Organizations
Hungry Souls
Hungry Souls works to provide families in the Austin area who are struggling with food insecurity access to the nutrition they need to be successful. They partner with more than 20 schools around Austin to provide families with meals for the weekends and times off of school, delivering bags with ingredients, menus, and recipes for the week. Volunteer opportunities include working as a grocery inventory assistant, dry goods bag packer, grocery bag assistant, and pantry delivery loader/packer.
Central Texas Food Bank
Central Texas Food Bank has worked for the past 40 years to provide communities and families in need with healthy meals. Their goal is to lead the community in the fight against food insecurity, which they have successfully done by delivering about 54 million meals to the Central Texas community last year. Volunteer opportunities include warehouse sorting, mobile food pantry distribution, and garden and kitchen work.
Sunday Lunchbox
Sunday Lunchbox works to provide families with nutritious and easily accessible food options. Through the Lunchbox Family program, families will have access to Sunday Lunchbox’s menu and ingredients, which includes shelf-stable products, produce, and gluten or dairy-free baked goods. Additionally, they work to maintain a zero-waste program by rescuing produce to feed their community. Volunteer opportunities include sorting ingredients, taking inventory, and preparing deliveries.
Moblie Loaves & Fishes
Mobile Loaves & Fishes works to solve homelessness in the Austin community through Community First! Village, their Truck Ministry, and Community Works. The Village works to provide a neighborhood and a community of affordable, permanent housing for individuals hoping to escape chronic homelessness. The Truck Ministry works to give out clothes, food, and essential items to homeless individuals, providing around 6 million meals and expanding this part of the organization to other cities. Community Works provides opportunities for homeless individuals to become entrepreneurs and earn their own money. Volunteer opportunities include working as a farm helper, farmer's market volunteer, home or furniture prep volunteer, bulletin board helper, exterior home wash helper, and more.
Keep Austin Beautiful
Keep Austin Beautiful works to reduce waste and allow Austin to be the cleanest community possible. They motivate individuals to take care of their community by providing them with resources and volunteer opportunities to do so. Keep Austin Beautiful encourages individuals to educate themselves and others on ways to best keep the community clean. They focus on removing litter from public spaces to promote the transition to a zero-waste culture. Volunteer opportunities include neighborhood and community cleanups, park and lake cleanups, and supply pickups.
The Trail Conservancy
The Trail Conservancy works to protect the Ann and Roy Butler Trail at Lady Bird Lake. They hope to maintain the Trail as Austin’s center and natural sanctuary. TCC has numerous events that work on ecological restoration in order to keep the Ann and Roy Butler Trail clean and continuously improving. Volunteer opportunities include litter cleaning, planting, seeding, mulching, and invasive species removal, some of these opportunities being with other organizations such as Festival Beach and Peace Corps.
Austin Creative Reuse
Austin Creative Reuse sells gently used creative materials in order to foster a sustainable community environment. They were initially 100% volunteer-run, providing many different volunteer opportunities along with numerous workshops and community events to learn about new ways to reuse common items. Their goal is to have individuals choose reuse when determining their personal needs. Austin Creative Reuse has acquired over 1 million pounds of usable materials, sending less than 1% of the material donations to the landfill. Volunteer opportunities include sorting, pricing, and measuring materials, and shelving materials at the reuse center.
Women & Their Work
Women & Their Work is a gallery that showcases exhibitions and performances by women working in the visual and performing arts field. They work to educate individuals on contemporary art, offering gallery tours with artists, AISD workshops, performances, and classroom projects. Women & Their Work gives everyone the opportunity to demonstrate their talents, offering artists the opportunity to showcase their work with technical and financial assistance. Volunteer opportunities include reinstallment and installment of exhibitions, and front desk volunteer work.
Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity works to build, repair, and provide affordable housing for homeless or low-income individuals in the Central Texas area. They have built over 830 homes, repaired over 350 existing homes (mainly for senior citizens, veterans, or people with disabilities who cannot do this work on their own), and have worked with 16,000 individuals through house counseling. Additionally, Habitat for Humanity sells new or lightly used building materials or home essentials at a low cost. Volunteer opportunities include managing the store and construction work.
Caritas of Austin
Caritas of Austin works to provide citizens in Central Texas with a stable home, accessible and nutritious groceries, education, and a stable job. They believe that these fundamental things will lead to a thriving individual and community. Caritas provides permanent housing for individuals experiencing long-term homelessness, and quick rehousing services to individuals experiencing short-term homelessness. Additionally, they provide a free lunch in their Community Kitchen, which is mainly operated by volunteers. Finally, Caritas provides education classes and employment services to those in their community. Volunteer opportunities include being a pantry volunteer.
Salvation Army
Salvation Army works to provide resources for those in need. They provide people with shelter, clothes, meals, education, support and more. As the largest family emergency shelter provider in Central Texas, they are able to help over 10,000 individuals find shelter and stability. Current volunteer opportunities include Tutoring and Reading Assistance at the AWSC, however more arise around September to January.
SAFE Austin
SAFE Austin works to help individuals experiencing physical, emotional, and relational abuse. They offer virtual and in-person services and provide shelter in hotels for individuals experiencing domestic violence. Volunteer opportunities include making activity kit family movie boxes, preparing meals for dropoff.