Food Service

A group of volunteers in SOME's Dining Room for the Homeless in Washington, DC

Student volunteer groups provide important support to the Dining Room staff. Many local school groups serve on a weekly or monthly basis

Individuals and groups are needed to help prepare meals and serve them to hungry guests at SOME's Dining Rooms for the Homeless located at 71 'O' Street, NW.

Opened as a small soup kitchen in 1970, with the help of volunteers SOME now provides a nourishing, hot breakfast and lunch every day of the year. The Dining Rooms are limited to 15 volunteers per meal to ensure that each person is well utilized. All volunteers must schedule a time to help in advance and review our volunteer dress code.

Breakfast volunteers: 7:00am - 9:00am, everyday
Lunch volunteers: 11:00am - 1:30pm, everyday
To sign up to volunteer, please click here.

Provide-A-Meal (PAM) Volunteers

Provide-A-Meal volunteers make it possible for SOME to serve more than 850 meals to hungry children, women, and men each day. This is a wonderful volunteer program for groups from churches, synagogues, mosques, businesses and civic organizations to feed the hungry.

There are several different ways to provide a meal:

Bring in pre-made casseroles (40 to 60 casseroles in 9x12 aluminum pans will provide lunch for 400-500 people)
Bring ingredients and cook a full meal in SOME's kitchen
Purchase food through one of SOME's wholesalers, which SOME staff and volunteers can prepare. Approximate cost for a meal is $600.

PAM volunteers are not required to stay and serve the meal they provide, but they are more than welcome to do so.

We help with menu suggestions, food quantities and a list of wholesale food distributors. There is also the option to share a day with another group or to provide part of a meal.

We are in need of your help on the following days:

Breakfast:
5th Monday of each month
5th Thursday (shared with another PAM group)

Lunch:
1st Monday (shared with another PAM group)
1st Wednesday (shared with another PAM group)
2nd Wednesday (shared with another PAM group)
2nd Friday (shared with another PAM group)
4th Tuesday
5th Monday
5th Thursday

If your group would like to provide a meal, or if you have any questions, please contact Dining Room Services at volunteer@some.org or call 202.797.8806 and ask for the SOME volunteer coordinator.