1. Houston Food Bank

Downtown – age 6+
The Houston Food Bank is a great option for families because children as young as age six can volunteer alongside an adult parent or guardian. There are many volunteering opportunities, including kid-friendly projects, which can vary from inspecting and sorting food, to packing food into family-sized bags, to stocking the Emergency Food Pantry. Volunteer shifts are available daily, but hours vary. There are also special volunteer events coming up for the holidays. Register online to volunteer and make sure to wear closed-toed shoes and sleeved shirts. In addition to volunteering, you can also help by donating food or money or even hosting a food drive.

 
Houston Food Bank allows volunteers as young as age 6. Photo courtesy of the Houston Food Bank

2. Bread of Life

Downtown – 7+ to pack relief boxes and 10+ to serve meals

Bread of Life has been helping the residents of Houston for thirty years. They provide hot meals and relief boxes for homeless people. You can sign up online to help serve Hot Meals for the Holidays on Mon, Wed, Fri, and Sun from 6–8 p.m. You can also donate store-bought desserts. Younger children age 7+ can pack relief boxes at the downtown warehouse. Make sure you fill in the waiver when you sign up!

3. City Wide Club

Downtown – any age to collect and donate, 16+ to help in-person
City Wide Club is best known for its annual events, which include a Thanksgiving Day Feast and a Christmas Eve Feast held at the George R. Brown Convention Center with volunteer shifts available in the morning and afternoon. In 2022, they are offering both takeaway and in-person dining. In addition to handing out meals, thousands of people also receive clothing, shoes, blankets, flu shots, medical care, food baskets, and other resources. All in-person volunteers must be at least 16 years of age. Although that means most kids cannot help out at the annual events, there are many other ways to help, including collecting items they need and donating them at a variety of locations around the city including Downtown, Sugar Land, and The Woodlands.

 
Your whole family can participate in community volunteering. Photo courtesy of Buffalo Bayou 

4. Buffalo Bayou Community Volunteers

Inner Loop – age 9+
The Buffalo Bayou Partnership invites Houstonians to join in a community-wide volunteer day at Buffalo Bayou Park on the third Saturday of each month. Volunteers help with a variety of tasks, including trash pick-up, mulching, silt management, and weed removal. Volunteers should bring their own gloves, personal sanitation items, and personal protection equipment, but all other necessary tools will be provided.  To sign up, please read the volunteer information packet and complete an online volunteer waiver with the event date. You can also volunteer as a family unit on a weekday for 2-4 hours. Help restore the park to its former glory!

 
Photo courtesy of Operation Turkey

5. Operation Turkey Houston

Various locations – all ages welcome as part of a family
The volunteer-run organization distributes meals and care packages in more than 30 communities nationwide. For 2022, Operation Turkey has set the bar high, with a goal of passing out 55,000 meals to those in need on Thanksgiving morning – 10,000 more than their 2021 goal! Volunteers are needed to prepare, package, and deliver food to the homeless and less fortunate in the Houston area. Children are welcome as volunteers along with their parents and are given tasks including decorating the clamshell food containers and walking through the food line to get the food containers filled; they can also help with delivering food if a parent volunteers to be a driver.

 
Kids Meals, Inc. has volunteering opportunities in Houston for kids as young as age 8. Photo courtesy Kids Meals, Inc. 

6. Kids Meals, Inc.

Inner Loop – age 8+
Kids’ Meals, Inc. works to end childhood hunger by delivering free, healthy meals to the doorsteps of children ages five and under facing hunger due to poverty. Monday through Friday, volunteers prepare thousands of healthy lunches and then deliver the meals to children enrolled in the program. Kids Meals Inc. also provides children with additional resources such as free books. Outside of the holiday season, the group needs at least 20 volunteers a day. You can imagine how the need increases this time of year! Other ways to help include donating holiday food items, gift cards, and toys, or by participating in their adopt-a-family program. Volunteers at the Garden Oaks Center need to be 8 years of age or older. However, if you have younger children you can still help by decorating bags or providing lunches from your home.

7. Books Between Kids

Westchase – age 8+
Books Between Kids distributes over 260,000 books to approximately 36,000 Houston elementary school students. Volunteers are usually needed to count and inventory donations, sort books and box them, and help with stocking the tables. You can also help by donating gently used children’s books appropriate for Pre-K through 5th-grade readers or hosting a book drive. You can schedule a large donation at the warehouse using their calendar. 

 
Donate your gently used books to Books Between Kids. Photo courtesy of Books Between Kids

8. Northwest Assistance Ministries

North Houston – any age to collect and donate, 16+ to help in-person
The Season of Blessings program at Northwest Assistance Ministries coordinates assistance for individuals in need, providing food, hygiene products, financial assistance, and more. Volunteers help accept food or toy donations, stock the pantry, prepare food for distribution, carry food to cars, and help with toy distribution. Volunteers must fill out an online RSVP to indicate when they will be available to volunteer. One fun activity for all ages that you complete at home is their Reverse Advent Calendar—your family adds a listed food item to a box every day in December and then donates it to the NAM Center.

 
Help Houston kids have a happy holiday season. Photo courtesy of Toys for Tots, Houston Childrens Charity

9. Toys For Tots

Various Locations – any age
When families need assistance providing a joy-filled holiday for their children, Toys For Tots steps in with in-kind donations of new toys for kids who otherwise might not receive anything to open on Christmas morning. Your kids can get in the spirit of giving by selecting toys for a child and dropping them off at one of the many collection locations throughout the greater Houston area in early December. 

10. Meals on Wheels

Various locations – any age with a guardian for many opportunities
Interfaith Ministries' Meals on Wheels program provides over 7,000 holiday meals to homebound seniors in the Houston area.  They have so many different jobs in the holiday season, such as assembling breakfast bags, helping with meal delivery, working in the warehouse, or making greeting cards. Why not assemble some gift bags using their list of approved items for drop-off by mid-December? There is also a volunteer service to call Seniors on Thanksgiving and wish them a happy day.

If your child is a pet-lover, get them involved in Interfaith's Animeals program. Volunteers are needed to make monthly deliveries of pet food, adopt a senior and their pet(s), host pet food drives, assist with inventorying donations and organizing the Animeals pets, food room, repackage pet food donations, pick up donations of pet food throughout the community and represent Animeals at special events.

 
Photo courtesy of The Holiday Project

11. The Holiday Project's Handmade Holiday Cards for Nursing Homes

Various locations – any age
In 2022, Covid continues to prevent us from making holiday visits to nursing homes, so there is more of a need than ever for fun, cheerful, holiday cards for residents. Since we still can’t visit, there is an added option to make or purchase fleece lap blankets or fleece shawls or give other gifts that would make the holidays brighter and let the nursing home residents know they have not been forgotten! Take the time to think of our senior community members and follow the guidelines online to make your cards, find gifts and identify a nursing home near you.

There are so many ways that you and your family can make a difference. For many other ideas search Volunteer Houston.