---
tags: food_banks, 2020
title: Food Bank Call Volunteer
---

:::info
Thank you so much for calling food banks! Finding and connecting with food banks in need is a key part of FarmLink. This guide has some key conversational points and common questions as well as information that you'll need to get from your contact if you find a food bank that can take a known available surplus.
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### Key Points for Food Banks
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**The two most important things for a food bank to know are:**

1. **The food we're donating is free.**

2. **We take care of all transportation arrangements.**

****

### Making a Call
People will generally be excited about what FarmLink can offer, but it's important that we communicate what food we have and what services we can offer to get the food to them. Here's a script you can use to talk to food banks:
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### Call Script for Food Banks
Hi my name is ________, and I’m a member of the Farmlink team. We're a 501c that redirects surplus food from farms to food banks. I’m calling you because we have a shipment of **<# lbs>** of **<type_of_produce>** from **<farm_name>** in **<location_or_state>** and would love to donate to you if possible.
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## Common Questions

- **"Is this free?"**
- Yes! Our main goal is to reduce food waste and get excess food where it is needed.
- **"What about delivery?"**
- We have a partnership with Uber Freight, so we take care of all of the transportation.
- If we're not making use of our partnership for this delivery, we'll still arrange the details of the transport and pay any associated costs of the delivery!
- **"What type of food are you offering?"**
- You'll probably know this one if you're looking to land the surplus of a specific farm. You might be able to just say (for example) potatoes, but some food banks will want to be a bit more specific -- Russet potatoes.
- **"What's the shelf life of the produce? / When will this spoil?"**
- Here's some info courtesy of the farms team:
- **High-density** produce with a shelf life of **7 days or more** include: onions, potatoes, carrots, apples, cabbage, garlic, celery
- **Medium-density** produce with peak freshness on the shelf for **2 to 4 days** includes: oranges, broccoli, avocados, peppers, peaches, spinach, tomatoes, watermelon
- **Light-density** produce on the shelf for about **a day or two** includes: melons, cucumbers, strawberries, bananas, corn, green beans, grapes, lettuce, zucchini

- **"What size container do you have?"**
- This information will come from the farms or deals teams. Take a look at the Farms Key tab on [this Google sheet](https://drive.google.com/file/d/11c8f7vvA7s4qs5hXJW4-kvitlkfLj3X7/view?usp=sharing), or ask someone in deals / farms!
- Sometimes there's a choice for what container / quantity that the food bank can take, and we'll want to know what they prefer. Here's an example of asking for that neccessary information: “This particular farm offers 10, 15, and 20 lb bags of potatoes. Which quantity would be most helpful?”
- **"How are you getting this food?"**
- We have a team of students dedicated to conducting research to find farms all across the country with surplus produce, and we’ve been cold-calling hundreds of these farms to try to connect farmers to food banks such as yourself.
- So far, we’ve rescued nearly a quarter-million pounds of produce, including eggs, onions, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and zucchini.

## Information to find out if food bank is interested
- **Delivery address, best contact name, phone #**
- **What quantity of this food can you take? / How much produce can you handle?**
- That is, can the food bank take a full truckload?
- This might be measured in bags / pallets / lbs.
- **Is there a specific size container that you can take?**
- **Can you provide as many time intervals in the next week in which we could drop off food?**
- This is a new question to ask. We want to smooth out the process for coordinating with the farmer and driver, so having a known window of a bunch of possible times for a week after the call gives us time to plan everything on the farms side and for the delivery.
- **Can you pick up the food?**
- This is rare, but on the off chance that they have their own truck, that's a win!
- **Do you have volunteers to unload the truck?**
- **Do you have a forklift?**
- **What is your storage capacity?**
- **What are your refrigeration capabilities?**

## Other Info

### Mission Statement

*FarmLink is a non-profit grassroots movement helping farms and food banks during this crisis of food instability. While food banks are facing an unprecedented demand, millions of pounds of produce are being dumped or wasted as commercial farms around the country struggle to adapt to decreased and cancelled orders. FarmLink handles all the logistics to connect such farms with food banks. 100% of donations to FarmLink are used to pay the wages of farm workers and truckers, thereby keeping employees staffed, fresh produce away from dumps, and food on the tables of those who need it most.*