Thanksgiving Basket Volunteer Details

Thank you so much for your interest in volunteering for Thanksgiving Basket Drive 2024! 

The drive has several components and ways to contribute:

October 1 - November 21 - Host food drive & deliver your donations to the Center

October 21st & 22nd (or until we reach our goal of 4,000) - Help with phone registration for baskets

November 15th - 24th - Support donation dropoff, sorting & bag packing. 

November 22nd - 25th - Help with Basket Distribution & clean up.

General Notes about Volunteer Shifts

  • Most shifts are 2 - 3 hours.  Volunteers must be available for the entire shift. Shifts can’t be split or shortened. 
  • Volunteers must be 18+ unless signing up in Adults & Youth Together shifts or as part of a teen youth group with adult chaperons.  
  • All youth ages 7-17 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian/chaperon for their volunteer shift. Only youth and their adult can sign up for our Adults & Youth Together shifts. Every person, no matter the age should be assigned a slot.
  • Groups and teams are welcome but limited to 10 spots only.

Register/Respond as an Individual

  • Create an account using your email or find your existing account.
  • Fill in or update your user profile.
  • Choose the shift(s) that you would like to sign up for and click "respond".
  • Make sure to read and agree to the volunteer waiver as you complete your opportunity response.
  • Look for an email confirming your shift(s).
  • Once you sign up, use your dashboard to review your response and information about your user account.

If you want to sign up yourself and another person or two under your email you will need to follow the process below for signing up a team.

Register/Respond as an Company/Family Team (up to 10 people)

 Goodman welcomes volunteer teams! Here's your options for signing up a team:

  • The main contact for the volunteer team should create an account. This individual does not need to be present at the shift.
  • Choose the shift(s) that you would like to sign a team up for and click "respond as a team". Look for your existing team if you previously joined us as a team.
  • Add the names and emails of individuals who will be volunteering on your team. If you don't know who will be on your team yet, you can also choose the number of slots your team will be filling up to 10 per team. 
  • Adjust the number of reserved volunteer spots that your team has if your group size changes, and add in names and emails of individuals as you confirm they will be on your team (PS: If you remove an individual from your team or they remove themselves, you'll automatically get that spot in a "reserved spot", if you don't have another individual to fill that spot, please change the number of reserved spots you have accordingly.)
  • We have many people willing to volunteer, please be sure to confirm your team size at least two weeks before your shift and release any unfilled slots so others may fill in.

Register Youth

Goodman welcomes youth volunteers (ages 7+) to help with Thanksgiving Basket donation sorting, bag packing, and distribution. All youth ages 7-17 must be accompanied by a parent/guardian/chaperon for their volunteer shift. Only youth and their adult can sign up for our Youth and Adults Together shifts. There are a few ways to sign up for youth-specific opportunities.

  • Parent/guardian(s) can create an account using their email. Then create a team to sign up adults & children.
  • Select the Youth and Adults Together shift that works for your group of adults & children. Add the names of the members of your group. Each young person should be given their own slot. 
  • If you don't know the names of your team upon signing up that's okay. Just reserve the number of slots you need and add names later.
  • Parent/guardian(s) must read and agree to the adult/guardian volunteer waiver. 

Please do not bring children who are under our age limit, there is a lot going on and this can become unsafe.  

Waitlist

Spots will fill up fast. If spots for your preferred shift(s) are full, you can add yourself to the waitlist for that shift. Feel free to add yourself to the waitlist for as many different shifts as you would like.

If a spot opens up for your waitlisted shift, you will be notified via email. From there you will need to log in to your account and sign up for the shift. A notification email regarding your waitlist spot does not mean that you are automatically signed up for the shift.

Canceling Your Shift(s)

We understand that there may be circumstances in which you are no longer able to come to your volunteer shift.

  • Please cancel your volunteer shift as soon as possible by logging into your account, going to your opportunity responses, and unregister/unclick the opportunity.
  • If it is less than 24 hours until your shift and you need to cancel, please contact the Volunteer Manager directly.


If you have troubles signing up for shifts, ONCE SHIFT REGISTRATION IS OPEN, contact our volunteer manager at abigail@goodmancenter.org. Please keep in mind this is an extremely busy time of year for our volunteer and food pantry departments. You may get an automated reply or voicemail, or may have to wait a few days for a response. We appreciate your interest in helping out with one of Goodman's largest yearly events!