Be a part of a community powered food rescue group.

Ride your bicycle (or use a vehicle) for health equity

in Denver.

Come to a new volunteer orientation meeting.

Want to help reduce food waste and increase food security in Denver while riding your bike (or car)?  Volunteers are at the heart of our work picking up beautiful, edible whole fruits & veggies that would otherwise be discarded from food vendors across the city and delivering it to neighborhoods that have less access to fresh healthful foods. Our hyper-direct re-distribution model allows us to rescue more produce plus we utilize bike-power to keep our financial and environmental costs down. Plus bikes are more fun! Last year our volunteers saved over 8 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere while riding for DFR!

How it works: Every week over 100 volunteers deliver food to our community partners around Denver and we are always looking for new energetic people. With shifts seven days a week happening morning to afternoon we can accommodate almost any schedule.

Two Hour Commitment: Volunteers redistribute food by choosing a weekly, bi weekly, or once a month shift ( it is usually finished in under two hours).

All You Need is a Bike (or not): We have trailers so all you need to do is connect it to your bike and start riding. We also have a few DFR bikes available for volunteers to use.

Interested in Volunteering? Attend a New Volunteer Orientation (details below) or email volunteer@denverfoodrescue.org

Other ways to volunteer with DFR:

1. Rescue shifts via car
While our goal is to rescue as much food as possible via bike we do have occasional car shifts due to distance and the amount of food being rescued. We use the same process for car and bike volunteers, so we’d love to have you join our volunteer orientation.

2. Be a part of our Leadership Circle or one of our Social Media Ambassadors! 
Denver Food Rescue’s Leadership Circle is a group of volunteer fundraisers that use their strengths, skills, and connections to raise money for our cause. Our social media ambassadors are a group of DFR enthusiasts actively sharing information about our programs and events across social media platforms of their choice. These fundraisers and social media ambassadors help us spread our message and work with more communities!! If you’re interested in either of these groups, email us at volunteer@denverfoodrescue.org.

3. Volunteer at one of No Cost Grocery Programs
Visit our programs page to learn more about our partners and No Cost Grocery Programs. After attending one of our orientations we are happy to connect you with these amazing organizations to help with food sorting and distribution. It’s a great chance to meet the communities we work with and see the real impact of your work!

4. Intern with us
For students (and non-students!) looking to gain more field experience, we’d love to have you intern! We work with interns on projects that support our community partnerships and programs. Send us an email at info@denverfoodrescue.org with info about what you’re looking for, including whether you’re hoping for school credit, which semester(s) you’d like to intern, how many hours per week, and what you’re hoping to gain from interning with us. We’d love to have you!

5. Bike and Garage Maintenance Team
DFR has a crew of awesome volunteers who support us with bike, trailer and garage maintenance. If you have a little bit of bike maintenance knowledge, then you can help out. Let us know at the volunteer orientation and we will set you up.

How to Get Started: 

Regardless of your volunteer area of interest you must attend a new volunteer orientation meeting or set up a meeting with our volunteer coordinators.

New Volunteer Orientation

We have new volunteer orientation every Wednesday (times switch between 12 pm and 5:30 pm)

See the Calendar to find the right meeting for you!
Questions? E-mail us at volunteer@denverfoodrescue.org or reach as by phone at 303-968-1727