Website Samaritan House
Updates to post (3/9/21):Samaritan House is fighting poverty and lifting lives in San Mateo County. We need weekly Food Services volunteers to help weekly for long-term commitments (at least 1 month) in our drive-through Kitchen/Pantry. Volunteers must be 12-15 with a parent volunteering alongside them, or 16 and up if volunteering on their own. Any drivers must be 18 and older.Most volunteer opportunities with our Kitchen/Pantry are M-F between either 9am-12pm or 1pm-4pm.We also have several driving roles and a need for ad-hoc driving support with Mobile Meals and Grocery Rescue (times vary, need is stronger for afternoon drivers).We are also happy to engage teens willing to run a drive to collect much needed items for our organization. Please review our service update for information on what Samaritan House is doing in response to COVID-19 and other ways to support.
We have a variety of fun opportunities to volunteer with us as a family team or as an older teen. Shifts are scheduled on a weekly or bi-weekly basis and require a minimum three month commitment. Children must be 12 or older to volunteer and always be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Teens 16 through 17 can volunteer individually with a parental permission slip but only in certain roles. Over 18’s should check out our opportunities on the Adult Individuals volunteer page.
Examples of volunteer opportunities include:
- Mobile Meals: This is a great opportunity for parents with young children to perform direct service for our clients and create an understanding of community service. Your two-person team will collect pre-packed meal servings from our Kitchen and drive them to clients who otherwise would not be able to get to one of our meal services. You can collect the meals from our Kitchen any time Monday-Friday between 2:30-4:00 pm, and the routes take between 1 and 1.5 hours to complete. The regular shift can be a weekly or bi-weekly commitment. We are currently looking for teams of volunteers to help us on several weekdays approximately two times a month.
- Dining room: Help to serve meals in our San Mateo downtown Dining Room. We may have openings for youth volunteers (preferably aged 14 and over) who must be accompanied by a parent and come on a regular weekly, biweekly or monthly schedule. Shifts run from 4:00-6:30 pm Monday through Friday.
- Weekend Pantry and Kitchen: Parent and child teams can help fill grocery bags with supplies so we are ready to go when our Pantry opens to clients on Mondays. We also need some help to prepare weekend meals for our Safe Harbor homeless shelter and to give away for anyone who needs it at lunchtime. Shifts are Saturdays and Sundays 9-12 noon at our main site. Spaces for this role are very limited so please check in to see if we have vacancies.
- Family Harvest: We may have openings for family teams to help at our off-site food distribution in San Mateo on the 3rd Friday of the month between 3:30 and 5:30pm.
We welcome the support of students who commit to us for a minimum of 20 hours across the school year as we do not accept one-off volunteering for school community service hours. Hours could be served by volunteering with us if openings are available and fit with your school day. Alternatively, you could gain those hours by coordinating a drive or fundraiser such as a “sponsor me” event for us. It’s a great alternative to on-site volunteering and requires leadership, project planning, marketing, and logistical awareness.
To tell us you are interested in providing your School Community Service to Samaritan House Apply Here
For details about this opportunity, visit samaritanhousesanmateo.org.