Community programs, mentoring, build days and screening by role.
For food banks and pantries
Volunteer scheduling for food banks and pantries
Nehemiah fills recurring pantry and warehouse shifts, checks volunteers in at a kiosk and tracks age rules and waivers by role. Hours roll up into reports for grants.
Last updated
- Shifts
- Recurring distribution days and warehouse shifts, filled with one-tap claim links
- Age rules
- A minimum age on each role, and a waiver that covers minors
- Paperwork
- Waivers signed on screen, food handler certificates, driver’s licenses and insurance
- Check-in
- A PIN-locked kiosk on a front-desk tablet records hours
- Grant reports
- Hours by month and role, valued at $36.14 an hour, with CSV export
- Group sign-ups
- Not built yet. Each person claims their own spot.
Shifts
How do food banks schedule volunteer shifts?
Set each distribution day and warehouse shift up once as a recurring schedule, with the help each one needs. 10 days ahead, Nehemiah invites available volunteers to open spots with a one-tap Claim this spot link, keeps a waitlist when a shift fills, and offers the spot again when someone can’t make it.
- Patterns that fit pantry life. Every Saturday 9 to noon, every other Tuesday, or the third Thursday of the month.
- Spots by role. The community template’s Saturday pantry asks for 6 pantry volunteers, 2 general helpers and a driver.
- Auto-fill. Up to 4 invitations per open spot by default, first come, first served. Extras join a waitlist with a kind note.
- An open-needs page. Every upcoming public shift with open spots, in your brand, ready to share on your website and social posts.
- Regulars stay in the loop. A monthly “where we need help” email and a Sunday evening digest of each volunteer’s week.
Set it up by describing it
Tell Ask Nehemiah “Add a Saturday pantry shift every other week, 9 to 1, for 3 volunteers.” It creates the recurring shift, shows what changed with an Undo, and holds any email to a group until a person approves it.
Ages and waivers
How do you handle minimum ages and waivers?
Each role has its own minimum age and its own paperwork. Everyone signs a waiver on screen, and the template’s waiver says volunteers under 18 need a parent or guardian to sign for them. Pantry leads can keep a food handler certificate on file, and drivers upload a license and proof of insurance.
| Role | Minimum age | Paperwork |
|---|---|---|
| Food Pantry Sorting, packing and handing out groceries | 14+ |
|
| General Help Sorting, cleaning, carrying | 12+ |
|
| Event Volunteer Setup, registration tables, teardown | 12+ |
|
| Driver Grocery deliveries and rides | 21+ |
|
- The waiver is signed on screen, from a phone, and renews every year. It says volunteers under 18 need a parent or guardian to sign for them.
- Food handler certificates and driver’s licenses get reminders 60, 30, 14, 7 and 1 days before they expire; insurance cards renew every 6 months.
- Missing a blocking item, like an unsigned waiver? Auto-fill skips that person, and the kiosk asks them to see the coordinator.
- Need a different rule, like 16 and up in the warehouse? Change the role, or tell Ask Nehemiah.
Check-in
How do volunteers check in on site?
At a front-desk tablet. A coordinator opens the kiosk and locks it with a 4-digit PIN. Volunteers type their name, tap it and press Check in, then Check out when they leave, and their hours are recorded.
- A regular who shows up without a spot can still check in; Nehemiah adds them to the shift.
- Hours count the time inside the shift, plus up to 30 minutes either side for setup and cleanup, so an early arrival or a forgotten check-out doesn’t inflate them.
- Someone missing a waiver is asked to see the coordinator. A coordinator can let them in with the PIN, and Nehemiah emails them what’s still needed.
- When a shift used the kiosk, anyone who never checked in isn’t credited automatically. They get a short “Did you make it?” email, and your team gets one to-do.
- Leaving check-in mode needs the PIN.
Reports
How do I report volunteer hours for grants?
Open Reports and pick your grant period. You’ll see hours served, the value of that time at $36.14 an hour (Independent Sector’s national value of a volunteer hour, released April 2026), hours by month and by role, and how many shifts were filled. Every chart downloads as a CSV.
- Hours come from kiosk check-ins, or from completed shifts when you don’t use the kiosk.
- Volunteers see their own hours in their portal and can print or save a certificate of service.
- Prefer a table? Every chart has a table view and a CSV download.
Closures
What happens when we close for weather?
Send an urgent alert. Pick “Closed for weather”, choose the day, and switch on “Also cancel all shifts and tell everyone scheduled”. It goes out by email right away, even during quiet hours, and every sign-up for that day is canceled for you.
- It reaches everyone, or a saved group, plus everyone who was scheduled that day.
- People who unsubscribed are never contacted.
- Short on help instead? The “Need help now” alert asks your volunteers to come in.
- Text messages: coming soon. Email works today.
Group sign-ups
Can a group leader sign up a whole team?
Not yet. Group sign-ups, where one leader registers a whole team, aren’t built. Today each person claims their own spot, or a coordinator adds them.
Read next
More for food banks and pantries
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Pricing, add-ons such as group and team management, onboarding and AI compared. Sourced and dated.
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When a free sign-up sheet is enough, and when a pantry needs more.
Sources
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FAQ
Food bank and pantry questions
Can a first-time volunteer serve the day they sign up?
Yes, once their paperwork is done. They fill out your sign-up form on their phone, and Nehemiah emails them what their role needs, such as the waiver to sign on screen. A coordinator can then add them to that day’s shift.
Volunteer onboarding checklist Do we have to use the kiosk?
No. Without it, confirmed volunteers are marked attended when the shift ends and credited with the shift’s length, and your team can switch anyone to no-show. With it, hours come from actual check-in and check-out times.
Can volunteers get proof of their hours?
Yes. Volunteers see their hours in their portal and can print or save a certificate of service with your logo.
Do volunteers need an account or password?
No. Volunteers sign up on your form, answer shift emails with one-tap buttons, and open their portal with a sign-in link sent by email. There’s no app to install and no password to remember.
Do you send text messages?
Not yet. Text messages are coming soon. Volunteers will opt in on your sign-up form, and STOP and HELP will work. Email works today.
Volunteer communication How much does it cost?
Nehemiah is in early access, so there’s no public price list yet: each organization’s price is agreed with us directly.
PricingTell us about your volunteer program.
We’ll show you Nehemiah running with your own roles, schedule and paperwork.