Thanksgiving is approaching and in the spirit of celebrating gratitude and unity, it’s important to find time to give back to your community. Fortunately, Boston has countless organizations where you can give back to your community on and before Thanksgiving day.
Here are just a few organizations where you can give back this holiday season.
The Boston Rescue Mission: 39 Kingston St., Boston, Mass.
The Boston Rescue Mission works to help those who are currently or in danger of experiencing homelessness to learn and maintain the life skills that allow individuals to be self-sufficient.
The mission runs an overnight emergency shelter and provides individuals with basic amenities as well as nutritious meals.
Every year, the nonprofit celebrates its “Day of Thanks” on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, with the participation of dozens of volunteers and local leaders. Volunteers prepare meals in the Mission kitchen for hundreds of neighborhood people.
The Boston Rescue Mission is also accepting donations through their Amazon Wishlist and food wishlist. Donations through the Amazon Wishlist will be directly sent to the Boston Rescue Mission. If you are picking up items on the food wishlist, donations can be dropped off at 39 Kingston St.
Daily Table: 684 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass.
Daily Table is committed to providing high-quality food at affordable prices and making the products accessible to everyone, even those in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The organization collaborates with a network of growers, manufacturers and other suppliers.
Daily Table is looking for volunteers to help out in stores, the commissary kitchen, sorting produce, labeling and packaging food, stocking retail shelves and reorganizing the freezer.
The Cambridge location is just off the Central Station Stop on the red line. After visiting a friend in the area, I was able to check out the location and see how the store is illuminating the economic barrier of access to fresh, healthy food.
Daily Table allows a maximum of 10 individuals per “shift” at a time. Opportunities for custom shifts and locations are available.
Daily Table also accepts monetary donations. By contributing a tax-deductible gift to Daily Table, you can help them combat food insecurity in Dorchester, Roxbury, Central Square, Mattapan and Salem.
Community Servings: 179 Amory St., Jamaica Plain, Mass.
Community Serving’s goal is to provide chronically and critically ill individuals and their families with homemade meals that are medically customized. The organization also pledges to advocate for racial and economic justice as well as health equity.
Volunteer opportunities at Community Serving include helping out in the kitchen, delivering food, tech support and event help.
Community Serves is hosting their Pie in The Sky event where volunteers can help out in various ways prior to the event which occurs the weekend before Thanksgiving. Volunteers can sell pies which gives clients a week’s worth of home-delivered, freshly prepared meals for each pie sold.
On the actual day of the event, volunteers help sell pies, deliver boxes to Community Serving baking partners, sort and organize pies, run quality control and support local pick-up locations throughout Boston.
I’ve participated in the Pie in The Sky event, purchasing and selling pies to my family members in the Boston area. Every small gesture, whether it’s selling pies, delivering them or giving your time, has an impact on someone’s life.
Community Serves also accepts monetary donations. A donation of $35 helps provide a week’s worth of meals to community members who are sick.
Little Brothers — Friends of the Elderly: 2 Park Plaza, Suite 400, Boston, Mass.
Little Brothers — Friends of the Elderly Boston (LBFE Boston) is a nonprofit organization rooted in the community that works to minimize social isolation by providing intergenerational social and digital equality and artistic programs to older adults living in public and affordable housing.
Regardless of whether you are able to help on Thanksgiving Day or prior to, there are countless opportunities to help support those in need.
A previous version of this article said that LBFE Boston would be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner with the Hyatt Harborside Hotel in East Boston, offered volunteer opportunities to call community members and deliver Thanksgiving meals. The article has been updated to reflect what is accurate.
