Volunteer With Us – Summit Credit Union

Three or four hours is a real contribution

Programmes

Six ways to spend a shift

Pick the one that suits your schedule, your county, and what you are actually good at.

Food bank sorting and packing Four-hour shifts at regional food banks, checking dates, sorting donations and building family boxes. No experience needed, and it is the easiest shift to bring a teenager to. Suits ages 14 and up with an adult.

Mobile pantry routes Riding along on rural delivery runs, loading crates and helping at each stop. A clean driving record is needed only if you want to drive; most volunteers ride and unload. Half-day commitment, usually a Saturday morning.

Home repair Saturdays Ramps, porch rails, gutters and roof patches for older homeowners referred by local agencies. A licensed tradesperson leads each crew, so unskilled hands are genuinely useful. Volunteers must be 18 or older because of the tools.

Classroom money sessions Forty-five minute sessions in local schools on a first paycheck, what a credit score measures, and how a car loan amortises. Summit provides the slides and a run-through beforehand; you provide the plain speaking.

Coat, boot and school supply drives Collecting at branches, then sorting and distributing at partner sites. This is the least physically demanding option and works well for volunteers who would rather sit at a table than lift a crate.

Skills-based help Bookkeeping, translation, grant writing or IT support for small nonprofits that cannot pay for it. Tell us your trade and we will match you; these placements are usually a few hours a month rather than a single day.

Upcoming

Service days you can sign up for now

Shifts open six weeks ahead and fill in the order requests arrive.

Date Service day Shift and location

Sat 12 Sep 2026 Food bank sort and pack 9am to 1pm, regional food bank warehouse

Sat 26 Sep 2026 Mobile pantry route 8am to 12pm, two rural routes, riders welcome

Thu 8 Oct 2026 Classroom money week begins Weekday sessions, 14 schools, 45 minutes each

Sat 17 Oct 2026 Home repair Saturday 8am to 3pm, six homes, ages 18 and up

Sat 7 Nov 2026 Coat and boot drive 10am to 2pm, sorting at eight branches

Wed 25 Nov 2026 Holiday meal packing 4pm to 8pm, evening shift, families welcome

Sat 12 Dec 2026 Toy and book sorting 9am to 1pm, seated work available

Sat 23 Jan 2027 Tax help clinic setup 9am to 12pm, greeters and intake desk

Sat 20 Feb 2027 Community blood drive 9am to 3pm, six branch community rooms

Mon 12 Apr 2027 Spring food bank week opens Five days of shifts across the service area

This is a demonstration website; rates, products, and figures shown are illustrative only.

What the commitment actually looks like

Most people give one shift and that is genuinely fine. A food bank shift is four hours; a classroom session is forty-five minutes plus travel; a repair Saturday is a full day. Nothing recurs unless you ask it to, there is no minimum, and nobody is put on a call list afterwards. If you sign up and something comes up, tell us and we backfill the slot.

For the roughly 900 people who work at Summit, the arrangement is different. Every employee receives sixteen paid volunteer hours a year, prorated for part-time staff. The hours are separate from vacation, they do not roll over, and a manager cannot decline the request for scheduling reasons more than once a quarter. They can go to any registered nonprofit, not only the ones the Summit Foundation funds.

Signing up takes one message. Write through contact us with your county, the dates that work, and anything we should know about lifting, standing or tools. A coordinator replies within two working days with the shifts nearest you, or call 800.555.7846 and do it over the phone.

There is never a fundraising ask attached to any of this

You will not be sold a product, asked for a donation, or added to a marketing list because you worked a shift. Summit provides water, gloves and lunch; the host organisation provides the training on site. Members who volunteer alongside staff are there as neighbours, not as prospects, and the branch teams are told exactly that.

Common questions

Before your first shift

Do I have to be a Summit member?

No. Members, their families, and people who bank elsewhere are all welcome. Employees have first claim on shifts during company service days, but those days rarely fill, and the wider community events have no restriction at all.

Can I bring my children?

Food bank sorting, packing and drive events suit ages 14 and up with an adult present. Home repair Saturdays require volunteers to be 18 or older because of the power tools. If you want to bring younger children, ask us and we will find a suitable task.

What if I cannot stand or lift for long?

Say so when you sign up and you will get a seated role. Sorting tables, intake desks, greeter positions and phone-based skills work all exist for exactly this reason, and no one is asked to explain why they need one.

Is any training provided?

Yes, on site and on the day. The host organisation runs a short briefing before every shift, typically ten to fifteen minutes. For classroom sessions Summit provides the material and a run-through beforehand so you are not improvising in front of a class.

Can my organisation request volunteers?

Registered nonprofits working in the counties Summit serves can request a crew. Get in touch with the dates, the task and the number of hands you need. Requests for one-off projects are easier to fill than open-ended weekly rotas.

Come work a shift with us

Tell us your county and what you are good at, and we will find you something genuinely useful.