Needs From: MC Serves!

We need bilingual volunteers to call back people needing help who only speak Spanish. For liability reasons, this opportunity is for volunteers aged 18 and over, and does not qualify for MCPS SSL hours.  

This is an occasional support role and does not require a serious time commitment. We have a volunteer assigned every day ("officer of the day" -  OD) to check our phone messages and call people back. Most of the messages are in English, but if there is a message in Spanish and the OD does not speak Spanish, they would send you an email or text with the time of call and phone number, and leave the message on our answering system for you. When you have the time - in the evening, or the next day - you would listen to the message and call the person back to find out what they need, and set them up for a food delivery from our food driver if they're in our area. It's understood that there are days you would not be available. 

What you need: your own phone*, a good command of both English and Spanish, and a few hours per month.

For liability reasons, this opportunity is for volunteers aged 18 and over, and cannot be used for MCPS Student Service Learning hours.

*We protect our privacy when calling clients by dialing *67 first.

Not approved for MCPS SSL hours.

Our Officers of the Day are the first to make contact with people calling for help. They work from home, using their phones. They call our voicemail system, retrieve the messages, and call people back.  (Most of our ODs protect their privacy by using *67 for these calls.) If the person requesting food assistance is in our service area, they get the information needed and pass it on to the Food Driver on duty. Financial assistace calls are passed on to the financial assistance officer (when we have the funds).  If the person is outside of our area or is requesting something we are not able to do, they refer people to other groups that might be able to help.

ODs are scheduled for the day, but they do not have to be available the whole day - they can check messages and call people back when they have the time. Messages that an OD is unable to get to are left on the voicemail system and handled by the following day's OD. Some ODs take one day a month, while others take several, depending on their availability.

Not approved for MCPS SSL hours

Our food drivers deliver food from our pantry (located in Rockville United Methodist Church, near Rockville Town Center) to needy people in Rockville. They need to have a driver's license and the use of a car, and they need to be able to carry bags of food. When they get a call from the Officer of the Day with a request, they go to the pantry, check the client's eligibility in the records, call the client to schedule a delivery, and pack and deliver the food to the client.

Drivers can sign up for one day a month, or more, if they desire, and they can do the deliveries whenever it's convenient for them and the client (you don't have to be available the whole day). Most of our drivers do the deliveries in the afternoon/early everning. Some of our drivers work with a partner - a friend or a spouse - and some work alone. There are days that no call comes in, and sometimes there are several. If (rarely) there are too many, some can be passed on to next day's driver. If interested, email rockvillemdhelp@gmail.com.