Volunteer Center South Bay Harbor Long Beach

You Make the Impact Possible

At the Volunteer Center, we believe that compassion in action can transform communities. With your support, we’re able to continue building brighter futures through our core programs-reaching children and families with the resources, care, and dignity they deserve.

Program Highlights:

🖤 Food For Kids

At the Volunteer Center, we believe no child should have to learn on an empty stomach. The same students who need educational support often face food insecurity at home - struggling to access healthy, affordable meals seven days a week.

Several years ago, staff from a local school reached out to us with a heartbreaking reality: students were arriving at school hungry on Monday mornings because there wasn’t enough food at home over the weekend. In response, the Volunteer Center launched Food for Kids, a program that now provides over 6,000 weekend meals to students and families across 16 Title I schools in Long Beach, Torrance, and throughout the South Bay.

We serve communities within some of the most food-insecure areas of California, where more than three-fourths of local students lack consistent access to nutritious meals - while Los Angeles County produces over 4,000 tons of food waste daily. Through Food for Kids, we’re closing that gap by partnering with local families, schools, and businesses who donate and distribute shelf-stable food to children who need it most.

Your donation helps fill hungry stomachs, fuel young minds, and ensure that every child in our community has the chance to learn, grow, and thrive.

🖤 Operation Teddy Bear

Operation Teddy Bear provides low-income first graders with free school supplies, books, STEM kits, and a cuddly teddy bear, all hand-packed by volunteers to inspire learning and offer emotional support.

• Over 5,000 students served annually in Title 1 schools

• Promotes early childhood literacy and classroom readiness

• Helps boost confidence and joy in underserved communities

Every kit delivered is a reminder to a child that they are seen, supported, and capable of achieving their dreams.

We need your support to stand in the gap for young learners by providing essential school supplies, educational tools, and encouragement through Operation Teddy Bear. Together, we can help bridge the opportunity gap and ensure every child starts their academic journey with confidence and dignity.

Read more about our Operation Teddy Bear program and the school partners who help us make it possible here.

Join us in closing the education gap and nurturing early literacy. Your support starts here.

🖤 Impact Makers

Teens today are facing more mental health challenges than ever—yet many don’t know where to turn for help, especially in under-resourced and marginalized communities. At the same time, schools are overwhelmed and lack the tools to provide consistent emotional support.

Impact Makers fills that gap.

This free, 12-week program gives high school students a safe space to explore their mental health, connect with peers, and serve their community. It empowers youth with confidence, emotional resilience, and a heart for others and equipping them to lead with empathy in a world that deeply needs it.

But we can’t do it without you.

Your support ensures this vital program remains free and accessible to every teen who needs it. Together, we can change the story for our youth one student, one project, one breakthrough at a time.

Stand with us. Invest in a generation of changemakers. 

• 22 Different High Schools Represented
• 6+ Community Placement Sites for Service-Learning Hours

Your generosity helps teens discover their voice and their strength. Support Impact Makers today.

“I learned how to apply empathy to every situation and how to present myself to people of all different backgrounds and experiences.” 

Discover how we're empowering teens through our youth program. Read more here.