Volunteer

The work of COR’s School Liaisons is the heart of our nonprofit. School Liaisons communicate with contacts at each school to identify student needs and arrange for deliveries. We have one School Liaison Team for each of the HISD Divisions: Central; North; South; and West. Each School Liaison is supported by team members who fulfill school orders and make deliveries to schools.

Order fillers on the School Liaison Teams fulfill most school requests with items in inventory at our COR warehouse. Most orders request specific items and sizes for students in need, and can include a mix of food, clothing, hygiene and cleaning products, and specialty items. Orders are packaged and labelled to ensure proper delivery.

Delivery drivers on the School Liaison Teams pick up packaged orders and drop them off at schools in coordination with our school contacts. Typically, drivers volunteer on a set schedule and do a route of dropoffs to schools in an area within their Division.

COR pre-packages many of its products — hygiene and cleaning supplies, food, and some clothing — to provide the most frequently requested items in packaging that is manageable for a student to carry home from school. Community and volunteer groups can arrange a packing session to assist in assembling large numbers of packs, and individuals can volunteer to make packs as needed to ensure that we always have some packs available in inventory for order filling. To sign up individually for a scheduled packing event, please use our sign-up tool.

COR tracks all items received and all items to delivered to schools. As we receive in-kind donations, we sort, count, and store them in the appropriate place in our warehouse to be available to fulfill school requests. We also periodically count items on our warehouse shelves to verify our physical inventory and plan purchases.

If your civic organization, place of worship, business, or other group is interested in collecting supplies for needy students, we will arrange to collect the items from you and distribute them to schools that need them, or connect you with a staff member at an appropriate school. 

Possible projects include collections of food; new socks or underwear; hygiene items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, or shampoo; uniform clothing and other simple attire; period supplies; jackets or other cold-weather gear; off-to-college supplies; school supplies; Legos, art supplies, puzzles, and games.

COR Houston strives to inform people of the work we do and the need for support. We communicate to the public through our accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and X, and through email newsletters and campaigns. We look to target our messages for specific audiences and areas, and to broaden our community outreach.

Do you have a specific skill? Let us know about it! We welcome assistance with tasks like writing our newsletter, maintaining an inventory catalogue, connecting with similar organizations, seeking donations of specific items, and more.