Tips for Volunteer Recruitment and Retention
Last week, members of our team jumped on a call with chapter leaders to talk about the ways that they and their fellow chapter members bring new volunteers into the movement and celebrate the volunteers who keep our chapters going! The chapter leaders we spoke with had some great tips, which we’re excited to share with our entire network.
Recognition boosts volunteers’ morale! Here, members of the chapter at Western Kentucky University are recognized for recovering 5,000 pounds of food.
Tips to recruit new volunteers:
Give short presentations about FRN to classes that cover food and environmental topics, such as nutrition or environmental science.
Introduce FRN to first-year students at residence hall meetings.
Host virtual recruitment meetings.
Table at campus activities fairs and invite students to play food waste trivia games with prizes for correct answers.
Partner with other student organizations to host events.
Organize fun, educational events for your chapter! Members of the chapter at Wagner College learned about other ways to keep food out of landfills at this composting workshop.
Tips to celebrate and retain volunteers:
Incentivize participating in food recoveries by giving out a prize for the volunteer(s) who join the most food recoveries.
Utilize social media: encourage volunteers to take pictures during food recoveries and share those pictures on your chapter’s social media accounts. Recognize volunteers for their hard work by tagging them and highlighting their role in the recovery.
Host fun volunteer appreciation events, like pizza parties, potlucks, or movie nights*.
Give volunteers some FRN swag so they feel connected to your chapter and our network*.
*If your chapter doesn’t have access to funding to purchase prizes or host volunteer appreciation events, check out our recent blog post to learn how to apply for grant funding from FRN National!
These are just some of the great ways that FRN chapter members stay connected with each other and their work. Does your chapter have tips to recruit and retain volunteers? Tag us on social media to highlight your volunteers or send us a note at programs@foodrecoverynetwork.org to share your strategies.