Opportunity Details
Help The Homeless in New York City with Backpacks For The Street
Backpacks For The Street is a boots on the ground nonprofit providing life-saving assistance to New Yorkers struggling with homelessness, 365 days a year through its well-know backpacks program, along with assistance with food, clothing and other necessitates, as well as help with employment, health care, and housing, among other essential services to those in need, including immigrants and asylum seekers, the LGBTQ and BIPOC communities.
There are multiple volunteer opportunities including helping with packing and assembling backpacks, clothes, and other amazing programs, as well as our street outreach to provide food and backpacks to the unhoused communities.
Since 2018, Backpacks For The Street has assisted more than 152,000 New Yorkers in need (as of July 2025). A big part of our mission is going out into the community and helping people where they are rather than wait for them to come to us. It's that human interaction and treating people with difficult circumstances with the same dignity, compassion and respect that we all want to be treated with that is at the core of our work.
Homeless does not mean hopeless.
We strongly encourage interested volunteers to check out our Instagram page, @backpacksforthestret, or Facebook page, as it gives a great overview of our work and the people we help.
For people looking to help with giving out backpacks, we operate 365 days a year in all the boroughs rotating days throughout the week. Shifts run about an hour and a half.
For people looking to help with packing and assembling, we pack backpacks a couple times a week at our warehouse in Jamaica, Queens, shifts run a few hours.
Backpacks For The Street is an inclusive organization, providing a safe space for its volunteers and clients, regardless of age, gender, gender identity, religion, politics, sexual orientation, ethnicity, race, disability or musical tastes.
To register as a volunteer go to: https://bfts.org/volunteer.
For more information, you can check out our website at https://bfts.org.
If you have any other questions, please contact us at: volunteer@bfts.org
Eliminate hunger
Homeless, Immigrants, Refugees or Ethnic Groups, LGBT (Lesbian, Gay,Bisexual,Transgender), Low-income communities
Age Minimum (with Adult): 15+, Minimum Age:18+
Sign up with a team
This link allows you to participate in this opportunity with a team. A team can be a family team, corporate team, or any kind of organized group. When you click on the link you will have the option to:
- Choose an existing team you're already a member or captain of, or
- Create a new team to sign up.
Signup Questions
Please respond to the following questions in order to signup for this opportunity: