How Can You Help The Shelter?
Our volunteers help the Shelter and our guests to thrive. Individuals and groups tackle a wide range of projects around the Shelter—everything from kitchen work to carpentry. If you would like to donate your time to the Shelter, please complete our volunteer application. You may also stop into the Shelter for a paper application.
Become a food pick-up driver.
We are very fortunate to receive donations from Hannaford at the Airport Mall, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and Shaw’s Supermarket on Main St. We currently need drivers who can commit to picking up from these donors. If you are available mornings to transport donations to the Shelter, we would be very grateful for your help. A few hours of your time makes a big difference to the Shelter and our guests! Please contact us for more details.
Become a Meal Provider
Prepare a meal for our guests once or on a monthly basis. Our meal providers prepare lunch or dinner for forty to forty-five of our guests, including enough for seconds and may also choose to serve the meal themselves. This is a great opportunity for small groups of four to five people. Details: Lunch is served at 12 p.m. and dinner at 5 p.m. each day, so we ask that you arrive with enough time to prepare and heat up the meal. You can choose to cook the meal off-site and deliver it to our guests, or cook on-site in the Shelter’s kitchen, which is equipped with a commercial ten-burner, two-oven stove. Typically, two to four large casseroles are sufficient to serve all of our guests. We will supply plates, cups, napkins, and cutlery, but rely on our meal providers to supply items such as butter and salad dressing to accompany the meal. We also provide water or milk (if we have it) to our guests, but soda or juice donated by the meal providers is a special treat for our guests. Meal providers are welcome to visit the Shelter prior to the meal and take inventory on what we have in our pantry and freezers.
If you or your group would like to drop off a prepared meal to be served to our Shelter guests or Warming Center guests, signing up is now easier than ever. Just visit our Meal Train calendar for available dates and make a reservation. https://www.mealtrain.com/5r63d7
If you are interested in preparing, cooking, and serving a meal at the Shelter, please sign-up using our Meal Train platform and include in the Detail box that you would like to come into the Shelter to provide a meal or contact the BAHS Volunteer Coordinator, Gretchen at 207-947-0092 or by e-mail at gretchenf@bangorareashelter.org.
Popular Meal Ideas:
- Pulled Pork
- Chili
- Salad
- Hearty Soups or Stews
- Shepherd’s Pie
- Turkey Dinner with all the fixings
- Large Casseroles of any kind
- Frozen Lasagnas (family size)
Clean and organize the Shelter and Food Pantry
The Shelter is always in need of help with cleaning and organizing. If you are equipped with organizational and cleaning skills and would like to donate your time, please contact us.
Current projects include:
- Cleaning and organizing our food pantry; sorting, organizing, and stocking shelves with donated food items, checking expiration dates, dusting shelves, and rotating freezer stocks.
- Organizing donated clothing, personal care items and other donations as they come in.
- Deep cleaning hard to reach surfaces in our kitchen, bathrooms, stairwells, closets, etc.
Help the Shelter with property upkeep and maintenance
Year-round: The Shelter experiences a good deal of foot traffic each day, resulting in wear and tear to our facilities. If you have general maintenance skills please contact us. From time to time we have larger items that we can’t dispose of in our dumpsters. If you have a truck and can move items to the transfer station please give us a call.
In the summer months: Although the Shelter does not have a large amount of land on our property, we do have some areas that need to be weed whacked from time to time. If you have a weed whacker and a half hour to spare, please contact us.
Donate
Donations of food, personal care items and money are vital to the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter. Click here to make an online donation through our PayPal portal. Walk in donations of cash or check are also accepted at the front desk of the Shelter. Check out our Wish List for a list of items we currently need.
Communicate
Speaking out and educating others is one of the most important steps you can take to help homeless people in Maine. Some of the ways you can pass on the message of the Bangor Area Shelter include:
- Talk to your family, friends, neighbors, local leaders, and legislative representatives about homelessness and how they can be part of the solution.
- Host a fundraiser or awareness event; either online through Facebook, or through your local school, church or community group for the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter.
- Have someone from the Bangor Area Shelter come to your company or organization and speak about the issues affecting homelessness in Maine. To book a speaker, please contact us.