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Volunteer Opportunities

The Vancouver Commandery is actively involved in community volunteering. Current opportunities for Members (and friends) to volunteer include the following:

Quest Non-Profit Grocery

Members meet monthly to participate in Quest’s “repack program” under which bulk products are repackaged into consumer-sized portions. Products include everything from rice to donuts. The physical requirements to participate are modest, including the ability to stand for a few hours at a time. Following the shift, Members often reconvene for snacks and a beverage at a local brewery.

Ronald McDonald House

Once every year, Members meet at Ronald McDonald House, 4567 Heather St, Vancouver to prepare dinner for the families staying there. RMH provides all ingredients and recipes, so participants don’t need to be chefs; however, being somewhat handy in the kitchen is a big plus! Past participants report that it is among the most personally moving volunteer experiences of their year. The physical requirements are modest, including the ability to stand for a few hours at a time.

Champion Your Charity

In early 2026, the Vancouver Commandery ran its Champion Your Charity program under which Members were invited to submit a grant application for program funding of up to $10,000 on behalf of an organization they were involved with as a donor, volunteer or board member. The following organizations were awarded grants and, further, indicated there are volunteer opportunities for our Members.

If you are interested to volunteer with any of these organizations, please contact Mary Jordan, Hospitaller at mbjcanada@gmail.com for further information.

Aboriginal Mother Centre Society

This is an existing community meal and food hamper program for 28 aboriginal elders (grandmothers) that would like to add both bi-weekly home visits to address spiritual, mental and emotional wellness of participants as well as to add participants from a waiting list of about 20. This is a group of aboriginal elders the society has been supporting since COVID-19. Many are co-founders, supporters and information-carriers from the Aboriginal Mothers Centre Society living in the neighbourhood. These women are less likely to access institutional support such as healthcare without individual support due to discrimination and factors related to intergenerational trauma. Loss of relatives or disconnect from their First Nation as well as age contributes to their isolation in an urban setting. Food insecurity is acute given rising food costs on fixed incomes. A group of 6 – 8 volunteers from SOSJ could support a staff member for 3-6 hours per month.

Burnaby Neighbourhood House

Burnaby Community Food Hubs, a program run by Burnaby Neighbourhood House, is a collaborative weekly food distribution model with seven community hubs distributing food to 8900 individuals weekly. They include low-income families, isolated seniors, new immigrants, refugees, post – secondary students, and homeless individuals. All are affected by the rising cost of basic necessities like rent, transportation and food. The program is supported by a number of community organizations and by 45 volunteers who help with food distribution weekly.

Fraser Regional Community Justice

(note: this volunteer opportunity is only available to lawyers)

This collaborative sentencing program is a restorative model in which victims and perpetrators, guided by facilitators, collaboratively craft recommendations addressing therapeutic, practical and relational needs. Judges praise the depth of resolutions achieved beyond the usual retributive ones to restorative and even redemptive ones. Many participants are indigenous, DTE street-involved, or marginalized individuals. Volunteers, potentially from the Vancouver Commandery, depend on funding for training and orientation.

Inspire Health

Inspire Health provides free programs and services to support the physical and emotional health of cancer patients of whom there are 200,000 across the province. This grant will support the delivery of its foundational two-day LIFE program where patients gain life-saving skills and knowledge for better health and wellness during cancer. Its objective is to provide free and easy access to services that improve quality of life, reduce treatment side effects, and support survivors. It runs monthly with the support of patient care and clinical staff and dozens of volunteers who assist with program set up and coordination.

Little Mountain Neighbourhood House

This program is a partnership between Little Mountain Neighbourhood House (Vancouver) and six caring neighbours in the Riley Park Neighbourhood who turn their lawns into urban foodscapes where food is grown, maintained and produced for Little Mountain Neighbourhood House’s Food Distribution program (FDP) together with a team of 57 volunteers and another 200 in the Food Distribution Hub. The Yard Gardens Harvest Program serves 169 households and another 200 in the food hub who are food insecure community members including seniors, newcomers, families, children and youth and those with health and mobility issues.

St. Bart’s Food Bank

St. Bart’s Food Bank is a community-based enterprise deeply integrated into the Gibson’s community and housed at St Aidan and St. Bartholomew’s Church. It is the only no-barrier food bank on the Sunshine Coast. No one is turned away. They provide help to feed more than 5,000 people. Between 2023 and 2025, it saw an 87% increase in food bank usage. The biggest groups served are seniors and families. Users of food banks are at high risk of malnutrition, especially seniors, the largest recipient group. St. Bart’s Food Bank has one part-time employee and 50 volunteers who provided more than 1,800 hours of service in 2025.

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