If you're interested in helping out the local community, here's a look at only a few of Buffalo's many volunteer options for students.
Food Bank of Western New York
The Food Bank of WNY has been providing almost 100,000 people per month with food services since 1979.
They have open soup kitchens and food pantries for those in need, which are kept open through donations of non-perishable foods. The Food Bank has about 340 member agencies that then distribute the food.
Jennifer Kurzdorfer, the marketing and development manager, said the organization has an increase in the amount of UB inquiries for volunteering opportunities. Students groups such as the UB School of Nursing and UB Center for Student Leadership & Community Engagement have participated in the volunteering program.
Volunteers are normally involved with sorting and packing donated food from public and private food drives, which is then transported to the various member agencies.
The Food Bank has volunteering opportunities on campus like food drives, gardening and upkeep within the city.
One event the group holds around the holiday season is at Tops Friendly Markets. Volunteers can put together brown bags of food in stores and stay to work at Tops to accept food donations.
Weinberg Campus
The Weinberg Campus is a Buffalo Retirement Community that has been providing seniors with a place to live for nearly 100 years. The retirement facility's mission statement states it wants seniors to have a "healthy, independent and engaged lifestyle."
Kim Izquierdo, a sophomore intended nursing major, volunteers every Tuesday to spend time with the people living in retirement community and helps with preparing and serving residents' lunches. She used to volunteer at a food pantry and a hospital but decided she needed a change of pace.
"I wanted to work with different kinds of people that I wouldn't usually work with," Izquierdo said.
The Weinberg Campus is close to North Campus, which is convenient for Izquierdo. She also gets to participate in the seniors' activities, updates them on current events and in the process, meets a lot of people from different backgrounds.
Buffalo Humane Society
The Buffalo Humane society is a "no-kill" animal rescue organization. The society owns a shelter filled with cats and dogs that they rescue from the streets of Buffalo.
The group started the non-profit organization after the City of Buffalo Animal Shelter announced potentially changing its pet adoption program. If the adoption program, as it is now, ended, the city shelter would have to put down animals after three days in the shelter.
The policy never went through, but Buffalo Humane decided Buffalo needed a place where that kind of decision would never happen.
Dani Toohey, a sophomore occupational therapy major, went last semester with a group of her Alpha Phi Omega brothers to help volunteer. At the shelter, they helped to clean out the cages of the cats and afterward had a chance to play with them.
All of the cats are neutered and can be put into different programs; the society has an adoption program for anyone looking to own a cat, but the cats can also be put into a foster program. The program allows cats to be placed with a family until the organization can find a permanent home for them.
The Buffalo Humane Society was advertised on campus to get more UB students to volunteer, which is how Toohey's group found out about it. She thinks the group could use a lot of volunteer help.
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