Not too young to help: Families find ways to volunteer with small children

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Consider volunteering for a mission that you can explain to your child, such as cleaning up litter at a park.

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“Kids are unbelievably curious. They ask questions about what they’re doing, what they’re seeing, what they’re feeling, what they’re hearing, and it opens up a dialogue,” Saluja said. “It helps you see even at a young age some of the challenges that society is facing and it gives you agency to know that you can be a part of the solution.”

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Sharing food

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Children understand hunger, and they can help alleviate the problem. They can sort grocery boxes at a food pantry or help deliver sustenance to home-bound individuals.

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Aviva Davis was about eight years old when she and her brother Brendan began helping her parents deliver Meals on Wheels to senior citizens and medically frail individuals in Denver. Initially, they rode in the car with their parents and helped bring food to the door. When they were older, they took turns driving.

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“It definitely opened my eyes to what the world is like outside of our bubble. We saw all sorts of different things and I saw not everyone lives the same way,” said Davis, now 17. “But even at such a young age I could realize it’s amazing what we’re doing that we could help people that aren’t as lucky as we were.”

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Davis became a resource at school for fellow students looking to volunteer. She still does monthly meal deliveries with her parents.

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“It’s a great chance for us to catch up as a family,” said her father, Seth Davis. “When we’re not all on our phones, you get some pretty cool quality time.”

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Her brother is now in college, but when he’s home, they do deliveries altogether.

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“The older they get, the harder it is to get that time together,” said their mother, Bonnie Davis, who found the Meals on Wheels opportunity after extensive research.

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Create your own opportunities

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When Teacoach couldn’t find organizations willing to accept her toddler, she started a group in Pittsburgh called VolunTOTs, which creates service opportunities for children as young as 3. The children and their parents pack 500 boxes of groceries to distribute to families in need, play bingo with seniors in nursing homes and make dog treats for an animal rescue center, among other projects.

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Parents have told Teacoach their children’s conduct improves after volunteering. “They feel so good about themselves, they were a helper, and that translates into better behavior,” she said.

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Stephanie Bernaba’s family started “Tough Cookies,” a project where they bake and deliver cookies to veterans, when her son Matthew was in eighth grade and had to complete a service project for school.

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“Going up to the houses, it was very nice, because they’re mostly living alone. A lot of their family or friends died,” said Michael Bernaba, 14, now a freshman at The Prout School in Wakefield, Rhode Island. “It’s just nice to be there and bring it to them … They were very happy, especially for someone to bring them treats like that.”

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The project also helped the teens learn social skills and meet people in various stages of life and health conditions, Stephanie Bernaba said.

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“We went to the first couple of places and I was really scared, because I’m more of a shy person,” Matthew Bernaba, now 15, said. “For the first couple of deliveries I was more to myself, and as we kept going, we talked more with the veterans and got to hear great stories from them.”

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Friends make it fun

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Children can be more willing to try new activities with a buddy, so consider signing up with people you know.