Thanksgiving 2016 Volunteer Opportunities In Austin

This year, most of the food drives have come and gone, but many people still want to lend a hand this Thanksgiving. Lots of folks are preparing to sacrifice their hard earned time to help those in need. Here are five Volunteer Opportunities in Austin that are asking for all the help they can get, up to, and including November 24th Thanksgiving Day!

1 Thundercloud Subs Turkey Trot 2016 – Volunteer up to and including Nov 24th

     This year marks the 26th anniversary of the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning, November 24, 2016. The largest five-mile run in Texas, and one of the largest Turkey Trots in the nation with nearly 20,000 participants, ThunderCloud’s Trot is a cherished Thanksgiving Day tradition in Austin. ThunderCloud has raised nearly $3 million for Caritas of Austin through the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot. We donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the event to Caritas, which provides education and support services to working poor people to help them become self-sufficient. The ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot has grown exponentially in its quarter century, from 600 participants in 1991 to nearly 20,000 from 49 states in 2015. Sign up with your family and friends this year to be part of this fun and healthy family tradition, and to help support our community. Please note: All registrations are non-refundable. All proceeds from registration fees go directly to Caritas of Austin.

    For information on packet pickup, parking and route maps, please visit the ThunderCloud Subs Turkey Trot webpage.

2 Operation Turkey – Volunteer on Nov 24th

    This volunteer organization opens its arms for the less fortunate and homeless every Thanksgiving Day. Operation Turkey assembles teams of volunteers to help package, deliver, prep, and cook, hundreds and thousand of hearty hot meals in teams across the local Austin area. Last year, 2015, over 30,000 hot meals in 10 cities in 5 states, were handed out by over 10,000 volunteers. The entire Operation Turkey organization does not hire employees, rather, they are totally 100% volunteer. You can help out this year as well and sign ups are definitely still open.

Here’s how you can sign up – Operation Turkey

3  The Central Texas Food Bank – Volunteer Up to Wednesday Nov 23rd

    The Central Texas Food Bank offers opportunities all the way until the day before Thanksgiving, November 23, 2016. Monday through Saturday they have two shifts, 9 am to 12 pm and 1:30 to 4:30 pm with an additional shift on Tuesday and Thursdays from 6 pm to 8:30 pm. Each shift can us the support of up to 120 volunteers which will sort food donations at the Food Bank to prepare for distribution through its partner agencies across Central Texas. Warehouse volunteers help ensure all the food distributed is safe, healthy and high quality by inspecting, cleaning, sorting, boxing and making food donations ready for distribution.

You can see available shifts and sign up on their sign up page.

4 Gobble Gobble Give – Volunteer on Nov 24th

    For the past 18 years, a group of friends in Los Angeles have gotten together on Thanksgiving morning to feed the homeless in their neighborhood. They all bring a dish of traditional holiday food, some gently used clothes and shoes, and maybe a blanket or two. Together these friends gather around a table where they catch up on each other’s lives and pack their homemade dishes into great big take-out containers, and then they get back into their cars, hop on their bikes or set out walking down the street where they find people living in a car, in an alley or under a bridge.

The first year GGG fed 28 people. In 2015, they fed a record-breaking 17,000 people. Gobble Gobble Give has now grown from Echo Park in Los Angeles to Santa Monica, Downtown LA, San Francisco, Santa Ana, two locations in San Diego, Las Vegas, Austin, Nashville, New York City, Boca Raton, and Detroit. It is a prime example of what a community can do when it comes together to create change.

    There are several ways to get involved at Gobble Gobble Give. Find out how you can help on Thanksgiving Day http://www.gobblegobblegive.org/how-it-works/thanksgiving-day/

5 Meals On Wheels – Volunteer up to and including Nov 24th

    Each year, Meals on Wheels has hundreds of home-bound Austin clients signed up to signed up to receive holiday meals. Not only are you delivering their Thanksgiving meal , but you are also giving them the comfort and company everyone should have on Thanksgiving. Great for families and friends, sign up to deliver as many meals that day as you can handle.

    HOW TO SIGN UP:  Volunteers will need to a driver’s license and more. Register now to make sure you’re ready on Thanksgiving day. Learn more here.