PTO and PTA Community Service Ideas for Families

Working together on a community service project is a surefire way to create a sense of togetherness within your school, but finding the right project is sometimes challenging. Many parents are looking for hands-on community service projects they can do with their kids, but they aren’t sure where to start.

While toy collections or winter hat and coat drives teach students the value of giving, some families simply can’t afford to give. The coronavirus pandemic in spring 2020 has created financial difficulty on a wider scale, and many more families have turned to community programs and food pantries for much-needed help.

Your parent group can help by organizing service projects that all families can participate in, regardless of their financial situation. Look for projects that will allow children to learn a new skill or learn more about their community and that will give families a clear sense of accomplishment.

Help Ease Food Insecurity

When schools in Keene, N.H., started closing due to the coronavirus pandemic and the district worked to revamp its free and reduced-price meal assistance program, the Symonds Elementary School PTA stepped in and organized a last-minute food drive to help support nearly 60 students who relied on that assistance. Within 24 hours, the group had packed 64 boxes with breakfast items, microwaveable lunches, healthy snacks, and some school supply items to last for several days.

People in the community wanted to find some way to help, Alyssa Zalaski, PTA cochair, told the Keene Sentinel. “Instead of focusing on the crazy, it felt good for everybody to focus on each other.”

Other ways to help feed your neighbors:

• Organize a no-contact food drive to help local food pantries restock dwindling supplies.

• Plan a fundraiser on social media and donate the money raised to a food pantry; as a nonprofit, the food pantry can leverage the cash to buy items they need at cost.

• Volunteer to hand out breakfast and lunch boxes at the drive-through food distribution locations at schools.

Support Frontline Workers

Donate money: The Trailwood Elementary PTA unanimously agreed to donate more than $2,800 to the Shawnee Mission (Kan.) Cares Fund at the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation, which assists families with food, housing, transportation, and medical and dental expenses. PTA president Jen Pontier said they decided to donate the money, which was originally earmarked for the PTA’s spring events, to give to people who need it more.

Have a special fundraiser: For a $10 online donation to the MooreKids Ribbons of Gratitude initiative, the Moorestown (N.J.) HSA delivered three yards each of black and yellow ribbons (their school colors) to families, who decorated wreaths or tied the ribbons around trees to show thanks to frontline workers. All proceeds went to Moorestown food pantries.

Provide meals: The Saint Ann Catholic School PTO president Kristin Garesche and parent volunteer Janene Corrado created an online volunteer program where parents sign up to buy lunch or dinner for the Arlington (Va.) police and fire departments and the Arlington Hospital ER staff. The PTO tapped three local restaurants, all longtime PTO fundraiser sponsors, to feed the frontline workers.

Similar ways to say thanks include buying meals for your school’s custodial staff and organizing a blood drive in your school community for your local Red Cross chapter.

Tackle a Beautification Project

Few community service projects help neighborhoods as immediately as fixing up a public space. To commemorate the 120th anniversary of PS 110 in the Brooklyn, N.Y., neighborhood of Greenpoint, the PTA organized an event they called “Giving Back to the Future.” Parents, students, and teachers gathered to clean up the public park next to the school, removing more than 30 bags of debris.

“We laid a huge pile of mulch, and our kids planted a beautiful black oak tree,” recalls anniversary committee cochair Tiffaney McCannon. “We wanted to create a lovely and peaceful place for students of the future to hold classes and read and reflect.”

Other ways to beautify the neighborhood:

• Assist in building a local dog run.

• Plant flowers around sidewalk trees.

• Paint a mural on the school walls.

• Turn an empty lot into a community garden.

Make Something

Especially for school communities that might not have money to spare for large donations, making something offers a chance to help in a tangible way. Since 1997, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School PTO in Rockville, Md., has gathered students and parents once a month to cook and serve dinner to homeless families at a nearby shelter.

“The program teaches our students about those less fortunate and the value of giving to others,” says Caryn Malkus, who runs the program. “It helps them to apply values that they’re learning in school, like tikkun olam,” which translates to mean social activism to repair the world.

If preparing food doesn’t appeal, try one of these ideas instead:

• Crochet hats for a children’s hospital.

• Make no-sew blankets for a homeless shelter or Project Linus (which gives handmade blankets to children in need).

• Decorate grocery bags for a food pantry.

• Make valentines for nursing home residents.

• Laminate bookmarks for the public library.

Focus on Animals

Team up with a local animal shelter, and possibilities abound. At Hickory Point Elementary in Northbrook, Ill., parent volunteers helped students make cat and dog toys; the school held a “trash to treasure” drive, collecting things like newspapers, old towels and rags, and used tennis balls for a nearby shelter’s use.

Here are more ways for families to help our four-legged friends:

• Arrange for children to read aloud to shelter dogs.

• Ask families to bake dog treats or walk shelter dogs.

• Visit shelters to play with the animals, help brush them, and clean up after them.

• Initiate a communitywide pet adoption drive.

Support Outside Charity Events

Charity events—in which families do an activity as part of a nationwide fundraising effort—offer many different ways to participate. For instance, PTOs all over the country organize groups to participate in the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, and some even take that relay a step further.

The Union Heights Elementary PTO in Morristown, Tenn., held a Family Fun Night before the event, with a dunking booth (target: the principal and teachers), carnival games, and more. As the evening wound down, the community gathered to light paper bag luminaries in honor of those who were fighting or had died from cancer. The luminaries were sold in advance and decorated by the students. “We started this Family Fun Night in 2010, and since then we’ve raised over $20,000 for Relay for Life,” says PTO president Jennifer Frazier.

If you’d rather focus more on helping the local community, your school could prepare meals for volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity building project or hand out water at a fundraising race.

Encourage Good Citizenship

Community service experiences can help children learn how to participate responsibly in the world around them. For example, the Mills Lawn Elementary PTO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, held its traditional election day potluck dinner for the larger community. School families served homemade soups, salads, and cookies to voters.

More ways to introduce kids to their responsibilities as American citizens:

• Make thank-you cards and baked goods for the local police station and firehouse.

• Create a tutoring program for the local refugee community.

• Host an international night at school, inviting families to share food, song, and dance that represent their heritage.

Support Our Troops

In a similar vein, efforts aimed at members of the armed forces help children appreciate the sacrifices some citizens make. At Mark Twain Elementary in Westerville, Ohio, families worked with a local group, the Marine Corps Family Support Community, to make care packages for deployed men and women. Students crafted cards during school recess, and families gathered one evening to assemble parcels filled with items like shelf-stable snacks, gum, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and socks.

“The saying ‘Many hands make light work’ was truly shown that night,” says Melissa Rex, a parent volunteer and service club adviser. “We packed 100 care packages in just one hour. Even preschool-age siblings were able to help!”

To show support for men and women in uniform, your group can also:

• Write thank-you notes.

• Organize a collection drive for Operation Gratitude.

• Gather extra Halloween candy to send overseas.

• Provide materials for students to write notes or draw pictures to be given to veterans on Veterans Day.

Do It All at Once

Rather than choosing one major project to work on as a group, you can put together an evening devoted to service with multiple, smaller opportunities to help. At Chloe Clark Elementary in Dupont, Wash., the PTA’s Community Service Night took place just before the winter holidays. Families who could afford to donate contributed to food and gift drives, and at the event volunteers wrapped the presents—allowing those who couldn’t buy extra items to give their time instead. Also at the event, children and parents got to show off their artistic chops by making almost 200 cards for veterans, 110 place mats for Meals on Wheels, and 120 scarves for a rescue mission.