Did you know that your company or organization can volunteer at Nest Community Shelter? There are many ways for your team to volunteer at Nest Community Shelter. Not only does Nest benefit from your team effort, but your organization buys goodwill in our community through your good work.
Volunteering at Nest Community Shelter is also a great team-building exercise for your staff. We have many rewarding ways for local businesses to volunteer with Nest. We cannot provide the huge number of daily services we offer to those experiencing homelessness in LaPorte Country without help. Here are just a few of the many ways your company or organization can help as a team at Nest Community Shelter.
Companies can volunteer with Nest Community Shelter in many ways. The biggest way you can help is by coming to cook or prep a meal for our residents. We provide our residents with two meals a day— a hot dinner and a balanced breakfast. Providing food security is one of the ways Nest Community Shelter supports our guests’ healing journey.
Cooking meals for the residents of Nest Community Shelter is a simple yet impactful way to make a difference. Your team can come to prepare breakfast or dinner, you can cook the food, or you can provide the food for us to serve. You are also welcome to come serve the food as well and meet our guests. Many local area businesses have used this opportunity to give back and enhance their team-building skills. Your organization can also sponsor a dinner if you do not want to cook or help prep the meal.
Many local organizations have also done food drives for non-perishable foods. Most recently, Northwest Health organized a robust canned good food drive for the shelter, and it was an incredible blessing. This is a great way to collect food items that the shelter needs to support feeding our guests. Companies can set up a food drive in their office and encourage employees to donate non-perishable food items such as canned goods, pasta, and rice. This is a great way for employees to work together to achieve a common goal while also making a difference in the lives of those in need. Food drives in larger corporations can also be a fun way to add a little competition between departments to see who can provide the greatest donation, thus building team spirit and camaraderie.
We try to provide our guests with a variety of different foods, and we’re open to sponsoring food trucks. We recently had the La Patrona food truck from Cabo’s Icecream in Michigan City visit the shelter and provide a free meal to all our residents. The smiles on our guests’ faces were incredible as they were able to order the dinner of their choosing from the La Patrona truck menu. It was a big success for all involved. Who doesn’t love delicious, fresh tacos for dinner? We also had generous donations on behalf of Kolasa’s Polish Peasant and Hitachi Global Air Power in Michigan City.
Another way companies can provide support is by volunteering to help with office support tasks such as mailers and other administrative work. Late last year, a team from Horizon Bank helped us with a mass mailer project and prepared a meal. Nest Community Shelter always needs extra hands to help with tasks such as these. By volunteering to help with these tasks, companies can help the shelter staff focus on more pressing matters, such as providing support services to the residents.
Gardening is also a great way for companies to volunteer with Nest. It’s important to have a beautiful environment for people to heal and get their lives back on track, so we have a lovely flower garden (and may plant veggies soon). By volunteering to help with gardening tasks, you can help keep our facility and grounds beautiful.
With many people living in our facility at any given time, it’s very important that it be kept very clean, so we welcome volunteers to help clean Nest Community Shelter while our residents are away for the day. A clean, healthy environment is another important pillar in helping people feel safe and supported at Nest Community Shelter. You can make a difference simply by taking care to provide a clean, warm place for our guests.
Another way for companies to help is by raising funds. Nest Community Shelter relies on donations from the community to provide services to our guests. By organizing a fundraiser, companies can help raise funds to support the shelter’s programs and services. Fundraisers can take many forms, such as a charity run, a silent auction, or a bake sale. Companies can get creative and come up with their own unique fundraising ideas. We can work with you to come up with a specific campaign and goal. For instance, if you want to raise funds for a particular improvement to our facility, we can facilitate that. And, of course, all funds donated to Nest are tax-deductible as we are a 501(c)3 registered charity.
Volunteering with Nest Community Shelter is not only an opportunity to give back to the community, but it is also a great way for your company or organization to strengthen its team-building skills. By working together to achieve a common goal, employees can learn to communicate better, build trust, and develop leadership skills while making a real difference in their local community.
Interested? Get in touch with us today to see how you can help. You can learn more about how your team can volunteer by reaching out to us directly or follow the link here: Get Involved
