OPERATION: Sack Lunch

To Volunteer please call (206) 922-2015 or email volunteer@opsacklunch.org

VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES:

OPERATION: Sack Lunch sees more than 3500 volunteers each year. YOU could be one of them!

OPERATION: Sack Lunch currently serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, seven days each week to the homeless children, women, and men, who call Seattle their home. We prepare and serve more than 17,000 meals per month with a small staff and volunteers. We serve the majority of our meals at Seattle's Outdoor Meal Site which is located under I-5 at 6th and Columbia. The site is very inviting and contributes to the dignity and self-esteem of the folks we serve. Our host kitchen is the beautiful remodeled Compass Center at 210 Alaska Way South where we provide breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days each week to the residents. We also provide meals for the following programs:

Peace on the Street by Kids from the Streets
First Church Overnight Shelter
Compass Center Men’s Program
Compass Center, Hygiene Center/Chapel
Municipal Court of Seattle
Roy Street Shelter
Washington Asian Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse, (WAPIFASA)
Forensic Intensive Supportive Housing (FISH)
Food In Motion, food pick-up and delivery for Seattle area meal programs (FIM)

OPERATION: Sack Lunch is the largest meal provider in the State of Washington. The people we serve are unable to access food in more conventional ways.

Although 2009 was a year of financial challenges for OPERATION: Sack Lunch, volunteering was not affected by the global economy. Perhaps more people were called to volunteering out of a sense of compassion for the world around them.

We’ve enjoyed volunteer groups not only from all across the State of Washington and from places as far away as Canada, Serbia, Idaho, Oregon, North & South Dakota, Texas, and Montana that have come to volunteer with our organization and participate in the giving back to the world we live in. Volunteer groups traveling from out of State or from across the mountains to volunteer were usually with us for a week at a time.

We host volunteer days for corporate groups, school projects, civic and faith based organizations as well as individuals. Several local volunteer groups, including the Youth Volunteer Corps, AmeriCorps, City Year, ATS Automation, Seattle Prep, One Brick, and Lake-Side, serve with OSL multiple times throughout the year. Individual volunteers also found that spending just one day with us was just not enough and came back frequently. Many of these groups have volunteered with us in years past making community service with OSL a customary experience.

OPERATION: Sack Lunch also hosted volunteer groups from many schools throughout Washington State from as far away as Yakima and Anacortes. Elementary and Middle School students held snack, water, glove, sock and hygiene item drives in their communities and traveled to Seattle to distribute the collected items.

As a Community Court Community Service designate, OPERATION: Sack Lunch provided volunteer opportunities for 932 community court/service volunteers who fulfilled 3,729 volunteer hours in 2009.

We have continued to build a thriving volunteer program and 2009 saw an increase, in not only individual volunteers, but also corporate volunteers, who in turn supported OSL financially. 3873 volunteers contributed 15,493 volunteer hours. This is an estimated value of $201,409

Our service days are Monday through Sunday, serving breakfast, lunch, & dinner. We begin preparation at 6:30 AM for our breakfast meal, 9:00 AM for our midday meal and 2:00 PM for dinner. In addition to hot meals, we also provide sack lunches to area shelters. Volunteer opportunities include but are not limited to, meal prep, clean-up, and serving. We also have fund raising and Board Member opportunities.

We are always looking for organizations and schools to do supply drives for the following items:

Boxed 100% sugar free Juice; Tree Top, Knudsen, Hansens, Minute Maid
Bottled 12 to 16 ounce water
Mustard
New White Socks

OPERATION: Sack Lunch is an organization that values diversity. We have a wide range of volunteer opportunities for groups and individuals of all ages. Those who volunteer with us have told us that it is a life changing experience. It is our belief that if you change a life for one moment, then you have saved the entire world.

SEE WHAT OUR VOLUNTEERS ARE SAYING ABOUT US

Awesome!

Very helpful staff – great experience.

Awesome time!

Was able to stay busy, which is good for volunteer experience.

Thank you for all you do!

Great program.

I had a lot of fun helping you out! I hope to be back soon.

Good.

Loved my experience and will come back.

Everything you guys are doing is amazing and great.

It was nice hearing about the history.

The dedication of the folks that run the kitchen of OPERATION: Sack Lunch is commendable. Good bunch of people and they are very respectful of the good folks that attend the daily luncheon. I hope to continue working with them in some capacity in the future.

Thanks for feeding us too!

Today was really fun.

Keep up the great work. It was a good experience for both the kids and their leader.

I love Sack Lunch.

THANK YOU!

I had a really great time – the staff and people were very friendly.

Great experience.

Well done – you do amazing work. We are blessed to have been able to participate.
Your team is fantastic!

The staff was great! The experience was awesome! Everything ran so smoothly and organized down to the last detail!

I was impressed by the way your staff treated my students and me. We were shown what to do, but we were also incorporated as partners into the day’s projects, atmosphere and camaraderie. This made everything pleasurable for me and my students. It was a great experience for my students to aid in their English as well as their understanding of American people. They were each impressed by your people.

To Volunteer please call (206) 922 2015 or email volunteer@opsacklunch.org