Volunteer

Kitchen Volunteers

Kitchen volunteers are organized into crews. There are approximately 20 crews, with most crews preparing and serving the afternoon meal one day a month (ex. fourth Thursday of every month) from 1:00pm - 5:00pm. Our crews are fully staffed right now, but we can also use people on a backup basis. If you are interested, please contact Joe Simons (joesimons@yahoo.com) and indicate which days of the week you are available.

Without volunteers, Dorothy Day House could not exist.   Here are some ways to help out:

Santa’s Workshop

On a Saturday during the month of December, toys are distributed to children in the Spring Street neighborhood. For many children, this is the highlight of their Christmas season.   Donations of new unwrapped toys, new or gently used children's books and children's winter coats are needed for this event. For more information, contact Mary Korin at 203-297-1974 or marykorin@comcast.net

Thank you notes

We are looking for someone to write thank you notes to people who donate items from our wish list.

If you can help, please contact Lori-Ann Morrissey at loriannmorrissey@gmail.com

Cleaning

Lori-Ann Morrissey organizes a group to give the kitchen a deep cleaning once a month on a Saturday morning. If cleaning is your passion and you would like to help, contact Lori-Ann at loriannmorrissey@gmail.com

Baked Goods Donations Pickups

A number of local supermarkets have graciously made their expired baked goods available to us, but we use volunteers to pick up donations and deliver them to Spring Street.

At this time, we have enough baked goods pickup volunteers. Make sure to come back and check if spots have opened!

Making Sandwiches

We are looking for people to make sandwiches at home and bring them down to Dorothy Day House for distribution in the afternoons.

If you want to donate sandwiches, follow these steps:

1. Click on the button below to go to our Sign Up page

2. Review the options and choose the spot(s) you like

3. Sign Up. It's easy and you won't have to join or create a password.

Please do not bring in sandwiches unless you have arranged with someone at Dorothy Day to accept and store your donation.

Daily Bread Food Pantry

If you don't see anything on our volunteer list that is a good match for you, check out Daily Bread Food Pantry. Daily Bread is the largest food pantry in the Danbury area, serving 1000 families each week. Like Dorothy Day House, they rely exclusively on volunteers.

10 Ways Young People Can Support Dorothy Day

Here are some things you can do to help out at Dorothy Day House:

1. Organize a non-perishable food donation drive at your school, church or neighborhood.  See our wish list for items we need.

2. Sign up to make sandwiches (see above)

3. Donate fruit or bottled water for us to hand out with our sandwich bags

4. Start a collection of men's and women's socks to keep everyone's feet warm and dry this winter

5. Bake 2 dozen cookies or 30 brownies

6. Set up a donation drive for gently used winter jackets for adults

7. Collect warm gloves for the winter

8. Organize a toiletry drive for travel-sized soap, razors, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, combs and toothbrushes

9. Hold a donation drive for candy canes in December

10. Make fanciful Easter eggs