With the season of gratitude upon us, we want to extend thanks to all in the H4WRD community committed to our collective mission of preventing and ending street homelessness in Greater Hollywood.

Our community is blessed to contain a lot of do-gooders who've been reaching out to us looking for ways to plug in and help out this season.

This blog is for you -- you know who you are! -- and features our roundup of volunteer opportunities available over the coming holidays.

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Compassion Connection

Big thanks to Andrew Froemming, Director of Compassion Connection through the Hollywood Adventist Church, for administering the shower program that has helped so many in the community for over 10 years.

Compassion Connection has volunteer opportunities aplenty on Tuesdays and Thursdays throughout the holiday season, which interested folks can access by CLICKING HERE.

St. James ‘In the City’ Episcopal Church

Huge thanks to Margaret Ecker, the Lead Volunteer for the Soup Kitchen at St. James 'In the City' Episcopal Church, for all her tireless efforts AND for sharing about St. James’ upcoming holiday volunteer opportunities:

• Tuesday Soup Kitchen 4:30pm to 6:30pm, volunteers show up around 3:30pm
• Thursday CookFest 4:30pm to 6:30pm—cooking only, to prepare for Friday and Saturday Soup Kitchens.  
• Friday Soup Kitchen 2pm to around 5:30pm
• Saturday Soup Kitchen 8:30am to around 1pm

Cooking on Wednesday November 22 begins around noon, and will serve Thanksgiving leftover” Feasts on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. According to Margaret, volunteers "have a blast" in the St. James kitchen, working with rescued produce, zero recipes, and lots of creativity!

• To help out on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, please send email with contact info to: mecker@stjla.org
• CLICK HERE to volunteer for any events, anytime, through St. James.

Hollywood Food Coalition

This Thanksgiving Day, our partners at Hollywood Food Coalition (HoFoCo) are hosting a seated Thanksgiving Community Dinner for 300 community members. They would welcome community support to pull off this monumental feast of friends, taking place:

• DATE: Thursday, November 23, 2023
• TIME: 11:00am-3:00pm
• LOCATION: HoFoCo 7800 Beverly Blvd., LA, CA 90036 

Please contact Joey at HoFoCo if you or someone you know is looking for ways to help out over the upcoming holiday season. HoFoCo is also accepting donations to help ensure that not only on Thanksgiving Day, but every day of the year, they serve wholesome, healthy dinners that fill hearts as much as they nourish their bodies. CLICK HERE to volunteer anytime with HoFoCo.

PATH (People Assisting The Homeless)

We’re very grateful to Steve Fiechter, H4WRD Board Chair and Senior Director for Clinical Services at PATH for connecting us with all the volunteer opportunities available with this longtime service provider, who are also offering Thanksgiving meals to individuals and families in need this holiday. You can help assemble a Thanksgiving basket by gathering the following non-perishable items:

• Boxed stuffing mix
• Cranberry sauce
• Canned corn
• Canned green beans
• Canned gravy
• Canned yams
• Boxed cornbread
• $20 grocery store gift card for a turkey

For help making sure that PATH participants can enjoy a special Thanksgiving meal, please contact CyndieT@epath.org or CLICK HERE for more information about all the ways you can volunteer through PATH this holiday season… and beyond!

Volunteer for the 2024 Homeless Count

As H4WRD community members are all too aware, Los Angeles has the largest unsheltered homeless population in the nation. But we don't have to accept homelessness as an unsolvable problem. A great way to do your part to help end homelessness is by participating in LAHSA's 2024 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, taking place January 23-25.

Hollywood 4WRD will be hosting the Hollywood Homeless Count on the evening of January 25th, and will be sharing further information as details are confirmed. But volunteers can CLICK HERE to begin signing up for the 2024 Homeless Count. (When prompted, enter “90028” to select Hollywood as your Count site.) We look forward to counting alongside many of you next year! 

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Check this space for additional volunteer opportunities COMING SOON!

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