March 31, 2025 | Volunteering

Greetings, Volunteers!

Spring is here at last! We have a lot of exciting opportunities coming your way this Earth Month! Below you can find a list of new and ongoing volunteer opportunities for the month of April.

To sign up for an event this month and receive a month of free Garbage to Garden service, RSVP by email and we will help answer any questions you may have. Then simply send confirmation of your volunteer hours to volunteer@garbagetogarden.org to receive credit.

Happy Composting,

Do you have neat handwriting? We are hosting 4 seedling sales in May and we need your help making tags! This is a take home volunteer project, meaning we would ask you to come pick up tags at Garbage to Garden HQ (352 Presumpscot St, Portland, ME) and fill them in at home. Please email Bridget to sign up!

Join us to make The Green Home & Energy show low waste! 

Volunteers will take shifts to monitor compost bins, change out compost, trash, recycling, and clynk bags as needed and keep the grounds tidy. Please email Bridget with your preferred shift time as well as your tee shirt size. The event takes place on Saturday April 5th at the Point in South Portland. 

Shifts:

9:00 am - 11:00 am

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Help us make the 2025 Sysco Trade Show low waste! Volunteers will take shifts to monitor compost bins, change out compost, trash, recycling, and clynk bags as needed and keep the space tidy. Please email Bridget with your preferred shift time as well as your tee shirt size.

Shifts:

9:00 am - 11:00 am

11:00 am - 1:00 pm

1:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Join us for the Portland Earth Day Celebration at Payson Park on April 12th!

Volunteer to represent us at our information table. Share your experience curbside composting (and volunteering!) with Garbage to Garden, and help familiarize attendees with our service and how it works. We will provide references for FAQs, but mostly are looking for you to share your enthusiasm for composting!

Shifts:

10:30 am - 12:30 pm

12:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Volunteer to help with waste management. Volunteers will take shifts to monitor compost bins, change out compost, trash, recycling, and clynk bags as needed and keep the ground tidy.

Shifts:

10:30 am - 12:30 pm

12:30 pm - 2:30 pm

To sign up please email Bridget with your preferred shift time/activity as well as your tee shirt size.

Join us to table at the South Portland Earth Day Resource Fair! Share your experience curbside composting (and volunteering!) with Garbage to Garden, and help familiarize attendees with our service and how it works. We will provide references for FAQs, but mostly are looking for you to share your enthusiasm for composting!

Shifts

9:30 am - 12:00 pm

12:00 pm - 2:30 pm

To sign up please email Bridget with your preferred shift time as well as your tee shirt size.

Join us to table at the Westbrook Earth Day Fair! Help us to spread the word about composting. We will provide references for FAQs, but mostly are looking for you to share your enthusiasm for composting! Email Bridget with your preferred shift time and tee shirt size to sign up.

Shifts

3:30 pm - 5:30 pm

5:30 pm - 7:30 pm

In celebration of Earth Day and in conjunction with their fellow New England Chapters they'll be hitting the beach at East End in Portland to pick up/sort trash and categorizing the data. Come enjoy a couple hours with like-minded people and help clean up the beach.

Individually, in teams or small groups you'll be given a bucket/gloves/grabbers and shown sections of the beach to collect trash. Once collected you'll work with a Surfrider volunteer to sort and categorize the trash to be entered into our national database.

Date & Time: Saturday, April 20th 10 am - 12 pm

Independent Seniors Network is a nonprofit, 501(c)3, volunteer organization dedicated to helping older adults remain in their own homes as long as possible. Their network of volunteers provides transportation to medical appointments, grocery stores, and other appointments; They also provide friendly visits & phone calls, light household and gardening help, small handyman chores, and technology assistance. Many older adults struggle with many of these issues and lack the funding to hire outside help. They are always in need of more volunteers as more and more older adults need assistance. Their volunteers do so on their own schedules, as often as they’d like, and only services they want to provide.

If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or a member or would like more information, please email them at info@independentseniorsnetwork.org or call them at 207-370-1896.

Presente! Maine is a grassroots, mutual aid organization by and for displaced and dispossessed Afro/Indigenous-Latines in Maine. With their community, they codesign and implement survival programs that proactively address the most urgent public health, climate, and human rights struggles, while also working within systems of power to create a more equitable, joyful, and resilient future.

Their Despensa Solidaria - community food pantry - is held on the second & fourth Wednesday of each month at their office in Portland (795 Congress St. (former PelotonLabs building)). They distribute fresh, culturally relevant produce to their community at no cost. There are three shifts in which folks can volunteer:

- U-Haul/Produce Shift (9am-11am) - Pick up reserved U-Haul (411 Marginal Way, Portland) & head to Wayside Food Programs (135 Walton St, Portland). The entrance is at the rear of the building through the parking lot. Driver lets the warehouse manager know that they are picking up Presente’s food order then meets us at our office! 

- Warehouse Shift (11am-2pm) - Support them with the unloading & prepping of food & supplies for distribution!  

- Distribution Shift (4:30-7:30pm) - Support them with the physical distribution of food to community members! 

You can learn more & sign up here!

Maine Foodscapes is a federally incorporated 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to improve community food security and well-being throughout Southern Maine. Each spring, their Foodscapes Garden Project (FGP) connects Mainers currently experiencing limited resources with the tools needed to start growing their own food.

Volunteers help build gardens, table to promote the program, teach workshops, and more! Sign up to volunteer by filling out this form. 

3Rs believes that volunteers are VITAL to the success of their organization and their mission of providing the tools students need to be successful academically. Volunteer shifts are available Tue.-Thur. from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm and Fri. from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm. Email office@ruths.org to sign up!