On both Thanksgiving and Christmas, we will be serving special meals to the homeless men, women and children staying at our emergency shelter and recovery facilities. We will also deliver thousands of meals to low-income, homebound and disadvantaged individuals and families throughout the Greater Des Moines Area. This will take hundreds of on-site volunteers! In addition, we have a number of holiday outreach opportunities perfect for families, small groups, congregations, businesses and others looking to reach out to those in need during Thanksgiving and Christmas. We hope you will join us in making this an extra-special time of year for the homeless and displaced men, women and children at Hope Ministries. Keep reading to learn how you can get involved!

Day-of Volunteering On-Site

We will need at least 100 volunteers on both Thanksgiving and Christmas to help us serve meals on-site at our Hope Café and deliver meals throughout Greater Des Moines. Volunteers help with everything from decorating Hope Café to packing and bagging delivery meals to serving our meal guests. We are looking for volunteers who will join us on Thanksgiving and Christmas days with a “How may I be of service?” attitude and a sincere desire to be a blessing to the men, women and children we’ll be serving!

We will begin accepting volunteer inquiries on Monday, October 3. If you are interested in volunteering on-site on Thanksgiving or Christmas Day, please call Lyndsay Howe, our volunteer coordinator, at (515) 265-7272 or email info@hopeiowa.org. Or, you can indicate your interest by filling out our Holiday Volunteer Interest Form

(Please note: Submission of the website form does not guarantee a volunteer position. Volunteer positions do fill quickly. Upon receipt of your request, our volunteer coordinator will contact you to let you know of position availability. Thank you!)

Holiday Outreach Opportunities

We have a variety of holiday outreach opportunities meant to bless our residents and guests and provide an opportunity to community members to be a blessing to men, women and children in need. These opportunities include assembling Adopt-a-Brother, Sister and Child gifts; donating quilts and bus tokens; providing food for meals.

To learn more about our Holiday Outreach Opportunities, please click here.

Bring Christmas to Hope

Bring Christmas to Hope is our special donation deliver day on Saturday, December 17, at our Bethel Mission facility (1310 6th Avenue, Des Moines). During this event, we invite community members to drop off their Adopt-a-Brother, Adopt-a-Sister and Adopt-a-Child gifts, Quilts for Hope, Tokens for the Broken and other holiday donations. When you drop off your items, you’ll be welcomed to take a tour of our Bethel Mission men’s emergency shelter and enjoy refreshments and fellowship.

In addition to the various donations mentioned above, we also have a number of needed items which will bless our ministry this holiday season and throughout the year. These items may also be dropped off during Bring Christmas to Hope:

Men’s white tube socks            
Men’s t-shirts           
Men’s underwear
Men’s winter gloves                       
1-inch 3-ring binders           
Liquid laundry detergent
NIV Bibles                       
Chapstick           
Men’s & women’s deodorant
Body wash for women           
Dental floss           
Men’s & women’s disposable razors
Women’s shaving cream           
Toilet paper           
Paper towels                       

Bring Christmas to Hope will take place from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on December 17. If you are unable to deliver your holiday donations during this timeframe, please do contact us at (515) 265-7272 or info@hopeiowa.org to arrange a different delivery time rather than dropping in without notice – this is very helpful to us during this busy holiday season. Thank you!

Food Donations

We are so thankful to community members who provide food donations to supplement our meals during the holidays and all year-round. This Thanksgiving and Christmas, we certainly welcome food donations and have set aside specific timeframes for people to deliver donations:
           
            Day before Thanksgiving: Wednesday, November 23, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
            Two days before Christmas: Friday, December 23, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

We will also accept food donations during other times, but due to this busy holiday season, we very much appreciate a courtesy call/email in advance. If you need to arrange a different food delivery time, please contact us at (515) 265-7272 or info@hopeiowa.org.

Here are our specific holiday food needs:

• Boxed stuffing
• Powdered gravy mix
• Pies (pumpkin and fruit)
• Frozen fruit juice (grape, orange, apple, lemonade)
• Milk, eggs, butter
• Non-stick cooking spray
• Coffee
• Boneless Hams
• Turkeys
• Brownies or fruit crisp
• Dinner rolls

To indicate your interest in one or more of our holiday volunteering and outreach opportunities, please call (515) 265-7272 or email info@hopeiowa.org. Or, fill our out online Holiday Volunteer Interest Form.