A lot of people don't know about Our House, but what the staff does is amazing. Our House is a…read moreplace where homeless families can get childcare for their children as they go and seek jobs, housing and other basic needs to get themselves back on their feet again. I volunteered last summer. The first time I went, I read to some 3 and 4 year olds. I almost cried when one of the kids asked me if I lived in a house. When I said yes, her eyes lit up and she said, "Really? I want to live in one, too." If I could have put all of those kids and their families into an apartment that day, I would have. Our House always needs volunteers AND donations, so help them out however you can.

I donated clothes and money to them today and I was touched by the environment and their…read morepurpose/goals. I walked in and everyone was really nice and very appreciative. The kids were happy and that was such a delight. If you read this, please make a donation. No donation is too small and little drops of water will turn into a pond. Also, volunteer if you have the time. God bless you!

I never thought to "rate" a volunteering center until I saw a list of the best places to volunteer,…read morebut it is definitely important. I have been here several times both for school credit and for interest. It was funny how the first time I went here, it was shortly before I started nursing school and I was exposed to so many different types of medical equipment and I was thinking "I am going to be working with all these things?" Years later, I can quickly tell the difference between different types of equipment, or at least sometimes I can give a basic category. The staff here is awesome and I love the way they are set up online. I have always left here feeling like I contributed to a global movement and it helps that I work in healthcare. My only complaint once was that after emailing the volunteer coordinator about a potential friend joining, they said they were "past the limit" when many people didn't show up that day and from my experiences with planning volunteer events, 100% of the people who sign up never come. Also, I think they can do a little better job of orienting new people. Even after having volunteered here a couple of times, there were days where I had no direction and was confused as to what I was suppose to be doing and did extra work for 20 minutes before I realized what I was suppose to be doing. I could have used those 20 minutes for productivity.

Medshare is a non profit humanitarian aid organization. I volunteered with a bunch of coworkers on…read moreour annual day of service. This was my third year. I believe the work they do is phenomenal. Medshare collects and distributes medical supplies and biomedical equipment and training to underserved communities in need around the world; 97 countries to date. It's hard to critique such a place. They are literally saving lives! As a volunteer who was on the afternoon shift (1pm-4pm), there was significant time wasted and not used to actually pack supplies. They told our group to arrive 15 minutes early before the shift started, which we did. However, orientation didn't start until 1:15. They showed a 5 minute video explaining what they do and who they help. Then introductions of the staff and a tour of the large facility. Not sure exactly how long that took but easily 30 minutes. For us repeat volunteers not time well spent. Then around 3:30pm the staff told us to finish our final boxes and clean up our area. After a brief wrap up speech and tally of boxes packed for our shift, we were out the door at 3:50pm. We probably got 90 minutes of hands on work. Would love to do more.

I am by no means a thrifter. Thrift shops have a weird smell and I'm way too impatient to sort…read morethrough them. Which is ironic because I have no problem spending 48 hours in a Banana Republic outlet. Not to mention Dillards but I digress.. Granny wanted to go to The Goodwill so we did. It's a fairly new location right off of Flat Shoals Pkwy, in the plaza with Family Dollar. There's parking galore and the store is huge! There's bad music playing (like in most stores) and it's brightly lit. Items range from toys to clothes to furniture. New inventory arrives every fifteen minutes so as you can imagine, there's a lot of stuff! The store is very organized but in a weird, savant sort of way. Shirts are sorted by type (t-shirt, blouse, uniform) and color (pink, rose, fuscia), but not by size. The denim section is just as crazy. They have rows and rows of jeans that aren't sorted by size. We were looking for petites. There's no petite section :(. But the selection is vast, the fitting rooms are clean, there are cool shopping carts and some pretty good sales if you can figure them out. Tiny plastic tabs are attached to each item. If you get a certain color tag (and the color changes weekly) you get a percentage off! I thought the prices were a little high. But my brother (a card-carrying member of Thrifters Anonymous) explained that Goodwill Industries is non-profit. Items are more than they would be at a Value Village because 83% of their revenue is spent on programs. The Goodwill helped over 300,000 people find jobs last year so you're shopping for a cause. A random sample of prices: Slippers $3 Ties $3 Women's pants $5.75 Women's blouses $5.75 Shoes $6 Women's jeans $7.47 Overpriced piece of gym equipment $350 Yes, there are a lot of questionable items. But if you take your time, I'm sure you will find some diamonds in the rough. Happy treasure hunting!

Always clean and organized. I founnd the prettiest last mInute Calvin Klein dress in here and got…read moreit for about $6 bucks at $150 retail!

The entrance area was clean and inviting, and the unit itself was clean. I like that I don't have…read moreto keep up with a key and PIN code to get in and out, the app is really convenient. Mikoya, the assistant manager, was super helpful as well.

I so love this place and the security. They make sure you are ok and if you have any problems they…read moretry to fix it right away. Great choice to make.

My wife and I visited Open Hand Atlanta to volunteer our time for a couple of hours to prep meals…read more Open Hand provides nutritional meals for those with chronic diseases, such as AIDS/HIV, different forms of cancer, etc. These nutritional meals promote and prolong healthier way of life. Once you arrive and sign in, you'll be taken to a waiting room area, where Open Hand staff gives you a rundown of their history and what their mission is. You also get the rules of the prep room and are gifted a one of a kind hairnet, plastic apron, and men with facial hair gets face masks. No jewelry may be at any time. Rings, necklaces, earrings, facial piercings, watches, etc. can NOT be worn. There are different things that you can do at this space, but I wanted to do meal prep. We washed our hands and grabbed plastic gloves. Keep in mind, the gloves are different sizes. The meal prep was like an assembly line. The meal we prepped was Beef Stroganoff on Noodles with Green Beans. With a scale, the first person weighed the appropriate number for the noodles, the second person weighed the right number of beef stroganoff, and the third person weighed the right number for green beans. There is then a fourth person who wipes off any excess food from around the rim of the food container. This is important so the plastic cover will seal appropriately. It's then put in this contraption that holds multiple containers and a person press seals it and puts it to the side. This is definitely quite a process, but once you get into the flow of it, it becomes easier. Some people make it a challenge against another group to see who can make the most meals. Side note: THIS PLACE IS FREEZING! The ENTIRE BUILDING IS COLD! Bring a jacket or hoody. Overall, this is a great place to come with a group or by yourself and do some charitable services. Fortunately, we came with a large group of my wife's coworkers, so we were able to knock out over 2,500 meals which was awesome! I'd definitely come back.

I volunteered at Open Hand two weeks ago (Saturday, July 22, 2017) and had a lot of fun. I didn't…read moreknow what to expect as far as working conditions, the general environment, and exactly what we would be doing. Would I be in some freezing cold meat locker? Would I be inside an insanely hot warehouse? Would I be breaking my already broken back moving heavy objects around? Would I be doing some mundane task for hours and be bored out of my mind? Fortunately, the answer to all those questions was no. I went with a big group to celebrate someone's birthday (a neat idea). Half of us did meal packing and the other half did market basket packing. I signed up for meal packing. Our meal packing session involved packing meals into bags and portioning food into individual containers (think frozen TV dinners). The food was already cooked and just needed to be heated up to be eaten. Market basket packing involves packing nonperishable foods. In this case, the food wasn't cooked and the recipients would need to cook it themselves. We signed up to work from 1pm to 4pm. Each of us had to register on Open Hand's website. After registering and reserving our spots, we received confirmation emails with information, reminders, and dress code requirements. One of the dress code requirements in my confirmation email said, "Long pants are preferred. Skirts or dresses must be shin length." I wore shorts. When standing, those shorts touched the top of my knees. My girlfriend, who also signed up for meal packing, wore shorts too. Her shorts were shorter. She ended up getting moved to market basket packing because of the length of her shorts. This wasn't a big deal, but the dress code requirements listed in the confirmation email should have been more clear about shorts or simply just said that long pants are required for meal packing. There was at least one other person in our meal packing group with knee-length shorts. When you arrive to Open Hand, the volunteer entrance is clearly marked. Each volunteer must sign in and sign out using a computer just inside the entrance. We arrived right around 1pm, checked in, and were ushered into an orientation room. The orientation was quick, about 10 minutes. A short video about Open Hand was played and then we got some in-person instruction. After that, we were whisked to our volunteer work areas. For meal packing, we had to wear hair nets and aprons. First, we helped prepare bags to place meals in, then we moved into the meal packing work area. This was a cool, clean room with various tables and assembly lines. One group was already sealing TV dinner trays when we arrived. We washed our hands and helped assemble bags with four meals in them: Monday lunch, Monday dinner, Tuesday lunch, and Tuesday dinner with cornbread and condiments (ketchup and mustard). It was pretty easy. Each person was assigned to place one or two items into each bag and pass it down. I was responsible for the ketchup and mustard. After a bag had four meals, cornbread, and condiments, it was tied and placed on a tray which was later stacked and carted off. We assembled 126 of these Monday-Tuesday meal bags. Two of our meal packing group were broken off and sent to the cornbread station where they individually bagged and sealed cornbread. The cornbread was already cooked and cut. After assembling the meal bags, we took a short break in the break room and then were called back into the meal packing room for another job. This time, we had to portion food into TV dinner trays which would later be sealed. This task was harder than the last because we had to handle food directly with our hands (wearing gloves of course) and measure correct portion sizes using scales. We packed 285 meal trays filled with chicken, mushroom risotto, and peas and pearl onions. The hands of the people scooping and portioning out the risotto and peas got tired. I helped a little bit with the peas and organizing and stacking the meal trays on bigger trays, but I mostly was responsible for placing a piece of chicken on top of the risotto. We ended up spending almost our full 3-hour allotment at Open Hand. The market basket packing group ended up finishing early, in under 1.5 hours. Volunteer Services Manager Julie Barwig was the person who oversaw our group. In the meal packing room, Andre led us for the meal bag packing and Shameka led us for the meal tray portioning. Everyone was nice and friendly. I enjoyed the experience so much that I'm now considering signing up to do meal delivery. Open Hand's mission statement: "Open Hand helps people prevent or better manage chronic disease through Comprehensive Nutrition Care, which combines home-delivered meals and nutrition education as a means to reinforce the connection between informed food choices and improved quality of life." The campus is located in the industrial Armour neighborhood of Atlanta near SweetWater Brewing Company and the Armour Yard rail yard on the southern edge of Buckhead.