By Emily Mello,  Jack Harris and Oden Taylor 

This holiday season, consider giving back to your community through one of these great volunteer opportunities. At the Front Street Animal Shelter, you can bring out your inner animal lover. Find a human connection through one of the many volunteer options at Loaves and Fishes. Or, make sure everybody can put food on the table this holiday season by volunteering at the Sacramento Food Bank.  

The Front Street Animal Shelter offers a plethora of different volunteer opportunities for every animal lover. There are volunteers who help with maintenance, dog handlers that take dogs for walks, adoption counselors, foster volunteers, promoters, volunteer run spay and neuter hotline and a “smart team” that helps reunite lost animals to their families. The shelter also has a commitment-free program where volunteers can come in individually or in groups to read to the dogs and help them relax for an hour or two at a time. Volunteers are needed at Front Street year-round. New volunteer orientations are held every month on the first Thursday and the third Wednesday at 5:30 pm. Front Street Animal Shelter is located at 2127 Front St. and more information about the shelter can be found at cityofsacramento.org.

The American River College Pi Theta Kappa Club have reached out to the greater community and are working with the Sacramento Food Bank to help distribute food to the homeless during the COVID-19 pandemic, while they are unable to function on campus. (file photo)

Loaves and Fishes provides countless services to Sacramento’s homeless population, including providing meals and veterinarian services. The most common volunteer service at Loaves and Fishes is working in the dining hall, but there are also advocacy services, a library, a kennel, and much more. Loaves and Fishes is non-profit and has no government funding, so volunteers are essential, according to Janet Kuzawa, outreach and volunteer coordinator. Those who would like to be long-term volunteers are asked to come to an orientation which is usually held Thursdays at 10:00 am. People can sign up to volunteer through Cyndy Pressley, the volunteer coordinator, at [email protected]