Fall in Atlanta is a special time of year. The temps drop, the colors pop, the Braves chase championships, the Dawgs dominate and Hands On Atlanta mobilizes thousands of volunteers to do something good!

For the 2023 edition of Hands On Atlanta Week, presented by Delta Air Lines, more than 2,500 volunteers supported over 50 nonprofits and schools at 250 projects! The focus for the week prioritized projects around our three strategic impact areas - Food Security, Educational Equity and Environmental Sustainability.

Click here to watch a recap of the whole week on Instagram. Here’s a few highlighted examples of some big, impactful projects…

Packing 1,500 Meals at Delta Air Lines HQ

150 volunteers rocked a Fall Break meal pack for students at Kindezi Old 4th Ward, Kindezi West, Kindezi @ Gideons, and Cascade Elementary.

A school beautification at Barack and Michelle Obama Academy

Volunteers removed planter beds, repainted sidewalk games and artwork, built benches and picnic tables, and painted the teacher break room.

A Volunteer Takeover at 970 Jefferson

We teamed up with our friends at Food Well Alliance, Second Helpings and Urban Recipe to pack meals and make garden kits for families. Close to 100 high school seniors from KIPP Atlanta Collegiate volunteered at the takeover!

A Zen Room Renovation and Mural at Hope Hill Elementary

Volunteers helped create a relaxing, quiet space for teachers with a custom zen room makeover! Volunteers also got a chance to mix and mingle with the school staff, write notes of encouragement to students and staff and more.

If we zoom in a little more and focus on the Educational Equity volunteers helped support, we had:

• 45 Hands On Atlanta AmeriCorps members working with students at 15 different schools – coaching them on social emotional learning and tutoring them in math.

• Hundreds of volunteers packed over 3,000 weekend bags of food for students in our partner schools, renovated multiple school buildings and spaces, added colorful signage and improved student walk ways and even installed a new sports field – yes, including the bleachers.

• Close to 600 students join our Discovery program, where volunteers led STEM enrichment activities.

To be fair, it wasn’t all science, math and meals, volunteers also cleaned and refurbished around 400 bikes for metro Atlanta youth through our partners at Free Bikes for Kids!

None of this work happens without the support of all of our Hands On Atlanta Week corporate sponsors. Give these companies a high-five for joining us and supporting Atlanta’s biggest week of service.

Whew, that’s a lot of impact in just a short time, but the reality is - Hands On Atlanta Week is just a snapshot of the work volunteers do every day, and well, the work continues.

Join us and pick up where these volunteers left off and find a project on our volunteer portal. Happy volunteering!