Volunteer at Homeless Bagged Meal Program (HBMP)
A-SPAN’s Homeless Bagged Meal Program is a long-standing, completely volunteer-run program at the foundation of A-SPAN’s work on the streets of Arlington. Volunteers join together to prepare and serve up to 80 meals per night at two outdoor locations along the Ballston-Rosslyn corridor of Wilson Boulevard. Each recipient of the HBMP receives one bagged meal, prepared by volunteers, and one portion of hot food, provided by DC Central Kitchen. To get involved, volunteers may sign up to prepare the bagged meals, serve the meals, or both.
Preparation volunteers are responsible for:
PURCHASING the groceries and supplies needed to make 70-80 bagged meals. Cost is approximately $150.00, depending on where you shop.
PREPARING the sandwiches and assembling 70-80 healthy, balanced bagged meals. Bagged meals should include the following: two sandwiches, one savory snack, one sweet snack, one fruit item and one beverage. Please wear gloves for this activity.
DELIVERING all the bagged meals to Oakland Mini Park by 6:00 pm sharp on the day you’re scheduled to volunteer. Here you will meet the serving volunteers and give them the bagged meals to distribute along with the food provided by DC Central Kitchen. Your bagged meals will be part of a complete dinner for up to 80 people—thank you!
This is a great group activity for churches, schools, neighborhoods and families!
Buying the supplies for making 80 bagged meals can be done by one or more preparation volunteers. A general shopping list includes:
- 320 slices of bread
- Sufficient filling (deli meat, peanut butter and jelly, etc) for 160 sandwiches
- 80 savory snacks (pretzels, crackers, etc.)
- 80 sweet snacks (granola bars, cookies, etc.)
- 80 fruit items (fruit cocktails, apple sauce, bananas, etc.)
- 80 individual beverages (bottle water, juice boxes, etc.) OR 6-8 gallons of beverage
- 160 plastic sandwich bags
- 80 brown paper bags
- Food service gloves for all preparation volunteers
Serving volunteers are responsible for:
- 5:45 PM - Picking up the hot food from Sullivan House, 3103 9th Road North, by 5:45 pm. The hot food (delivered in 2 large, green containers called cambros) should be loaded into the serving volunteer’s vehicle and transported to Oakland Mini Park by 6:00 pm on the day you’re scheduled to participate.
- 6:00 pm - First Serving Site: Oakland Mini Park, N Oakland St & 9th St N. See map here: http://bit.ly/OaklandMiniPark. Serving volunteers will meet the preparers here to transfer the bagged meals to the serving vehicle. Servers will then serve the bagged meals and hot food to each person at Oakland Mini Park. About half of the bagged meals and hot food portions should be distributed here. At 6:20pm proceed to the second serving site in Rosslyn.
- 6:30 pm - Second Serving Site: Rosslyn, Lee Hwy and N. Nash Street. See map here: http://bit.ly/RosslynHBMPsite. Volunteers should serve the meals to each person here at 6:30 pm. Seconds may be served at 6:45pm until all food has been distributed.
- Returning the supply crate and cambros, which must be EMPTY, to Sullivan House.
Sign Up
To check the HBMP volunteer schedule and to sign up for available shifts, please log in to the A-SPAN Volunteer Information: Volunteer Information Center.
If you’ve never volunteered with A-SPAN before or you’re new to our online Volunteer Information System above, get started now by submitting your A-SPAN Volunteer Application Form.
For more information or to sign up for the HBMP, contact Volunteer Coordinator Sarah Morse at smorse@a-span.org or call 703-842-0168.