Due to COVID-19 Our Daily Bread has re-assessed multiple times to make changes to protect the safety of our guests, volunteers and other staff. Below are frequently asked questions to help guide you in your decisions on whether to return to volunteering at Our Daily Bread.
FAQs
Our Daily Bread looks very different than it did before COVID. Most significantly, our dining room is closed to the public and guests pick up meals, snack bags, and coffee/water at the front door. Volunteers in the kitchen dish up and bag the to-go meals which are served hot. Volunteers are serving double the amount of food we used to put on the plate so that guests do not need to come through line more than once. Our meal numbers are also much higher now – usually between 400-500 per day. Volunteers start boxing lunches at 8:10 as we regularly serve 100+ meals in the first half hour. Things look and feel very different, but our heart is the same: we feed people and we do it with dignity.
All interactions contain an element of risk, but we do all we can to mitigate potential exposure. All staff and volunteers are required to wear masks in the building (we can provide you a mask if you do not have one). We also try to practice 6-foot social distancing but there are 10-15 people in the building at any given time. Volunteers now enter the building through our back door on Goose Alley to prevent having to walk through a crowd of guests at the front door.
Potential volunteers must weigh their risk factors (age, general health, vulnerability of others in their households, etc.) and make the personal decision if they feel comfortable volunteering.
Direct contact with guests is limited to staff and a few daily volunteers. Most volunteers will not engage directly with the public.
We no longer have sit-down volunteer activities. If you volunteer, you will need to be able to stand and do moderate physical labor for 4 hours with limited opportunities for a break.
In order to minimize the number of people in our building and limit COVID exposure, we are asking all volunteers to commit to at least one or two days per week.
In order to minimize the number of people in our building and limit COVID exposure, we are asking all volunteers to commit to at least one or two days per week.
We will begin to evaluate the reopening of our dining room to the public in late September 2020.
There are many ways to stay involved with Our Daily Bread and our mission. Opportunities vary as we adapt and change – please click the button below for the latest updates.
Please contact Kathy at Kathy@ourdailybread.us to discuss options.