Transport service
Switzerland
Year-round
Social issues
Schweizer Tafel mainly supplies non-profit organizations. Institutions that process food themselves and/or distribute food to their clients are eligible for consideration. The organizations look after poor or needy people who receive little or no financial support from the state or that have a great need for food, such as soup kitchens.
Schweizer Tafel collects surplus, unblemished food from donors and distributes it to charitable organizations.
Duration:
- An assignment lasts approx. 7 to 8 hours.
- The number of assignments depends on availability.
Location:
Assignments are available in the following regions:
Central Switzerland (Lucerne), Northwestern Switzerland (Pratteln), Eastern Switzerland (St. Gallen), Zurich (Dietikon), Central Switzerland (Kehrsatz), Aargau (Staufen), Romandy (Ecublens)
How it will work:
- Volunteers use a refrigerated vehicle to collect and distribute the food along a set route.
- The day starts with a short briefing in the particular region.
- Products from the warehouse are then loaded into the vehicle and the tour can begin.
- Two people are assigned to each vehicle (volunteers and/or community service workers).
- Along the route, surplus food is collected from retail outlets and taken to social institutions.
- The tour ends between 2:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. onsite in each respective region.
Introduction:
- Volunteers arrive at the warehouse in the morning and are given a short briefing about the day’s activities.
Support:
- In the morning (between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. depending on the region), the volunteers are welcomed by the regional manager and given a short briefing on the day’s activities.
- Afterwards, they travel a route with a volunteer or a someone doing civilian service.
Tasks:
- First thing in the morning, the volunteers load products from the warehouse into the vehicle.
- They then go on their rounds in the refrigerated vehicle provided by Schweizer Tafel. This means they collect food from various retail outlets that the outlets can no longer sell and deliver the food to social institutions.
- Finally, they drive back to the warehouse and the vehicle is unloaded and cleaned.
What you’ll need:
- No previous experience necessary.
- Drivers must have a Cat. B driver's license.
- Volunteers should be in good physical condition: they will be loading and unloading rather heavy boxes throughout the day.
Project language
German, French, English
Every day, Schweizer Tafel collects over 25 tons of perfectly good, surplus food from retailers and distributes it free of charge to 500 social institutions such as homeless shelters, soup kitchens, emergency shelters and women's refuges. By saving this food from going to waste, we avoid the emission of over 10,600 tons of CO₂ every year. In this way, we build a bridge from abundance to scarcity and help people in need in Switzerland.