Assist LA Family Housing with Kitchen Duties and Prepping Meals – Dinner Shift
Volunteering in the kitchen can be a great way to give back to your community. Whether you're helping to prepare meals for those in need, or assisting with kitchen duties such as food serving, bussing, or greeting, your time and effort can make a significant impact on those transitioning away from homelessness. Please keep in mind that you will be asked to also tend to the dining area where you will interact with the participants that LAFH serves. Provide quality service by serving nourishing meals for those who may not otherwise have access to them. You can also help to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where people can gather and connect over a warm meal. Dress code: Pants, closed-toed shoes, and clean shirt. All volunteers will be wearing a hairnet and gloves. Volunteers need to be 18 plus.
Serve Hot Meals with New Friends Homeless Center
New Friends Homeless Center is looking for volunteers to help on Friday nights. They need kitchen staff, servers, and security volunteers to assist with preparing and serving hot meals. Every role plays an important part in making sure guests receive the food and support they need in a compassionate and respectful environment.
Support the Family Giveback Program with New Friends Homeless Center
The Family Giveback Program is a wonderful opportunity for volunteers under 18, accompanied by a parent or guardian, to make a meaningful impact in a safe and supportive environment. Young volunteers can help distribute essential donated items—such as clothing, blankets, sleeping bags, hygiene kits, pet food, and more—to those in need. As part of this program, families can also organize donation drives, such as collecting blankets, socks, or hygiene kits. Volunteers and their family & friends can gather gently-used or new items from their homes and schools. Then, they can personally hand them out. This is a great way for young people to get involved, give back, and experience the joy of helping others while fostering a spirit of generosity and community support!.
Assist LA Family Housing with Kitchen Duties and Prepping Meals – Dinner Shift
Volunteering in the kitchen can be a great way to give back to your community. Whether you're helping to prepare meals for those in need, or assisting with kitchen duties such as food serving, bussing, or greeting, your time and effort can make a significant impact on those transitioning away from homelessness. Please keep in mind that you will be asked to also tend to the dining area where you will interact with the participants that LAFH serves. Provide quality service by serving nourishing meals for those who may not otherwise have access to them. You can also help to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where people can gather and connect over a warm meal. Dress code: Pants, closed-toed shoes, and clean shirt. All volunteers will be wearing a hairnet and gloves. Volunteers need to be 18 plus.
Assist LA Family Housing with Kitchen Duties and Prepping Meals – Dinner Shift
Volunteering in the kitchen can be a great way to give back to your community. Whether you're helping to prepare meals for those in need, or assisting with kitchen duties such as food serving, bussing, or greeting, your time and effort can make a significant impact on those transitioning away from homelessness. Please keep in mind that you will be asked to also tend to the dining area where you will interact with the participants that LAFH serves. Provide quality service by serving nourishing meals for those who may not otherwise have access to them. You can also help to create a welcoming and inclusive environment where people can gather and connect over a warm meal. Dress code: Pants, closed-toed shoes, and clean shirt. All volunteers will be wearing a hairnet and gloves. Volunteers need to be 18 plus.
Maintain Neighborhood Fridges with LA Community Fridges
Volunteers sign up to check, clean, and organize independent outdoor community fridges in their own neighborhoods. Responsibilities include wiping down shelves, discarding expired food items, and moving local restaurant or grocery donations into the structures to ensure unhoused and food-insecure neighbors have safe access to fresh ingredients.
Distribute Food and Hygiene Essentials with Long Beach Community Table
Volunteers gather every weekend to bring fresh produce, nutritious food, toiletries, shoes, socks, and clothing directly to people in areas of great need around Long Beach. Currently, there is a morning shift on Saturdays and both morning and afternoon shifts on Sundays, lasting 3 to 4 hours per shift. Volunteers are coordinated through the Band mobile app. Open to individuals aged 14 and older.
Pack and Deliver Homebound Groceries with Long Beach Community Table
Join the Sunday evening team to fill bags with nutritious groceries at their main warehouse and deliver them to seniors, immune-compromised individuals, and financially distressed families throughout the greater Long Beach area. Volunteers can come just to help pack and clean up, or use their personal vehicle to complete contactless home deliveries. A personal vehicle is required only if participating in the delivery route.
Build Urban Spaces with the Long Beach Community Table Garden Team
Help the organization reach its goal of building at least one new urban community garden per month around Long Beach. Volunteers can dig in the dirt, construct garden beds, or assist garden hosts with weekly harvesting tasks that directly supply their weekend food distribution recipients with fresh, organically grown local produce. Open to gardeners of all experience and skill levels.
Drive Commercial Logistics Routes with Long Beach Community Table
Inquire about joining the weekday Pickup Team if you have a reliable personal vehicle and regular free time Monday through Friday. Volunteers collect bulk commercial food donations at the same time and place each week and transport them to senior residences, veteran communities, school campuses, sober living homes, and churches. Open to adult volunteers aged 18 and older with a reliable vehicle.
Provide a Nourishing Meal with My Friend’s Place
Share the comfort of a healthy meal with young people navigating homelessness. Volunteer groups can fund a breakfast or lunch or directly arrive on-site to serve it. This generosity offers nurturing warmth, care, and connection to drop-in center guests. Meals can be prepared off-site or coordinated directly with their team.
Rescue Excess Food Resources with PATH (People Assisting the Homeless)
Food rescue drivers help the staff team to combat food insecurity by helping to bring much needed food resources directly to the communities that they serve. PATH partners with local food rescue agencies, grocery stores, and restaurants to rescue excess food and then distribute it to individuals and families that are food insecure. Drivers commit to a regularly scheduled shift where they are assigned a day and time to pick up food donations for drop-off at a local PATH site. Volunteers are expected to use their own vehicle, or a PATH van, to pick up food donated from local community partners. This position is ideal for individuals who would like to help support individuals and families impacted by homelessness and reduce food waste.
Pack Pet Food Resources with Michelson Found Animals Foundation
Join them as a Pet Food Packing Volunteer and help prepare nutritious food bags for cats and dogs in need! As part of their regular pet food distribution program, which partners with local human food distributions, and their monthly pet events, volunteers play a key role in assembling and organizing pet food packages for families and individuals with pets.
Serve as a Pet Pantry Community Ambassador with Michelson Found Animals Foundation
Join them as a Pet Food Pantry Community Ambassador. Volunteers help ensure pets receive the nourishment they deserve by supporting their food pantry operations and helping distribute food to pet owners during their scheduled community distributions.
Join the Cooking Club and On-Site Service Groups with Downtown Women’s Center
Form a group with friends, family, or corporate colleagues to complete vital hands-on team projects. On-site groups can sponsor and join the Cooking Club to communally prepare, cook, and serve a fresh, home-style lunch for 150 women inside the Day Center kitchen, or register for a morning Snack Pack Workshop to assemble nutritious grab-and-go meal bags. Alternatively, community groups can work together off-site to source, compile, and deliver bulk supply packages, which include Snack Packs, travel-sized Toiletry Kits for the daily shower program, and Clean Home Kits packed in durable tote bags for residents transitioning into permanent housing. All group members must be 18 years or older and complete a liability waiver.
Transport and Supply Fresh Produce as a Farmers Market Volunteer with Garden School Foundation
Help transport fresh produce to support free on-campus farmers markets that share an average of 9,000 lbs of food with over 225 school families each month. Volunteers meet on Thursday mornings at the Food Forward Produce Pit Stop in Bell, load their personal vehicles with boxes of fruits and vegetables, and drive them to designated school market sites (24th Street or 99th Street Elementary) to distribute the items directly to families. Requires a valid driver's license and a vehicle large enough to transport cargo boxes.
Provide Meals for Ascencia’s Residents, Be Part of the Guest Chef program with Ascencia
The Guest Chef program is central to the resources they provide their residents on a daily basis; and removes the worry about where their next meal is coming from. Volunteers in their Guest Chef Program commit to providing meals for 40-45 people. Chefs will plan the menu, purchase and prep the ingredients, then cook and serve the meal to their shelter residents. They also have many Guest Chefs get food delivered, or pick up food from local restaurants and drop-off!.
Pack with Purpose: Assemble Snack Bags from Home with Ascencia!
Purchase and assemble snack bags for their Outreach Case Managers to hand out while out in the field! Collect non-perishable snacks and drinks like protein bars, chips, water, sports drinks, etc., pack them into Ziploc bags, and donate them to Ascencia! Snack bags go quick, so the more the merrier.
Pack with Purpose: Assemble Brown Lunch Bags from Home with Ascencia!
They are asking for volunteers to make brown bag lunches for clients in the shelter to supplement meals not covered by guest chef, or for street outreach to pass out to individuals on the streets. Lunches can include PB&J sandwiches, fruit, chips, protein bars, water, etc.
Host a Hygiene Kits and Snack Bags Drive with Ascencia
An integral part of Ascencia’s mission is their street Outreach! While their Outreach Case Managers are out helping their unhoused neighbors, they provide them with hygiene kits and snack packs to pass out. Help them by doing a drive with your community to gather some essentials for their clients, or purchase and donate the items. You can donate the items on their own, or assemble them into kits to donate. New, toiletry-sized hygiene items, and non-perishable, unopened snacks only please.
Featured Projects
Join Big Sunday for Relaxation and Community Care at Wellness Mondays
Big Sunday,
dom@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
If you're feeling like you could use a holiday – or a way to relax and recharge while meeting great, helpful folks -you're going to love Big Sunday's Wellness Mondays. Every Monday at 10 AM, we'll be hosting a different, fantastic sound bath here at Big Sunday HQ. Every Sound Bath is wonderful, designed to help you relax, recharge, and reconnect with yourself and others. They're all incredibly relaxing, totally free, and everyone is invited! We want everyone to be as comfortable as possible and suggest that you bring your own mat, cushion, pillow, blanket, eye cover, etc. – whatever you need to feel relaxed and cozy!
Create Mosaic Suns With Big Sunday at our Art Tuesdays
Big Sunday,
josh@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
Every Tuesday, volunteers join us at Big Sunday HQ to decorate mosaics in the shape of a sun. These beautiful works of art are then donated to schools, shelters, food banks – anywhere in need of a little more sunshine and warmth! This wonderful project is the brainchild of our old friend Cathy Weiss and led by Cathy and our own Big Sunday staff. You don’t need to be a brilliant artist to participate – just friendly and sincere. Just about everybody who’s worked on one tells us the mosaic suns are their favorite Big Sunday project!.
Join Big Sunday for our Accessible Wednesday at 10am Event
Big Sunday,
passion@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
A spin-off of our flagship weekly event TM@10, Accessible Wednesdays @ 10 (AW@10 for short) hosts volunteers every Wednesday to work on hands-on projects to help local nonprofits. The difference? The projects we do on Wednesdays are specially geared to be accessible to folks of all ability levels! Our guests of honor at each AW@10 are groups of volunteers with intellectual and developmental disabilities from some of our partner organizations like AbilityFirst, ETTA, PassAbility, Partners For Potential, and Arroyo Development Services. At Big Sunday, we firmly believe that everyone has something to give, and that everyone has fun helping others! Anyone and everyone is invited to join us for AW@10, whether it’s with a group or as an individual who wants to help out and hang out with some of the best volunteers in the business. From assembling goodie bags for unhoused people and their dogs to decorating pumpkins for underserved kids at Halloween, there’s always something fun going on at AW@10. This week we will be sorting cloths for donations.
Join Big Sunday for our Thursday Morning at 10am Events
Big Sunday,
nicolo@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
TM@10 (Thursday Morning @ 10) is not only one of our favorite programs, but it’s one of our most popular, too! Every Thursday morning from 10:00 AM – 11:30 AM, volunteers gather at Big Sunday HQ to work on hands-on projects that help local nonprofits. We’ve assembled birthday gifts for folks in shelters, written letters to soldiers stationed overseas, packed backpacks for ex-gang members starting college, made fleece blankets for shelter kittens, and done about a thousand other fun and meaningful things. In classic Big Sunday fashion, it’s a great way for people to meet new people, work together, and enjoy some laughs while helping someone else. It’s no wonder we have so many regulars who come every single week! We’re regularly joined by groups like AbilityFirst, Partners For Potential, and of course the famous TM Ladies! Projects we’ve worked on have benefited organizations like Covenant House, Carlos Santa Ana Academy, PATH, Exceptional Children’s Foundation, Angelus Plaza, and countless others.
Join Big Sunday for our Food Pantry and Food Fridays @ 10am
Big Sunday,
madison@bigsunday.org,
(323) 549-9944
Big Sunday has given away mountains of food over many years, but now we’re going to make it a weekly event. Our Food Pantry will be open year ‘round and will contain both perishable and non-perishable food. We’re also introducing Food Fridays. Every Friday morning we’ll be open from 10-11:30 to sort and pack food. We’ll also distribute to nonprofits and schools from all over town who will distribute the food to hungry and grateful people in their communities. All ages are welcome. Groups, too! We need volunteers, collectors, donors and sponsors.