The St Andrews Voluntary Service (SVS) tasks itself with assigning volunteers, mainly from the student body of the University of St Andrews, to local projects in and around St Andrews. SVS began as a branch of the Christian Union that distributed volunteers to the local community to assist with tasks like gardening and shopping. In 1987, SVS separated from the Christian Union to become a recognised charity in Scotland and started to expand into other project areas. More recently, in 2006, SVS became a subcommittee of the St Andrews Students' Assocation.