An organization called Reward Volunteers wants to encourage people to volunteer for good causes. So even though doing good is its own reward, Reward Volunteers sweetens the pot by offering incentives to encourage people to do more, and do it more often. Plus, Reward Volunteers helps people find local volunteer opportunities. I’ve teamed up with Reward Volunteers to let you know about the program so you can get involved, and maybe even help get a group you volunteer with in on the benefits.
Volunteering at Miriam’s Kitchen
One of the groups I volunteer for is Miriam’s Kitchen. Miriam’s Kitchen provides delicious meals to primarily homeless men in Washington, D.C.
“We strive to show our guests dignity” by providing restaurant-quality meals produced by professional chefs, says Miriam’s Kitchen on its website. “This is the foundation for our guests to build trusting relationships with the case management team and get connected to a range of services aimed at helping them to find housing.” The kitchen is open Monday through Friday all year long, serving breakfast from 6:30 – 8:00 a.m. and dinner from 4:45 to 5:45 p.m.
Miriam’s is committed to making all of its meals from fresh, healthy ingredients. As a volunteer, I can help by working at my local farmer’s market to collect food at the end of the market that the farmers can’t keep because it won’t stay fresh, or because the farmers just want to make a donation.
Here’s how it works:
Miriam’s parks its van near the Takoma Park farmers market. The market closes at 2 p.m. but around 1:30 pm, MK volunteers distribute bags and crates to the farmers who want to donate. At 2 p.m., we’ll start wheeling wagons around to the farmers to collect their donations. Farmers also bring bins of food they’ve filled up to the center of the market.
Once all donations are collected, we fill up the Miriam’s Kitchen van. Then, a Miriam’s staffer drives the loaded van down to the kitchen where the food is unloaded and later prepared into delicious salads, soups, entrees and more.
I am always amazed at the abundance of food the farmers donate. It includes crates of fresh fruit, huge bags full of bread, mountains of greens, pickled beets and green beans, whatever vegetables are in season, and anything else the farmers generously contribute.
In addition to benefiting the kitchen, gleaning food at the farmer’s market reduces food waste. This is especially true for “seconds,” fruit and vegetables that might be bruised or past their prime and difficult to sell. Give it to Miriam’s and the chefs will turn it into applesauce, fruit compote, spaghetti sauce, and more.
It never occurred to me to get any particular reward for volunteering, but now that I’ve signed up for Reward Volunteers, I can log in and register my hours and Miriam’s Kitchen can earn benefits, as well.
I can also find additional organizations to volunteer for. For example, I live in the Washington, D.C. area. Currently, a wonderful group called Bread for the City is looking for help at its food pantries, rooftop gardens and in their clothing room. The Lincoln Memorial (yes, THAT Lincoln Memorial) also needs volunteers to assist park rangers in answering questions, providing directions, and leading tours of the Memorial. Local charter schools are recruiting volunteers to help tutor adult students seeking to obtain their GED/State Diploma. It’s easy to connect with these opportunities on the Reward Volunteers website.
Here are a couple of other benefits to volunteering: If I can’t or don’t want to make a big financial contribution to an organization, I can still help out by contributing my time. And I love the camaraderie I gain from volunteering. Let’s face it: volunteers are “do gooders” – and those are my kind of people!
How Reward Volunteers Works
Reward Volunteers is a web-based initiative that allows you to log your volunteer hours and keep a record of your good deeds. You register and log the hours you volunteer. Depending on how many hours you log, you might also win a prize. Organizations also benefit when they register on Reward Volunteers. In same cases, they may earn financial grants. In other cases, they get connected to more volunteers. Either way it’s a win/win for the volunteer as well as the organization.
Registering couldn’t be easier. Once you do, you’ll get to a dashboard that is very easy to use. If you are looking for new opportunities, you just put in your zip code and then search according to who you want to serve and the kind of volunteering you want to do. Options range from disaster relief to environmental preservation to mentoring to working with animals. You can also decide if you want to volunteer regularly or for special events.
I encourage you to check out Reward Volunteers, especially now, during April’s #NationalVolunteerMonth.
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