Plant It Forward Farms is a non-profit organization that offers economically disadvantaged refugees the opportunity to grow, harvest, and sell produce from farming in Houston. The organization works to secure the land, selects, trains, and mentors the farmers and help them to establish the farm to sell under the Plant It Forward brand.

Volunteer Opportunities include:

• Farming/Harvesting – This is an ongoing activity.  After an orientation session, volunteers would be paired with a farmer to assist them with their daily farming activities.  This may include harvesting, weeding, composting, watering, or cleaning up the land depending on the specific needs of the day.  This is usually a morning activity and will be a physical activity.
• Produce Processing – after a daily or weekly harvest, the produce is taken to the warehouse for washing, sorting and market prep.  Assistance here is at a non-AC warehouse, and does not require as much mobility as on the farm.
• Office Work – Periodically, help is needed with administrative duties. This could include webpage maintenance, mailings, photography or other things.  This may not have as much contact with the farm or the farmers, but is a big help to the organization.
• Market Work – Currently this is at the Urban Harvest Eastside Farmers Market on Saturdays from 7am to noon, plus other Farm Share distribution points during the week.  There will be other market opportunities as the organization expands.
• Special Projects – This could be helping to build out a new farm, helping with a farm dinner, or other special projects. Volunteers with special skills, like carpentry, plowing and hauling, are a great help. Please include all special skills in the volunteer interest form.
• Group and Community Organizations – Special work days can be schedules for groups or Community organizations to work at the farm on a designated day. This is a great way to build community. The Plant-It-Forward farms would not be able to succeed without the assistance from area churches, schools and business.

Want to volunteer?: Volunteers can sign up here. Volunteers will need to attend a 10-15 minute orientation. If any questions regarding volunteering opportunities, please contact info@plant-it-forward.org.

Facebook: Plant It Forward Facebook Page

Website: Plant-it-forward.org

The Woods Project is hosting its 8th annual Walk for The Woods Project, presented by ENGIE on Saturday, March 30th at Ripley House.

Location:
Ripley House
4410 Navigation Blvd
Houston, TX 77011

The Walk is the largest fundraiser of the year and will help provide life changing, leadership development opportunities to even more low income Houston high school students. Over 170 students are expected to participate in our 2-week summer program.

Friday, March 29th, noon – 5pm for setup and prep activities such as:
-Organizing event giveaway items such as shirts, water bottles
-Organizing tables and chairs for expo space
-Hanging event signage around Ripley House and along walk route

Saturday, March 30th, 6am – 10am for event setup crew such as:
-Setting out PA sound system/equipment
-Setting out tables and chairs for expo
-Assisting with participant registration
-Assisting with breakfast tables (serving food and or replenish coffee station)
-Student stop setup

Saturday, March 30th, 6am – 2pm to help manage event day activities and clean up crew such as:
-start/Finish Line Activity Managers
-Expo Area Setup
-History Stop Setup
-Course Marshalls
-Parking Guides
-Water Stop Assistants
-Registration and Check-in
-Breakdown and Clean-up
-Collect all signs along route
-Return cones, tables, and chairs to Ripley house gym
-Collect Alumni Student Stop components and return to Ripley House gym
-Collect all extension cords, walkie talkies and tent to Tool Bank
-Collect all trash all over Ripley House grounds

Want to volunteer?:  Volunteers should be 18 and older. Fill out the application here. Questions about the event or volunteer opportunities, please contact Jessi Manley, jessi@thewoodsproject.org

Belinizio is a nonprofit organization that helps disadvantage women develop self-confidence and life skills by helping participants train for the 5k and in the process learn about fitness, commitment, and nutrition. Belinizio hosts many training sessions for its participants and also race events that would need volunteers.

Volunteer opportunities include:
-Walk/run with clients
-Leading yoga
-Providing short massages
-Office/administrative
-Helping us find sponsors
-Obtaining raffle items
-Help at race water stops

 

Want to volunteer?: Visit the volunteer website here. If you are a first time volunteer, fill out the application here. If any questions, contact Justena Sam at Justena.Sam@Bel-Inizio.org

Facebook: Belinizio Facebook Page

Website: Bel-inizio.org

2019 Darling Dash Memorial 5K/1K Family Run/Walk

Sunday, February 24, 2019
8:00 AM

Stude Park
1031 Stude Street
Houston, TX 77007

Want to volunteer?: Volunteer registration is now closed. If you still want to volunteer, you can go out to the race on Sunday morning at 6:00 am. There will be something for anyone that wants to help! There will be no guarantee of a shirt or your shirt size!

Website: Darling Dash Memorial 5K/1K Family Run/Walk Website

 

The Buffalo Soldier Museum honors and shares the historical knowledge about African American personnel in the US Armed Forces to the general public. The museum has the vision that the knowledge of history will help build pride and patriotism to all communities.

The museum is looking for reliable volunteers on the below various shifts, with a minimum commitment of 4 hours per week. Volunteer schedule can be flexible.

-Various shifts between Monday through Saturday 10am to 6pm
-Monday 10am to 5pm
-Saturday 10am to 4pm

Want to volunteer?: Fill out the application here.

Facebook: Buffalo Soldier Museum Facebook Page

Website: Buffalo Soldier Museum Volunteer Opportunities Website

Food & Vine Time Production plans a lot of popular food and beverage events in the Houston area such as WineFair Cy-Fair (March 30, 2019), Katy Sip n Stroll (April 27, 2019), Wine & Food Week (June 3 – June 8, 2019), BrewMasters Craft Beer Festival (August 30 – Sept 1, 2019), Houston Chronical Culinary Stars (October 20, 2019), Zest in the West (October 16, 2019), and Tomball Freight Train Food Truck Festival (October 16, 2019). The company works with many charities to help with fundraising and mission awareness through event planning.

Volunteering opportunities include:

1.TABC certified wine & beer pourer (21+ age requirement and TABC certified)
Responsibilities include:
-Pouring wine & beer samples
-Answering questions about wine and beer products
-Keeping samples table clean
-Cleaning samples table after event

2.Non-TABC Certified Volunteer
Responsibilities may include:
-Greeting guests
-Answering general questions about the event
-Helping with check-in
-Serving Food samples
-Guarding VIP door

Want to volunteer?: Please contact Trina volunteer@foodandvinetime.com or call 713-557-5732.

Website: Food & Vine Time Volunteer Opportunities Website

The Holiday Project is a non-profit that organizes visits to nursing homes, hospitals, and other residential institutions. Greeting Cards are also made and sent to residents at visits.

1.The Holiday Project’s Valentine’s Saturday Visit

Grace Care Center of Cypress
9602 Huffmeister Rd
Houston, Texas 77095

Date of Visit: Saturday, February 9, 2019

Contact Person: Donna Martin

For more information and other visit opportunities, please check out here.

2.If you would like to make Greeting cards:

If you’d like to donate Holiday Cards, *you may drop them off, or mail them to:

Grace Care Center of Cypress

Attn: Donna Martin/The Holiday Project 

9602 Huffmeister Rd

Houston, Texas 77095 

*You can also sign up for a scheduled visit if you want to personally pass out the cards you made to nursing home residents…..

Cards Needed for the Following Holidays in 2019:

(any amount of cards donated by an individual volunteer or group is appreciated!)

2019 Visit Dates and preferred deadline for cards:

Valentines Sat Feb 9
(Cards by Feb 1)
Easter Sat April 20
(Cards by April 12)
Mother’s Day Sat May 11
(Cards by May 8)
Fathers Day Sat June 15
(Cards by June 7)
Grandparents Day Sat Sept 7
(Cards by Aug 30)
Thanksgiving Thursday Nov 28
(Cards by Nov 22)
Christmas Day Wednesday Dec 25
(Cards by Dec 14)

2019 Valentine’s Day – need approx. 500 cards

2019 Easter – need approx. 500 cards

2019 Mother’s Day – need approx. 500 cards

2019 Father’s Day – need approx. 500 cards

2019 Grandparent’s Day – need approx. 500 cards

2019Thanksgiving Day – need approx. 2,000 cards

2019 Christmas Day – need approx. 2,000 cards

Card Guidelines:

In order to encourage creativity, very few guidelines are imposed on the making of Holiday Project handmade greeting cards. The cards may be almost any size, and the media used can be as simple as colored markers available at almost any grocery or drug store. Some people use combinations of media such as markers, rubber stamps, images cut from used or surplus store-bought greeting cards, cut-out computer-generated images, pasted bits of ribbon or felt, etc.

Here are a few general suggestions on other matters:
•Ideally the cards should be able to stand up if placed on a table, nightstand, etc.

•Please don’t use glitter-on-glue. The glitter tends to get all over everything. However, pre-mixed “Glitter Glue” (such as is made by Crayola) is fine.

•Sentiments that imply that the recipients’ circumstances are less than ideal (e.g., “Cheer Up!”, “You are not forgotten”, etc.) should be avoided.

•Greetings should be generic so that they can be appropriate to almost anyone. (For example, a Christmas card that says “Merry Christmas” on the front and “Wishing you all the joy of the season” or other similar sayings that are creative and/or festive inside would be fine.  Similarly, a Mother’s Day card that says “Happy Mother’s Day” and “The Best to You on this Special Day” would be fine, but sentiments such as “To a Great Mom” should be avoided, since not everyone visited in connection with Mother’s Day has been a mother.)

•Please don’t enclose or attach candy to the cards. (Logistically speaking, it’s usually not practical for the visit-volunteers to separate out such cards and determine which recipients are permitted to have candy.)

•It’s preferable that the cards not be in envelopes. (Some of the recipients suffer from advanced arthritis or other conditions that make the simple act of removing a card from an envelope quite difficult.)

•Please don’t put a date on the cards. (We occasionally have a surplus of cards for a given occasion, in which case we simply pack up the excess cards and use them for the same holiday the next year.)

•Cards should be signed by the persons making them. Any signature should probably include just the signer’s first name or first names of group…

Please Please Please do not put anything about the state of a residents health …such as I hope you get well soon or hope your health improves…the residents aren’t all sick that live in long term care and for the short term rehab patients in skilled nursing facilities it is just too hard for volunteers to know who is in a facility for long term residence or short term rehab stay, so we just avoid anything health related!! 

Questions – email Donna Martin at: theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.co

 

Want to volunteer?: Please contact Donna Martin at theholidayprojecthouston@yahoo.com or call 832-515-3862.

Facebook: The Holiday Project (General) Facebook Page

Website: The Holiday Project Volunteer Opportunities Website