MLK Week of Service 2025: Service Activities

The MLK Week of Service Planning Committee invites all students, faculty and staff, including campus departments and student groups (registered organizations, fraternity and sorority chapters, athletic teams, etc.) to volunteer for a service event during the week of January 27-31, 2025! Contact [email protected] with questions.

Daily Drop-in Activities 

Location: UCC Gallery (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday) and Bissinger (Wednesday) from 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.   

Donation Drop off/ Sorting

Service Activity: Drop-off or organize donations for various community organizations. Needed Items:   

• New Clothing: adult socks, underwear, undershirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts  

• Cleaning Supplies: spray cleaners, paper towels, detergents, sponges, etc. 

• New Toiletries: bar soap, toothpaste, deodorant, tampons, sanitary napkins 

• New Towels and Washcloths 

• Pantry Items:  shelf-stable unopened pantry items (no glass), pasta, rice, coffee 

• Books, CDs, DVDs (no periodicals, advanced uncorrected proofs or encyclopedias) 

Donations will benefit: Hoboken Homeless Shelter, Hoboken Community Center Pantry, Sharing Place Food Pantry, Symposia Bookstore, and other local non-profit organizations.  

SOUPerBowl Can Drive 

Service Activity: This year the MLK Week of Service is hosting a SOUPerbowl with the Hoboken Community Center. Students Organizations, Departments, Residences Hall, Athletic Teams and Sorority and Fraternity Life members are encouraged to create a team to see who can collect the most soups, stews and chilis to donate to the Hoboken Community Center. Every can you donate is equal to one point. If the can is dented or expired, you lose a point. Please label the can with the name of the organization you are representing and then drop it off in the collection bins on the second floor of the UCC.  

Grace Healthcare Services 

It is our belief that the delivery of hospice care can be taken to a new level of excellence by those who understand the privilege of what it means to serve the terminally ill. Grace Healthcare Services was founded by a group of hospice professionals who value that opportunity and privilege. We are dedicated to advancing the quality of hospice care in the communities that we serve. Our promise is to utilize the inherent expertise of our staff to educate consumers and serve patients and families with the highest level of dignity and grace.   

Service Activity: Make cards to be delivered to hospice care patients.    

Love for our Elders  

Love for Our Elders includes an amazing team and more than 50,000 volunteers across 70 countries working together to fight loneliness with love. Since 2013, we’ve mailed hundreds of thousands of thousands of letters to senior communities and created a storybook of inspiring seniors. LFOE seeks to facilitate an easy outlet for connecting with older adults who may feel alone, support seniors across socioeconomic and regional backgrounds, fight ageism and promote intergenerational sharing to humanize elders and bridge age barriers. 

Service Activity: Write letters to the elderly whose information is provided.    

Computers 4 People  

Computers For People Inc. was founded in 2019 by then 15-year-old Dylan Zajac in Hoboken, NJ. The non-profit was formed through his vision to create a sustainable solution to the mass pollution of e-waste and the ever-growing digital divide. Computers 4 People has grown to a leading organization tackling the digital divide in the New York City Metropolitan area.   

Service Activity from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday): Assist with cleaning and organizing computers.  

On Campus Service Activities

Monday:

Cuddle Hearts

Service Activity from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the UCC Student Commons: Parents of newborn infants in critical care are not always allowed to touch their babies. Cuddle Hearts are two cloth pieces sewn together that parents wear and then place in the baby's crib to start creating a bond with the parent. Help us make cuddle hearts to donate to the locate NICU hospital. We will be sewing fabrics in the shape of a heart. 

Tuesday:

Winter Care Packages with the Office of the President

Service Activity from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. in the UCC Student Commons: Pack winter care packages for the homeless. The items will be provided, including socks, gloves, scarves, blankets, ChapStick, and lotion. All hygiene packs will be donated to HomeFront NJ.

Project Linus Blanket Making with APO

Service Activity from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the UCC Student Commons: Using two pieces of fabric and scissors, make easy fleece blankets (no sewing required) to donate to Project Linus! 

Wednesday:

Operation Sandwich 

Service Activity from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Skyline (4thFloor of Howe): Make sandwiches to donate to the guest of the Hoboken Shelter.  

Thursday:

Hygiene Kits 

Service Activity from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in UCC Student Commons: Build hygiene kits of needed supplies to be donated to the Hoboken Homeless Shelter.  

Heart of Dinner Notes and Bag Decorating with Sigma Psi Zeta Sorority, Inc. 

Service Activity from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in UCC Student Commons: Decorating and packing bags with notes/snacks for Heart of Dinner. 

Friday: 

Project Warmth: Knitting and Crocheting Circle

Service Activity from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the UCC Student Commons: Learn a new skill as you create hats, scarves or gloves to be donated to the Hoboken Shelter. 

Off Campus Activities - Advanced registration required

St. Matthew Trinity Lunchtime Ministry

Lunchtime Ministry (LTM) was started in the 1970’s by the people of St. Matthew Trinity to provide a warm meal, hospitality, and community for our neighbors who are homeless, marginally housed, or just hungry. The mission is to provide our Hoboken neighbors with a warm meal, a compassionate community, and a peaceful place to spend the morning.  We strive to be a place where everyone is treated with dignity and respect. 

Service Activity from 8:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (8th & Hudson St.): Preparing meals for members in the Hoboken Community.  

Hoboken Public Library 

The Hoboken Public Library connects people with each other, ideas, and opportunities to support lifelong learning, personal growth, and community development. All our services and programs are made possible by the generous and dedicated people who run and contribute to the Hoboken Public Library Friends & Foundation, as well as the stewardship of the Hoboken Public Library Board of Trustees. 

Service Activity Thursday, January 30 from 3 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.  (5th & Park St.): Create community care kits with our friends at the library as well as help to organize the books.  

Symposia Bookstore 

Symposia Community Bookstore, Inc. is a PUBLIC BENEFIT nonprofit corporation in Hoboken NJ, organized and operated exclusively for educational and charitable purposes. Specifically, they operate a thrift shop consisting of books. Symposia offers great prices for used books, space for meetings, community events, support for local charities and groups, and volunteer opportunities.  

Service Activity Wednesday, January 29 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday, January 31 from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. – (at 510 Washington St.): Assist in the cleaning, sorting, and organizing of the books and facility. 

Hoboken Charter School 

The Hoboken Charter School is a K-12 community of learners that seeks to develop the growth of all its members through its commitment to social justice and service-learning through learner-centered practices.  Our mission, size and dedication to providing an inclusive learning community that spans thirteen years of education allows for something different- an individualized journey that leads students to know who they are and how they will change the world. 

Service Activity from (time) at (location): There will be two service activities occurring at Hoboken Charter School. One activity involves volunteers teaching STEAM lessons to kindergarten-grade 4 students.   

Service Activity Friday, January 31 from 12:30 p.m.  to 2:00 p.m. at 713 Washington St.: The second activity involves student volunteers sitting on a STEAM panel.  

Elysian Charter School  

The Elysian Charter School approach to learning, teaching and community is based on many of the philosophies taught in the tradition of hands-on and cooperative learning. Our philosophy leads us to teach in a manner that is child-centered, holistic, progressive and academically rigorous. 

Service Activity Monday, January 27 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and Thursday, Wednesday January 30 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at 1460 Garden St: Volunteers will teach STEM lessons to grade 7 and 8 students. Lessons and material will be provided.  

SAGE (Advocacy and Service for LGBTQ+ Elders) 

SAGE leads in addressing issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning and other self-identifying members of the community (LGBTQ+) aging. In partnership with its constituents and allies, SAGE works to achieve a high quality of life for LGBTQ+ older people, supports and advocates for their rights, fosters a greater understanding of aging in all communities, and promotes positive images of LGBTQ+ life in later years. 

Service Activity Wednesday, January 27 from 3 p.m.: Office of Undergraduate Student Life will be facilitating a service activity at SAGE where they will write letters of encouragement for elderly members of the LGBTQ community at SAGE while conversing with a few SAGE elders at the location in Chelsea, Manhattan. Then we will provide dinner service and engage with members at SAGE. 

Hoboken Shelter  

The Hoboken Shelter’s mission is to be a community partnership that transforms lives by providing meals for the hungry, shelter for the homeless, & services to support people to become housed. 

Service Activity from various times at 300 Bloomfield St.: Various Student Organizations are hosting dinner shifts at the Hoboken Shelter throughout the week to prepare and serve meals to their guest.   

Hoboken Food Pantry & Community Center

The Hoboken Community Center Pantry is a community resource for supplemental food, hygiene and pet supplies in Hoboken, NJ and surrounding communities. The Pantry supports residents of the Hoboken Community Center Affordable Housing program and community members experiencing food insecurity or other hardships. 

Service Activity Friday, January 31 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: Volunteers will bring donated can goods over to the Hoboken Community Center to sort through the cans. Sorting through the cans includes checking for dents and expirations dates. 

Service Activity Friday, January 31 from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.: Volunteers will stack the cans on the shelves and help organize the community center.