Date/Time: Thursday evenings from 5–6:45 p.m. all year round.

Location: 236 W. 73rd Street NY. Meet on the steps of the church.

Ages: Families with middle school-aged children and older are welcome to volunteer. Community Service hours are available for young people.

Time Commitment: One hour and forty-five minutes each week.

Rutgers is a progressive Presbyterian Church where all are welcome (including dogs in the service). It is an active church with an outstanding music program that reaches out to the neighborhood and the world for peace and social justice. The church has been providing food to the community in various ways for close to 40 years. We now serve between 80 and 120 guests each Thursday night rain or shine, 52 weeks a year. Our guests include those who are under-housed (e.g., renting a room) and those with no housing. While we often have new arrivals, including families of newcomers to NYC, there is a sense of community among many of our guests.

We provide a choice of ham and cheese, turkey, or vegetarian sandwiches which are made by the deli at West End and 72nd Street. They also give us bananas. In addition, we provide bottled water and other snacks to our guests. We celebrate holidays with special food and/or gifts. From Thanksgiving to March we provide a container of hot food in addition to the sandwiches. Volunteer cooks make these meals for a month in a ‘cook-off’ in the church’s kitchen and then freeze the meals. Cooks are welcome at these events.

Contact: Janara Kellerman, Executive Assistant to the Pastor, at kellerman@rutgerschurch.org.

Date/Time: Sunday, April 7, 5–8 p.m.

Location: 1100 Block Bergen Street Community Garden.

Ages: Everyone is welcome to participate.

Time Commitment: Three hours.

Join NY Repair and Ms. Hazel at Bergen St. Community Garden for Earth Month! Learn about composting, help maintain the garden, and stick around for a showing of the 1972 Lorax, and other Earth Day shorts! No experience or tools are necessary. Just wear clothes and shoes that you don't mind getting dirty. We will have snacks and drinks for participants.

Contact: sg.gladstone@weRepair.org. Registration is available online.

Date/Time: Sunday, April 14.

Location: Anywhere where there are Little Free Libraries. Use our world map to find a location near you.

Ages: All ages. This is a great activity for family and friends to do together.

Time Commitment: Flexible. Share one book, or share many!

Everyone can do something good, large or small, to improve the lives of others. Celebrate Good Deeds Day by sharing a book and a kind note in a Little Free Library near you! You’ll join a global day of doing good that unites people from over 100 countries in doing good deeds. It’s easy to participate:

Contact: volunteer@littlefreelibrary.org. Click here to register.

Date/Time: Tuesday, April 23, 2–5 p.m.

Location: Alfred E. Smith Playground, 4 Catherine Slip, New York.

Ages: Everyone can participate.

Time Commitment: Three hours.

Join us on a fun day outside to protect our Earth. Our Earth Day Event will be a day filled with cleaning our field, planting new plants, and meeting new people in our neighborhood.

Contact: Click here for registration information.

Date/Time: Saturdays, April 13, 20 and 27, 9 a.m.–noon.

Location: Manhattan Church of Christ, 48 East 80th Street.

Ages: Everyone can participate.

Time Commitment: Varies.

The Saturday Lunch Program provides hot meals to people experiencing homelessness with dignity and compassion. All shifts are family-friendly, and involve a set-up team to set tables and decorate, a service team to run trays of food back and forth to the guests, and a breakdown and clean-up team. Volunteers help set up, prepare, and serve meals, then break down and clean up. We are also still accepting clothes for migrant families. Contact Carl for more information.

Contact: To sign up, please contact Reverend Carl Garrison at carl@manhattanchurch.org.

Date/Time: Ongoing project.

Location: Mail your cards and a Cardmaking Project Information Form to:

DOROT

171 West 85th Street

New York, NY 10024

Attn: Card Making Project

Ages: Everyone can participate.

Time Commitment: Varies.

DOROT is a nonprofit organization addressing the challenges of an aging population. We serve our clients with a diverse range of programs and services. We deliver those programs and services through intergenerational connections with volunteers of all ages. DOROT’s greeting card project helps bring joy and celebration to some of our frailest and most isolated seniors. DOROT always needs birthday cards which we send to over 3,000 older adults each year. Sometimes, a card from a DOROT volunteer is the only communication an older adult receives to acknowledge their special day. We also welcome cards for Thanksgiving, Rosh Hashanah, and Passover holidays as well as Caring Cards which we can use on a variety of occasions. Every card is designed and created by volunteers. Making a card is an easy, fun, and important way to contribute to the work that we do to decrease social isolation. Whether you’re looking for something to do on a rainy day or planning an activity for your synagogue youth group, all you need is a bit of paper, a few pens, and a little imagination. Be sure to use colored paper for the outside, but white for the inside to make it easier to read. The card you create should be able to fit into a 6x9 standard envelope. This is the type DOROT uses to mail out the cards to our seniors. Write in large block (print) letters. As people get older, many have a hard time reading small print. Click here for cardmaking tips and directions.

Contact: info@dorotusa.org, 212.769.2850.

Date/Time: Ongoing, Monday–Saturday, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Location: Manhattan.

Ages: Everyone can volunteer; youth younger than 17 years old must be accompanied by an adult.

Time Commitment: Up to three hours.

Citymeals on Wheels provides a continuous lifeline of nourishing meals and vital companionship for homebound older adult New Yorkers. Our volunteer program provides connection and companionship to homebound older adults. Here are a few of our volunteer opportunities:

Contact: volunteer@citymeals.org.

Date/Time: Every Saturday! We need both volunteer packers to unload, pack, and sort groceries and volunteer drivers to pick up and drop off food at community sites in their own vehicles. You can choose to be one or both! Packing and sorting runs from 9–10:30 a.m., and then drivers with cars go on to deliver produce to a community in need.

Location: The meeting point is at 1750 East Gun Hill Road, Bronx, NY, in the Urban Edge shopping center parking lot. Families doing a delivery will receive a pre-assigned address in Harlem or the Bronx before the start of the event.

Ages: Everyone is welcome to volunteer.

Time Commitment: Depends on the activity you choose.

Join fellow neighbors on a Saturday to sort, pack, and deliver fresh produce to New Yorkers in need! Grassroots Grocery rescues excess, unsold produce from the biggest produce market in the United States, and their growing volunteer task force delivers this bounty to over 25 communities in need, ensuring that fresh and healthy produce makes its way to neighbors in need that other food assistance programs don't reach. Great for families and folks of all ages, you can be the fuel that powers this neighbors-helping-neighbors hunger-fighting mission! Join fellow neighbors on a Saturday to sort, pack, and deliver fresh produce to New Yorkers in need!

Contact: dan@grassrootsgrocery.org. Registration is available online.

Date/Time: Sunday, April 21, 10 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Location: Greenspace on Fourth, 207 4th Ave, Brooklyn.

Ages: This opportunity is for teens 14 years old and older.

Time Commitment: Two and a half hours.

Join Repair the World and the Jewish Youth Climate Movement for an Earth Day celebration! We will help with a community clean-up while learning about the work that Green and Blue Eco Care does to help take care of our city!

Contact: marissa.aaronson@weRepair.org. Registration is available online.

Date/Time: Saturday, April 6:

Location: Brooklyn Navy Yard, 141 Flushing Ave Suite 407, Brooklyn.

Ages: Volunteers ages 14–17 years old must be accompanied by an adult guardian.

Time Commitment: 45-minute shifts.

The mission of Brooklyn Book Bodega is to increase the number of 100+ book homes for kids 0-18 in NYC. Brooklyn Book Bodega provides access to and ownership of books, builds community, and creates a passion for learning through free events and literacy-based community programming. Volunteers at these events will be setting up and cleaning up, lifting and placing boxes of books, talking to the public, and other fun tasks.

Contact: info@brooklynbookbodega.org. Register at this link.

Session 2:

Ages: Rising Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.

Time Commitment: Mondays to Thursdays, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.

Applications are open! Rising sophomores, juniors, and seniors can intern with a diverse group of socially conscious peers to bring vital social connections to older adults. Through one of our four summer teen internship programs, you can develop leadership skills and engage in meaningful programs with older adults. Through a variety of intergenerational activities including discussion groups, home visits, creative arts, and technical assistance teens can give back to the community this summer while earning over 112 community service hours. Learn more here.

Contact: Elijah, ewong@dorotusa.org or 917.441.3714. Click here to complete an application.

West Side Campaign Against Hunger (WSCAH) is excited to announce our second annual writing competition, the 2024 Writing Against Hunger contest. We invite young writers between 10 and 18 years old to submit poetry or essays about the ongoing hunger crisis in the United States today. Winners and finalists have the opportunity to be published online on WSCAH’s website, and winners are invited and encouraged to perform at our annual block party, WSCAH ROCKS THE BLOCK.

Please help us spread the word about this contest! We are accepting submissions through April 19th, 2024. Decisions will be announced before ROCKS THE BLOCK, which will be held on 86th Street between Riverside Drive and West End Avenue, on Sunday, May 19th, 2024.