by Danielle Leahy
Are you looking for ways to become a Volunteer Weekend Warrior? Have a few hours and dollars to spare on Saturday helping the less fortunate? Well Soupmobile and Random Acts of Kindness DFW would love for you to Get Involved with their Saturday morning sandwich making for the homeless.
Taking place each and every Saturday morning in the old Cafe Excuses building (now just called by it’s address 3025 Main Street) this is a easy, fun, and cheap way to get involved in Dallas and donate a small amount of time each week to helping others.
The cost is simple: a package each of bread, bologna, cheese, and sandwich bags brought with you or a few dollars to give towards supplies. Starting at 11am volunteer gather to divide and count supplies and donations and fill up on the wonderful coffee and iced tea the owners of 3025 Main donate each and every week.
Once the supplies and money is gathered one group gets going on the sandwich preps and another heads to the store to buy more supplies with the donations or pickup any missing ingredients. Then groups of 5-7 gather per freshly sanitized table, put on some plastic gloves, and get to work. While each table finds it’s own pace and style, most break down the sandwich making into “assembly line” like productions with one person in charge of each of the stations: bread, mustard, cheese, meat, bag, and counter. Sandwiches go 30 to a tray and each Saturday runs until the supplies are exhausted.
Usually between 1000-3000 sandwiches are made every Saturday to be delivered as part a brown bag lunches for the street homeless of Dallas. End time depends on the numbers of volunteers and supplies but usually gets out between 1-2pm so for just a couple of hours every weekend you can truly make a difference in the lives of those living on the streets of Dallas.
For those looking for volunteer opportunities outside of Saturday both organizations offers a variety of chances to Get Involved throughout the week. Soupmobile is a mobile soup-kitchen based out of Deep Ellum that take their mission, their message, and their food straight to the streets. They have a variety of volunteer opportunities during the week including food serving, food prep, supply delivery, and office work. They also work with large group organizations such as corporations, churches, schools, and special interest groups so even if you can not commit to weekly volunteer work but still want to organize a one time volunteer event for your business or club the SoupMobile would live to hear from you.
Huge yearly events such as their Charity Golf Tournament, Christmas Celebration, or Fundraising Dinners are just a few of the other types of events you can get involved in throughout the year. Find them thru the link above or on Facebook.
Random Act of Kindness DFW is a huge, loosely-tied, volunteer group that promotes a amazing variety of volunteer opportunities throughout the DFW Metroplex each and every week. Their mission is simple “to bring hope and a ray of sunshine to those who are perhaps in need of some”. This weeks events included: A Happy Hour benefiting Doctors Without Borders and Horn of Africa, a dog wash and adoption event at the Seagoville Animal Shelter, Food Prep at the Salvation Army, and an Internet campaign that raised over $4,000 for the family of a volunteer who had recently passed from Cancer, run completely through the internet and based simply off a few mouse clicks and the huge amount of love and support this group provides its members.
While these are simply their “official” events their Facebook page contains hundreds of other links to charities, volunteer opportunities, campaigns, and other great causes on top of the weekly Saturday sandwich making they run on behalf of SoupMobile.
So head to the store this week, grab a few dollars worth a groceries, and set aside some time to Get Involved and help those around you that are suffering. You never know when some one might Pay it Forward next time you’re in need of a helping hand.
Wonderful post. Thank you)