What does the city’s largest week of service look like? Well, for starters, it looks like a lot of fun!

Thousands of volunteers helped Hands On Atlanta and over 50 of our nonprofit and school partners improve food security and educational equity for families and students, improved the environment and sustainability across metro Atlanta and so much more throughout the 8 days in September - culminating on Sept. 27, 2022, Arthur Blank's 80th birthday.

Across the 200+ projects and events that took place, close to 1,000 volunteers sorted, packed or distributed 60,000 meals for local families, serving a combined 3,000 hours! That’s just some of the incredible impact made by volunteers. Here’s a closer look at a few of our highlighted projects and community events from across the week. 

Westside Takeover at 970 W. Jefferson

About 100 volunteers from the Blank Family of Businesses and iVision came out to 970 Jefferson St. (home to the Hands On Atlanta warehouse and several of our nonprofit partners) for an action packed Westside Takeover, to support a variety of agencies alleviating food insecurity across Metro-Atlanta. Volunteers were greeted by Atlanta Community Food Bank founder, Bill Bolling, then sorted food and packed about 9,000 meals with Urban Recipe and Second Helpings Atlanta, sorted 7 boxes of seeds and filled 500 seed packets for donation and painted 70 garden tools for Food Well Alliance to use in urban gardens & farms, and partnered up with Westside Future Fund to clean up the surrounding Westside neighborhoods.

STEAM Pop-Up at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta

Hundreds of volunteers from the Blank Family Foundation, Chick-Fil-A, and the Braves Foundation built 20 little libraries & 1,600 STEAM kits at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metro Atlanta. The STEAM kits were distributed to about 150 “Littles” during the Science ATL Pop-Up on September, 24. The libraries were built with the help of the Atlanta Community Toolbank and painted by the “Littles” then distributed to parks across Metro Atlanta in partnership with Park Pride.

Beautification at Centennial Academy and the Blank Family YMCA

Volunteers from Alston & Bird, Georgia Natural Gas, and HOK supported the Blank Family YMCA and Centennial Academy through the arts! Thanks to our partners at Paint Love and Learning in Color, volunteers painted and sealed little libraries, walls and rooms throughout both locations and 2 huge, motivational murals and 3 classrooms. Volunteers also read to over 100 students. Monique Lee, Associate Executive Director at the Metro Atlanta YMCA led the charge, with a big welcome and thank you to the volunteers!

Meals4Kids pack at the Hands On Atlanta Warehouse

Volunteers from the Blank Family Foundation and Georgia Power packed nutritious, shelf-stable food into bags for students at the International Community School in Dekalb County - many of who are refugees or otherwise immigrating from other countries. The volunteers also wrote notes of encouragement cards with candy to support literacy engagement.

Beautification at John Lewis Invictus Academy

Volunteers were greeted at John Lewis Invictus Academy by Principal Dr. Ramon Garner, Superintendent of Atlanta Public Schools, Dr. Lisa Herring, Garry Lowe, Vice Chair of the John Lewis Legacy Institute and Hands On Atlanta co-founder Elise Eplan. Atlanta Falcons players and cheerleaders were also on hand to help with a variety of beautification projects including building and painting 6 picnic tables, 6 garden bed builds, about 100 sidewalk paintings, and landscaping. This was the final project of Hands On Atlanta Week, helping to celebrate Arthur Blank's 80th birthday!

More Good that happened during Hands On Atlanta Week

• The Komen Georgia More Than Pink Walk raised $450,000 for breast cancer research, care, support and advocacy!

• The AIDS Walk Atlanta Festival and 5k raised close to $400,000 to support and care for Georgians living with HIV/AIDS

• The 4th Annual Morehouse College Human Rights Film Festival showcased 80 short and full feature films for an in-person and virtual experience. You can watch the trailers and purchase tickets to watch individual films here.

• 100 runners participated in the OneDigial Dash Corporate Crusaders team, racking up over 2100 miles from more than 290 runs throughout the week! Their team fundraised for Bert’s Big Adventure, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Safekids Georgia and Hands On Atlanta!