It’s easy to get wrapped up in cooking the turkey and baking spiced pumpkin pies, but this Thanksgiving, consider spending your time, effort or dollars doing something a bit different.
All across the United States, you’ll find plenty of chances to give back to the local community and help those who have less to be thankful for than most.

1. Serve Food in a Mission or a Shelter
Possibly the most popular way to give back during the Thanksgiving holiday is to help feed those in need. Check with local rescue missions, women’s or homeless shelters to see where volunteers are needed. From Denver to Detroit, many larger cities will be looking for help—and some smaller ones may be too.
Whether you’re helping to prepare food or dishing it out, providing a warm meal for others is a great way to spend the day.

2. Clean Up Your Local Community
Take pride in your community by sprucing things up this Thanksgiving. While fall weather may make this impossible in some locations, areas with sunny skies can take advantage.
Go out and clean things up on your own. Furthermore, join an organized event. Especially relevant, the Pasadena-Altadena Community Youth Association in Los Angeles will host its own community clean up on Thanksgiving morning. Sweep the concrete, pick up trash and pull weeds to beautify the city sidewalks.

3. Volunteer Your Services
If you have either a specialty service or a skill that might be of use, consider donating your time for Thanksgiving.
New York non-profit Dare2Be—dedicated to improving homelessness in the city—will be hosting a few different Thanksgiving events. Hosting parties in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Harlem, Dare2Be is seeking professionals in various categories. If you’re a DJ, photographer, hair colorist, balloon artist, face painter or a waiter, you may be able to give back at one of their events.

4. Deliver Meals to the Needy
There are plenty of families that aren’t in shelters who cannot afford a traditional Thanksgiving meal. You can choose to partner with local non-profits or shelters who will be distributing food and volunteering as a delivery driver.
Reach out to Austin, Texas-based Operation Turkey and become a driver in Texas, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia or New Mexico. Atlanta’s Meals on Wheels is also seeking drivers for Thanksgiving Day.
Don’t forget to check if your local shelters are delivering meals. Many are, including the Kansas City Rescue Mission, Mission Arlington and the Valley Rescue Mission of Columbus.

5. Help Out at a Nearby Turkey Trot
With Thanksgiving 5Ks and Turkey Trots galore, spend your holiday helping out at a themed run. Volunteers may be asked to help with packet pick-up or placed at information booths, first aid stations, along the course or at the finish line. Most of these runs help benefit local community organizations or non-profits as well.
You’ll find these funs runs all over the country—from San Francisco to South Dakota—and almost all accept volunteers.

6. Donate A Meal or Warm Clothing
If you can’t donate your time this Thanksgiving, donate necessities instead. Gobble Gobble Give, a Los-Angeles based non-profit, helps provide nearby homeless with a positive holiday experience.
Beginning in California’s Echo Park neighborhood, the organization now hosts Thanksgiving Day events in Santa Monica, Downtown L.A., Orange County, San Diego and San Francisco. They have also spread to cities outside of California, including Nashville, Austin, Las Vegas and Boca Raton.
Gobble Gobble Give’s main initiative is to provide meals, which they do through a potluck of dishes donated by members of the community. They also accept clothing, blankets and small toiletries to distribute.

7. Decorate for the Holidays
Speak with local businesses and local organizations to see if they could use any help decorating for the holidays. You can do this for Thanksgiving or, most of all, for Christmas. It can be incredibly helpful to small companies with limited staff.
One such store seeking help putting up Christmas décor is Oakland, Calif.’s Uhuru Furniture & Collectibles. United Hebrew of New Rochelle in New York is also seeking volunteers, though they will be helping decorate Thanksgiving morning for the residents’ holiday luncheon.
Consequently, aside from donating your time this Thanksgiving, you can make monetary donations to local shelters that provide Thanksgiving meals for the community or organizations that send holiday care packages overseas for members of the United States military.
 
Jeremy Scott Foster
Jeremy Scott Foster is an adrenaline junkie, culture vulture and eater of dumplings. He has been traveling for many years, flying around the world, jumping off bridges and climbing volcanoes. You can check out his adventures on Travel Freak now!