ready to attend one of our upcoming volunteer onboarding sessions, please fill out the Volunteer Interest form linked below.  At the end of the form, you will be asked to create a new password for our volunteer scheduling system, VicNet. You will also have the opportunity to sign up for an upcoming onboarding session directly on this form. If you don’t select an onboarding session now, you can then log into VicNet using the email and password you created on the form and sign up later. Please see the Volunteer Portal Resources drop down for more information on signing up for an onboarding and navigating VicNet.

Use the email and password you provided on the Volunteer Interest Form to log into our volunteer coordination portal (VicNet). On the portal you will be able to look for shift openings, schedule yourself on a shift, remove yourself from a shift, and communicate with the volunteer coordinator.

If this is the first time you are logging into the portal or just have some questions, please find important information and VicNet resources here:

To sign up for an onboarding:
Before you can start volunteering, you’ll need to register and attend a volunteer onboarding session. To sign up for a session, you’ll need to log into VicNet and navigate to the “Schedule” tab. Here you will see all of the shifts you are able to sign up for. Please note, before you attend an onboarding session, the only shifts you will be able to see are onboardings. When you first navigate to the schedule tab, you will likely only see shifts on “your schedule.” To change the view to see all possible shifts,  click on the box on the right side that says “Your Schedule” and change it to either day or month. Select which session you would like to attend and await further information that will be sent via an email to the address on file. 

To sign up for volunteer shifts:
After you attend an onboarding session, you can begin to check the “Schedule” tab to see the calendar of upcoming available volunteer shifts. Reminder that when you go to this tab, you will likely be shown only shifts that you are currently signed up for. To change the view to see all possible shifts,  click on the box on the right side that says “Your Schedule” and change it to either day or month. Now you will see all shifts that have not been taken for either that day or month. Click on the title of a shift to find out more information about it – a new window will open up with additional details including contact information and directions for the shift. You can exit out of that and click on the green “schedule” button to claim the shift.

Here are some resources made by Volgistics that can help you navigate the VicNet portal:

• How to Use VicNet: a Brief Guide for Volunteers
• Video on how to get started / navigate VicNet
• Using VicNet on a mobile device

If you have any questions or need help logging in, email taylor@denvercommunityfridges.com with “Volunteer Question” written in the subject line. You can also ask questions in the general channel on our DCF discord server!

• DCF Temperature Logs
• Fridge Cleaning Checklist
• Denver Alternatives to 991
• What can be donated infographic
• What can be donated infographic 2

We have a Denver Community Fridges Discord server for our volunteers and community members! We use this server to communicate about all sorts of different DCF related things. If you’ve never used Discord before it is a communication platform for specific communities or groups with themed channels and direct messaging capabilities. We have channels for each fridge location to post updates about cleanliness, food levels, maintenance needs, and any other fun or relevant info! We also have channels where we post about food distribution needs and requests as well as random and fun channels for community bonding and building! 

We host our virtual onboarding sessions on Discord and therefore ask you to create an account before volunteering with us. You will receive an invitation link to our server when you sign up to attend an onboarding session.

Here are some helpful resources about Discord if you are interested! Also feel free to reach out to denvercommunityfridges@gmail.com with any questions about getting started or navigating the server!