Weed and imbibe
Unbeknownst to many locals, right next to the UCSF campus lies one of the wildest areas remaining in the city, the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve. These 63 acres (including one trail dating back to the 1880s) require a lot of upkeep, which is where the Mount Sutro Stewards come in. Volunteers can go high- or low-impact, from weeding in the Rotary Native Plant Garden to swinging picks and building stone drywalls. The best part, however, may be finishing up a hard day’s work with free pizza, home-brewed beer, and new friends. First Saturday of the month, 9 a.m.–1 p.m. Woods Building parking lot, 100 Medical Center Way, S.F., 415-476-8431, natureinthecity.org/mtsutro.php

The companionable soup kitchen
You don’t have to be Episcopalian, or even religious, to help out at Grace Cathedral’s Dinner with Grace—you just have to be good company. Volunteers with the program, which provides a monthly meal for residents at two Tenderloin SRO hotels, don’t just ladle out canned soup: They pick a menu and shop for ingredients, then prepare the meal on Tuesday and, before packing it up to be served the next day, sit down to enjoy the dinner themselves. The conviviality continues on Wednesday, when half the group dishes up the food while the other half breaks bread with the residents. The groups switch during dessert. 1100 California St., S.F., 415-749-6356, ministriesofgrace.org/dinnerwithgrace

ER on the slopes
Calling all the ski-bum wannabes—from fi-di 9-to-5ers to out-of-work Marina realtors—who head to Squaw Valley on winter weekends: As a volunteer with the National Ski Patrol, you’ll get the chance to ski for free (oh, and also to save lives). You’ll have to work hard for the privilege: Squaw requires you to complete six weekends of training, 20 days of shadowing, classes in outdoor emergency care and CPR, and a certification test. But if you make it through all that, this is the sweetest gig on the mountain. 530-452-7262, squawskipatrol.org

Get dirty­ and get down
Bust a move in the field and on the dance floor with Pie Ranch’s commun­ity workdays. Every third Saturday at this Penin­sula farm, dedicated to teaching Bay Area students about sustainable agriculture, volunteers roll up their sleeves to help with harvesting wheat and berries, weeding the hedgerows, collecting chickens’ eggs, and more. (The fruits of your labor may end up in a lovely strawberry-rhubarb pie at the affiliated Mission Pie, in San Francisco.) And after you put down the hoe, get ready for an authentic hoedown: an all-out potluck and rowdy barn dance—fiddler, caller, and all. 2080 Cabrillo Hwy., Pescadero, 650-879-0995, pieranch.org