Friend of SFist Olivia Warnecke spent her morning volunteering at Glide Memorial Church as part of their annual Grocery Bag Giveaway. Here's what she had to say:

Volunteering at Glide is something I love to do every year. This morning, I shuffled in at 5:45 a.m. for my assignment, which was sorting groceries into bags. The room was full of energy as each volunteer performed a specific task — mine was sorting the tomato sauce. Holiday songs were sung, and everyone was pretty focused. It was a constant buzz of work, and I imagine the people who were on frozen turkey duty will be a bit sore from shuttling turkeys to bags for 3 hours.

Last year and the year before, I was outside. The jobs outside are much more intense and emotional, since you are helping greet and organize the HUGE stream of people coming in to pick up a bag. You talk to everyone, you hear their stories, and they are just happy to see someone greet them with a smile (versus the treatment of turning away and pretending they don't exist).

I recommend getting off the computer and just heading over to Glide to give a hand for a few hours. They have convenient shifts for people to go before they head to work. There are also volunteering opportunities at St Anthonys, SF Food Bank, Martin de Porres House of Hospitality, or Missionaries of Charity. And, of course you can volunteer 365 days a year. It's not limited to Christmas.

Have somewhere you like to volunteer? Tell SFist about it!