Well yeah, if you work an unpaid job on top of your paid job, you won't have time to feel lonely. Not sure you'd like to deal with crazy Steve who rants at you while you feed him whatever day old bread you managed to beg from the local grocer, and clean up the food shelter's toilet after some homeless guy trashed it.
As for religion..eh, you have to believe in it for it to work. You can't just make secular church, because there is no secular commandment to love one another, just to not hurt one another. You can get into scenes where there are philosophical ideas enough to ground that kind of community, but you quickly find they are worse nuts than the religious people if not harmful.
You might get down voted but when people say that they are lonely and might want to volunteer somewhere, dealing with crazy people is not the best place for them to start.
As for religion..eh, you have to believe in it for it to work. You can't just make secular church, because there is no secular commandment to love one another, just to not hurt one another. You can get into scenes where there are philosophical ideas enough to ground that kind of community, but you quickly find they are worse nuts than the religious people if not harmful.