Volunteer

We welcome volunteers ages 14 and older, on a drop-in basis. We need dozens of volunteers each Tuesday night, as well as a few volunteers throughout the week to gather supplies and cook meals. To start volunteering, simply come to the St. Philomene School’s multi-purpose room at 5:30 PM on any Tuesday evening. No sign-up or prior notice is required.

Helping during our Tuesday dinners

Volunteers ages 14 and older are always welcome at Sharing God’s Bounty. Our volunteers set up tables and chairs, fold napkins and forks, serve dinners, serve drinks of milk, juice and/or coffee, and after dinner, clean up and then take down the tables and chairs. Our dinners are advertised to begin at 6:00 PM and extend through 7:00 PM every Tuesday evening. If you are a first time volunteer, it would be best for you to arrive by about 5:30 or a little before. When you arrive, look for a floor captain in a red or green apron in order to check in and get an assignment for the evening. During the course of the evening you may be asked to change your assignment as the needs of the dinner require e.g. from serving meals to cleaning up.

Technically, the parking lot at St. Philomene’s School does not open until about 5:30 PM, so if you arrive earlier than that you may have to park on a street. Later, as you become more comfortable with your particular assignment, you may come at any time, check in with a Captain and get to work. Some volunteers come at 5:40 PM after the lot opens and stay until about 6:40 PM when most of the guests have been served. Others arrive about 6:30 PM and stay until about 7:30 PM or 8:00 PM in order to help with the clean-up and folding of the tables and chairs. Some volunteers stay the entire time. Some come once a month or even once a week, others simply come whenever they can. As we say, all are welcome.

Helping on other days

While the service we provide at Sharing God’s Bounty is first and foremost a hot dinner every Tuesday night, teams of volunteers help with a variety of projects throughout the week to make our mission possible. We always need volunteers to transport donated food and supplies, cook meals each weekend, and perform myriad other behind-the-scenes jobs essential to our success on Tuesday. If you are interested in joining one of these teams, you can either talk to those in charge any Tuesday night or contact us online to get started. If you have never seen our Tuesday night operation, however, we strongly encourage you to volunteer at our dinner before inquiring about other volunteer opportunities.

Volunteers Join Us For Dinner

While it may seem selfish to eat dinner at the meal, we, at Sharing God’s Bounty believe it is part of our ministry to sit down and have dinner after all our guests are served. We believe it is an important symbolic act that we share in the same meal as our less fortunate brothers and sisters. In addition, we also believe that “the laborer is entitled to his pay.” We are all laborers in the vineyard and whether, we arrive early or late, we have God’s gift of a hot, nutritious meal. Finally, even if we are volunteers, we may all benefit from having at least one meal each week provided without cost.