Volunteer Opportunities

Meals from the Heart: We try to have a fresh home-cooked meal every evening when our guests come home from what is often a stress-filled day at the hospital. That is why one of our most impactful programs is “Meals from the Heart.” Businesses, groups, families, individuals and organizations come to the House and make a home-cooked meal for our families. Usually, the volunteer group for this Program plans the meal and provides the supplies but, if the volunteer is too busy to plan and shop or is a student with limited means, we are happy to do both and provide supplies and instructions. We have up to 18 families in the House at any given time, so we ask that volunteers plan to feed between 15 and 20 people. The best meals are those that will reheat easily in the microwave. Casseroles, pastas, soups, and salads work well since families come in at all different times and get dinner from the refrigerator to reheat. We do encourage creativity! We ask that all meals be portioned into individual serving containers – sometimes the volunteers provide these, but we do have some if needed. We have four complete cooking stations with pots, pans, casserole dishes, mixing bowls, utensils, knives, cutting boards – just about everything you would need to prepare a meal. We also keep salt, pepper and a few spices on hand as well as milk, eggs, oil and butter. We ask that meals be ready to serve to our guests by 6 PM. However, since we ask volunteers to portion all meals and store them in our general use refrigerator, volunteers can come as early as 8 AM to prepare the meals.

Love Sandwich Program: Every Friday, volunteers or staff make 80 meals – a sandwich, chips, fresh fruit, veggies with ranch dressing, and cookies or other dessert – to deliver to UVA Children’s Hospital. We need helpers here from 8 AM to around 10 AM to ensure that we can get everything complete and to the Hospital before lunch. This gives us an opportunity to serve complimentary meals to not just our families but to many families that have a child in the Hospital. This helps ease their burdens as they don’t have to go far away from their little one to have a nice meal.

Family Ambassador: The House needs volunteers for our Front Desk, giving tours, greeting our families and guests, and providing attentive, compassionate service. The Family Ambassador volunteer role requires many "soft skills," sometimes used under stressful circumstances. It is an active position and hospitality focused.

House Hero: We have volunteer opportunities within the House itself. Projects like organizing our kitchen area or cooking a meal that we plan and provide supplies and recipes to complete. If this interests you, we can arrange a time for you to come in each week and we will assign you whatever needs to be completed. Some weeks it will be kitchen work like portioning or prepping dinner. Other needs include administrative tasks such as stuffing envelopes and valuing donations. Sometimes we might need help with a special project or preparing for a special event. Basically, you sign up to be here once a week on a specific day and time and we assign you where you are most needed on that date.

Adopt the House: In this program, an individual, group, family or business commits to providing essentials for the House for one week -- perishable items like fresh meats, fruits and vegetables, eggs, milk and bread. Cleaning supplies to keep the House healthy or basic toiletries, like soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste for families that need them. Sometimes people that adopt the House choose to purchase needed items themselves and sometimes they donate gift cards or cash for staff members to purchase the needed items. If you decide to purchase the items yourself, I will provide you with a list of the items during the week you choose. One week we may need an extra gallon of milk. Another week, it might be supplies for dinner on a night we don’t have a Meal from the Heart scheduled. It all depends on the needs of the House and the number of families in the House at the time. If you have funds available after the Adopt the House Program, we always keep our Wish List up to date with the most urgently required items on our website.

Wish List Drive: You collect items from our Wish List and bring them to the House. We are happy to work with you to make the list shorter by prioritizing the most needed items.

Welcome Gifts: A Welcome Bag is given to each family that comes into the House. Collect items, provide totes, assemble them in attractive ways, or just bring them as they are for us to add to the bags. We stock them with essential items – a blanket for the hospitalized child, a stuffed animal, nail grooming or other grooming kits for parents, mints, coloring books and crayons or colored pencils, paper and pens for note taking, chapstick, etc. This helps us provide the extras that welcome a baby, pamper a mom, or take a little stress off a dad. Pacifiers, rattles, bibs, medicated creams, soft outfits, diapers and the like will bring comfort to a newborn and help mom. Rich lotions, lip balm, sunblock, sanitary items, nail grooming kits, slippers, socks or flip flops, a new brush or comb will give mom a lift. A harried dad can use razor blades, socks, some energy bars, the distraction of a book of crossword or Sudoku puzzles. And siblings can be placated with puzzles, craft items, small toys and action figures, a deck of cards, healthy snacks and books — no gum, play dough or nail polish, please!

Courier: We need volunteers to pick up and deliver donations to and from local businesses. Wawa pickups are needed every Wednesday after 10 AM at the Wawa on Pantops (434-485-0344). Starbucks (in front of Best Buy -- 1617 Emmet St N - (434) 365-8297) pickups are also every Wednesday after 10 AM. We ask the volunteer to call first to see if they have anything before you head over. Before the first pickup, we would need you to come by the House to get an insulated bag. After that we will switch out when you drop off each week with a fresh one. We occasionally need support with runs to grocery stores and other organizations.

Lawn Love: We have all of the supplies – lawn mowers, weed trimmers, etc. and we just need someone to come in on a regular basis and maintain the outside areas. This is a good project for a larger group.

Hospitality Cart: *Our Hospitality Cart Program is currently on hold. Please let me know if you’re interested and I will notify you when the program becomes active.* The Cart offers coffee, tea, cocoa and water, as well as a variety of snacks and other useful items. We only ask individuals to volunteer a few times per month. However, we encourage consistent availability. This program requires additional training and health requirements through UVA Volunteer Services to allow access to the children’s floors of the medical center.

Special Events: These are one-time happenings – Please ask me about future events and how you can make an impact.