{"id":500124,"date":"2026-01-08T00:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500124\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T00:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T00:34:13","slug":"philadelphia-mlk-day-of-service-2026-how-to-get-involved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500124\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia MLK Day of Service 2026: How to get involved"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

In 2026, against the backdrop of yearlong semiquincentennial celebrations<\/a>, the U.S. will mark its 31st annual MLK Day of Service.\n<\/p>\n

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was born out of federal legislation co-authored by Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford<\/a> and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

What started in 1996 in Philadelphia with 1,000 volunteers has grown into a \u201cday on\u201d with hundreds of thousands of volunteers across the country. Philly remains home to what organizers call the nation\u2019s largest MLK Day event.\n <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at how the city will be marking the federal holiday this year.\n<\/p>\n

How will Philly mark MLK Day 2026?<\/p>\n

On Monday, Jan. 19, Temple University will act as the Philly region\u2019s volunteer hub for the first time in more than 15 years.\n<\/p>\n

This year, the Greater Philadelphia Martin Luther King Day of Service<\/a> theme will be the commitment to civil rights through equity and education.\n<\/p>\n

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker<\/a> on Wednesday announced the city\u2019s MLK Day plans alongside Todd Bernstein, founder and director of the event and president of the nonprofit Global Citizen<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

King, Bernstein said, \u201cbelieved that a quality education is a fundamental right to breaking cycles of poverty to achieve social change.\u201d Though the nation has made progress, Bernstein cautioned that inequities and barriers remain, citing federal efforts to erase the history of \u201cracism, slavery, Jim Crow and the benefits of diversity, equity and inclusion<\/a>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

MLK Day, Bernstein emphasized, is \u201cnot just a birthday celebration,\u201d but an \u201copportunity to make King\u2019s vision of social justice our mission, too.\u201d And not just on MLK Day, he added, but every day, as King used to say, \u201cwith \u2018the fierce urgency of now.\u2019\u201d\n<\/p>\n

To mark the occasion, Temple will host a variety of service projects, including a jobs fair, a health and wellness fair and other family-friendly activities.\n<\/p>\n

Some of the university\u2019s opportunities on campus will include workshops on year-round civic engagement, a kids\u2019 carnival with educational activities, a noon rally for peace and justice and a Reading Captains training, as part of a citywide early literacy initiative\n<\/p>\n

Volunteers will also help assemble \u201cbook arks,\u201d which will offer free books in underserved communities, as well as hygiene kits for people experiencing homelessness.\n<\/p>\n

At 3 p.m., the Philadelphia Orchestra will wrap up the day with its annual MLK Day tribute concert, for the first time at the Kimmel Center\u2019s Marian Anderson Hall<\/a>. Those interested in attending may reserve free tickets<\/a> online.\n<\/p>\n

The Kimmel Center will simultaneously host a food drive, in partnership with Philabundance. Residents are encouraged to donate non-perishable foods to help neighbors struggling with food insecurity<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":500125,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,223466,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-500124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-mlk-day-of-service","10":"tag-pa","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115856674928814462","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}