Don’t you just love Facebook Memories? Today on my memories, these cute pictures popped up of Thanksgiving Eve last year when our family participated in a Family Volunteer Night at our local food bank, Second Harvest. This was such a meaningful and fun experience for us we even included it on our 30 Free Central Florida Activities for the Family.
Thanksgiving is a time we gather with family and friends and give thanks for all we have. It’s also a time that many of us are more into the spirit of giving and thinking about ways to give back.
This makes it a great time to participate in a volunteer project with our children. Volunteering teaches children empathy, good morals, and shows them that they can make a difference in their community. With Second Harvest Food Bank being in our community we have the perfect opportunity year-round to lend a hand.
If you aren’t familiar with Second Harvest Food Bank, it is a nonprofit organization that collects, stores, and distributes food to six Central Florida Counties. They have distributed about 63 million meals. Second Harvest feeds the hungry in 6 Central Florida counties and really do an incredible amount of good in our community. Of course, this kind of work takes an incredible amount of manpower. That is where volunteers come in!
Volunteers normally have to be age 10 and up, but they also have offered Family Nights which are an opportunity for families with children ages 5-9 to get to come work in the facility sorting donations.
They relied on more than 37,000 volunteers last year whose hours totaled 120,000. That’s a pretty incredible number of caring individuals donating their time, talents and resources to our community!
I realize those reading this may not be local to Central Florida and volunteering at Second Harvest may not be feasible, so here are a few ideas for ways that you could perhaps volunteer as a family in your community:
Visit a nursing home
I personally did this quite often with my grandmother as a child many years ago. She would take all of the youth from our church and we would sing and visit with the residents. I even had a couple of “adopted” grandparents in the nursing home.
Participate in a cleanup day.
If you don’t know of an organized event, then you could always go to a local park and pick up trash and recycling.
Donate food to a local food pantry
Organize a food drive
Get involved at an animal shelter
Many shelters are in need of volunteers to walk and play with the animals. Some may even have foster opportunities. We have fostered dogs during hurricanes which led to a longterm foster since the shelter was flooded. Since we do not have any pets this is a great opportunity for my kids to have a little pet action.
Walk for a cause
There is no shortage of fun runs, walk, and races that support a cause. During the recent Wine and Dine Half Marathon Weekend at Disney, Second Harvest Food Bank was the recipient of over 50k from participants and Walt Disney World. These are great opportunities to give, have fun, and get a little exercise.
Send homemade letters to deployed service men and women.
Make and distribute care packages for the homeless
We have a large homeless population here in Central Florida. Providing just a bottle of water, a granola bar and a banana can really mean the world to someone.
Volunteer at school
My kids have personally seen me volunteer hundreds of hours at our school, but we have also volunteered as a family at special events like carnivals and ice cream socials. They have even helped repaint the media center at school.
There are many more ways that you can give the gift of volunteering this holiday season and beyond. I hope this list of a few ways inspires you.
What kind of volunteer projects have you done as a family? Please share below.