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March 2016 - Twin Cities |
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Minnesota FoodShare
March Campaign Drive
Date/Time: Bring your food and/or cash donations to your local food shelf prior to April 1
Location: Your local food shelf
March is Minnesota Food Share month. Each March since 1982, Minnesota FoodShare has directed the March Campaign, the largest food drive in the state. Join people across the state in a concerted effort to stock food shelves during March Food Drive, a month-long campaign with yearlong benefits for food shelves and hungry families in Minnesota. This campaign recruits thousands of congregations, companies, schools and civic groups to run local food and fund drives to aid in the effort and it is the largest food and fund drive for food shelves in the state of Minnesota. Every dollar donated to Minnesota FoodShare during the March Campaign goes directly to food shelves to purchase food for the hungry. You can collect food or cash donations as a family and donate them to your local food shelf or you can recruit family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, or individuals from your faith community or civic group to help organize a larger food and/or donation drive. If you'd like to deepen your food drive experience, consider purchasing
DGT's Help the Hungry curriculum for your family or group.
Ages: Your entire family can participate
Time Commitment: Flexible
Contact:
Suzanna Shatila, 612.276.1530. Bring donations to your local food shelf. If you are interested in organizing a March Campaign, Minnesota FoodShare is here to help. There is a wealth of resources available online at Minnesota FoodShare March Campaign
mnfoodshare.gmcc.org
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Usher
SteppingStone Theatre for Youth Development
Date/Time: Available dates and shifts:
- Thursday, March 10, 6 - 8:30pm
- Friday, March 11, 6 - 8:30pm
- Saturday, March 12, 2 - 4:30pm and 6 - 8:30pm
- Sunday, March 13, 2 - 4:30pm
- Thursday, March 17, 6 - 8:30pm
Location: 55 Victoria Street North, Saint Paul
Help your local nonprofit theatre by volunteering as an usher! "Kickin' It Irish" is a presentation of O'Shea Irish Dance, based in St. Paul. It is a Riverdance- style, musical performance that's sure to entertain the whole family. SteppingStone Theatre is looking for ushers for weekend performances of "Kickin' It Irish". As a thank you for your time, you can attend the performance for FREE! No previous experience is necessary, just a positive attitude.
Ages: Volunteers need to be at least eight years old
Time Commitment: Two and one-half hours
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Volunteer Day!
Simon Says Give
Date/Time: Saturday, March 26, shifts between 10am and 1pm
Location: 3440 Federal Drive Suite 101 Eagan
On the fourth Saturday of each month Simon Says Give provides an opportunity for kids and adults to volunteer. We believe kids want to get involved in helping other kids but don't know where to start. Simon Says Give gives you that chance to volunteer and makes it easy for children and parents to do so.
Ages: Everyone can participate; there are projects for all ages.
Time Commitment: One or more hours
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Make Play Doh
The Family Partnership
Date/Time: Flexible, contact Christy, [email protected], 612.341.1600, to arrange a drop-off time
Children who are in therapy and at the Family Partnership's two preschool centers use play doh nearly every day, so they go through dozens of batches a month. Making play doh is an easy and fun project you can do as a family. Feel free to make as much or little as you want!
No Cook Instructions
- 3 cups flour (start with 3 and add a little more as needed)
- 1 cup salt
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 1 1/2 cups very hot water
- 2 packets unsweetened kool-aid (bright colors work best, generic brands are fine)
- Mix dry ingredients (except kool-aid) together.
- Mix oil and water and then mix in the kool-aid until it dissolves.
- Add dry ingredients to wet and mix and knead. Add more flour as needed. It should be soft but not runny or stick to your hands.
- Divide this batch into thirds and store each third in a sandwich size zip lock bag. Please label each bag and store in your fridge until you deliver it.
Sample Label
Play Doh (For playing, Not eating)
Ingredients include:
- 2 cups flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 2 cups water
- 2 packets unsweetened kool-aid
Made by [insert your name here] with Love!
Ages: Everyone can participate
Time Commitment: Flexible
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Donation Pickup for IOCP Food Shelf
IOCP (Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners)
Date/Time: Saturday mornings, between 9 and 11 am. One volunteer driver is also needed on Friday morning. Pick-up and delivery should take about one and one-half hours.
Location: Pickup donations at Minnetonka or Wayzata retail stores and deliver to IOCP, 1605 County Road 101 N, Plymouth
The IOCP Food Shelf is in need of volunteers to help pickup donations from local retailers (e.g. Target Minnetonka, Target Ridgedale, Lunds Wayzata) and deliver the donations to the food shelf on Saturday mornings. Volunteers generally use their personal vehicles (a car, SUV or van is usually okay as long as trunk space is available) or have the option of utilizing the IOCP van.
Ages: All ages. An adult with a vehicle needed.
Time Commitment: One to four times per month; about one and one-half hours each time.
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Gardening Enthusiasts
Tubman
Date/Time: Flexible, once a week or every two weeks starting in late April
Location: 3111 First Avenue South, Minneapolis, or 4432 Chicago Ave South, Minneapolis
Come make Tubman's garden beautiful! At Tubman, we help more than 40,000 adults and children get the support and information they need to reach their full potential for safe, healthy, stable lives. Come help us brighten our corner of Minneapolis by maintaining a flower garden for our clients and neighbors to enjoy. We need volunteers to take on Spring clean-up, planting, and general maintenance. Bring your creativity and garden tools (or use our garden tools!) This opportunity is perfect for families, a group of families, scouts, or any gardening enthusiast in search of a garden!
Ages: Families of all ages are welcome!
Time Commitment: An hour or two for cleanup and planting at the start of the gardening season and then quick visits for watering and some light weeding.
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Stomp the Streets Food Drive
Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners (IOCP)
Location: Your neighborhood and community. Deliver food donations to IOCP, 1605 County Road 101 N, Plymouth
Engage your family in a neighborhood food drive to support the IOCP food shelf! Design a flyer listing the food shelf's most needed items, attach it to a grocery bag, drop the bags off with your neighbors and let them know when you'll be back to pick it up (hopefully full of our most needed items!). With their help, you'll be able to supply the food shelf with much more than you could on your own.
Ages: All ages can participate. Kids are often the most successful in this activity!
Time Commitment: Flexible
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Make Sure Everyone Has the Benefit of Clean Clothes!
Interfaith Outreach & Community Partners (IOCP)
Date/Time: Flexible. Can be done on your own time and then delivered to IOCP year-round.
Location: IOCP, 1605 County Road 101 N, Plymouth
Want an easy volunteer project to do with your family, friends or school that will make a difference in the lives of low-income families? Have fun together while you work to repackage dry laundry detergent into smaller containers for distribution to low-income families and seniors visiting the IOCP food shelf. Food support (i.e. SNAP or "food stamps") doesn't cover the cost of laundry detergent so many families go without. Contact
IOCP for detailed instructions.
Ages: Everyone can participate
Time Commitment: Varies
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Lunch Making Brigade for the Homeless!
Our Saviour's Housing
Date/Time: Flexible, can be done on your own time!
Location: 2219 Chicago Ave. S, Minneapolis
Our Emergency Shelter is home to 40 adults every night of the year, but we are closed during the day. Volunteers can help make sure that residents stay fed and healthy even while they're away from the shelter with this really easy and flexible opportunity of making simple meat and cheese sandwiches! Your family is welcome to either make full lunches including snacks in a brown lunch bag, just the sandwiches, or just the snacks. Lunches can be made at your own location and dropped off at our shelter, or we can schedule a time for you to make lunches at our shelter!
Ages: Everyone is welcome to participate.
Time Commitment: Flexible
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Learn and Deliver Meals With Your Family!
Meals on Wheels
Date/Time: Volunteer one hour during lunchtime, Monday through Friday. Your family can volunteer weekly, monthly, or on a schedule that works for you.
Location: With over thirty neighborhood sites throughout the Twin Cities, you can easily be connected with a delivery site near your home!
Delivering Meals on Wheels with your children or grandchildren is a wonderful opportunity to spend quality time as a family and pass on the values of kindness, compassion, and civic responsibility by helping seniors and individuals with disabilities in your community. Whether you have infants or teenagers, you can make a contribution together to improve your community. Delivering meals involves driving to the program site, picking up, and delivering eight to ten meals. It takes about an hour, and you can choose a program site near your home. The amount you socialize with the clients is dependent on the volunteer and the client.
Learn more about delivering meals as a family.
Ages: Families are welcome and encouraged to volunteer
Time Commitment: About an hour at lunchtime
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Volunteer for Easter Lunch
Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly
Date/Time: Sunday, March 27, 11am - 3pm, Easter Sunday
Location: Prom Center, 484 Inwood Ave N, Oakdale
Please consider joining Little Brothers-Friends of the Elderly for our annual Easter lunch. You and your family can help drive a couple elders to the lunch, be their companion during the meal and take them home. This is a great way to provide much needed social companionship to those we serve.
Ages: A great opportunity for all ages. Volunteers under 18 years of age need to be with a parent/adult.
Time Commitment: Three to four hours
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Create Bags of Hope for Foster Children
Bags of Hope
Date/Time: Flexible
Location: Find drop-off locations by contacting Missy at
[email protected]
Bags of Hope is committed to providing security and hope to children being placed in the foster care system. Many children are taken from their homes with all of their belongings in a trash bag. With your help Bags of Hope can ensure that all children entering the foster care system will be given a duffel bag of their own to help comfort them during this time of change. Each bag contains a homemade blanket, stuffed animal, toy and personal care items. These bags and the contents in them are sometimes the only items these children possess. Right now there are more than 11,000 children and youth in foster care in Minnesota. We want to give hope to all of these children and let them know they are loved. Together we can make a difference...one bag at a time!
Here are some ways you and your family can help:
- Make tie blankets
- Collect travel size toiletries (baby wipes, diaper cream, shampoo [tear-free for younger children], toothpaste and brushes, deodorant, body wash or soap, hair products-brushes, combs, hair ties/barrettes)
- Organize a toy drive (stuffed animals, books, journals, crayons, markers, playing cards, cars, etc.)
- Make pictures and cards that will be placed in each bag
Ages: Everyone can participate.
Time Commitment: Varies
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Empty Bowls
Community Fundraisers to Benefit Local Food Shelves
Date/Time: Variety of different days and times in March
Since its small beginnings in 1990 at Lahser High School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Empty Bowls has become an international grassroots project to raise funds for local food shelves. Many metro-area events feature handmade soup bowls created by community members in partnership with local schools, community education departments, businesses and other community members. Local restaurants and businesses donate soup and other items. At most Empty Bowl events attendees make a free will donation, chose a bowl, enjoy some soup, and keep their bowl to remind them of all the empty bowls in their communities and beyond. Many events feature a silent auction, entertainment or other activities. Empty Bowl fundraiser proceeds are used to help families in their local communities with basic needs like food and housing. Local Empty Bowls events are held throughout the year-- here's a list of events happening in March. If your local community is not on this list, contact your local food shelf or school district to find out if there's an Empty Bowls event held in your community.
- United Way of Washington County-East, Thursday March 3, 5 - 7pm. Stillwater Area High School, 5701 Stillwater Blvd. N, Stillwater.
- ICA Food Shelf & ResourceWest, Tuesday, March 15, 11am - 7pm. Hopkins Center for the Arts, 1111 Mainstreet, Hopkins
- Robbinsdale School District supporting PRISM Food Shelf & Near Food Shelf, Tuesday, March 8, 4 - 7pm. Robbinsdale Cooper High School, New Hope
- CROSS Food Shelf, Thursday, March 10, 4 - 7pm. Maple Grove Community Center, 12951 Weaver Lake Rd, Maple Grove
- The Open Door, Thursday, March 3, 11am - 2 pm & 4:30 - 7:30pm. St. John Neumann Church, 4030 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan
- North Anoka County Community Foodshelf (NACE), Thursday, March 10, 5 - 7:30pm. St. Patrick's Church, 19921 Nightingale St NW, Oak Grove
- STEP, Thursday, March 10, 11:30am - 1:30pm & 4:30 - 7pm. Westwood Lutheran Church, 9001 Cedar Lake Road, St. Louis Park
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Birthday Giving Project
Family-To-Family
Date/Time: Flexible
Location: Contact [email protected] to ask for the name of a shelter or pantry where you can deliver the birthday boxes or call your local food pantry to ask if they accept birthday in a box donations
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It's hard for many of us - adults or children - to imagine celebrating a child's birthday without a party or presents. Family-to Family's Birthday Giving Project is designed to help families by providing a small "party in a box" for a child in need, and at the same time gives children with "more" the opportunity to learn empathy in a concrete way by helping another child. You and your children can decorate and fill shoeboxes with everything needed for a small birthday party. Each box goes to a different child. If you are making a lot of boxes, please make them for different ages!
Directions:
- Pick an age (or ages), and choose either boy(s) or girl(s) to send your box to.
- Find a large sneaker-sized shoebox or party bag and buy the things needed for a party.
Include:
- Box of cake mix and a can of frosting
- Birthday candles (no matches please!)
- Wall decoration (like streamers, or a happy birthday banner)
- New or gently used children's book
- Small $5-$10 gift appropriate to the age and gender of child.
- Optional: goody bag filled with small surprises
Then:
- Wrap the book and the gift in birthday paper.
- Wrap the top and bottom of the shoebox separately (so that even wrapped, the box can be opened), and fill the wrapped box with the birthday items.
- If you want to give your recipient a chance to write you back, include a stamped postcard with your name, c/o Family to Family, P.O. Box 255, Hastings-on-Hudson, NY, 10706. Then email [email protected], put "birthday postcards" in the subject line, say you may get a return postcard, and provide your name and address.
- You can also make a birthday card to put inside the box. Then tie the box closed with ribbon, and label it with the age and "boy" or "girl". (For example, you might write "6-7 year old boy" or "10-11 year old girl".)
- Ship or deliver the box(es) you've assembled
Visit the
Doing Good Together Birthday Giving Project page for more ideas and reflection questions.
Ages: Everyone can participate
Time Commitment: Varies
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DGT™ FAMILY SERVICE FAIRS
Turn your next event into a chance to do good!
Doing Good Together Family Service Fairs allow groups of all ages to serve others in a two-hour fair-style event. Attendees come together to do simple and fun hands-on projects that benefit non-profit organizations. You pick the place and date, and we can help coordinate! Contact Nassim at
[email protected] to get started.
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| This list was compiled by Doing Good Together™ (www.doinggoodtogether.org)
When calling to volunteer for any of the opportunities listed above, please let the coordinator know you found it through this listing. You are encouraged to ask any questions you may have of the sponsoring organization before committing to a project.
Disclaimer: This list is provided as a service to families. Inclusion of organizations in this listing does not imply affiliation, endorsement or quality assurance on the part of Doing Good Together.™ Doing Good Together™ bears no responsibility whatsoever for the activities and actions of the listed organizations.
© 2016 Doing Good Together™
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