All Faiths Food Bank Organization

Thesis Statement: The Houston Food Bank uses the efforts of volunteers as well as donations to support the reduction of hunger in the community.

During the time I spent volunteering at John C. Lincoln’s Food Bank, I was able to provide food, individual hygiene items, and infant supplies to families struggling to obtain these critical items for their families. When I first arrived at the food bank, I spent time constructing care packages with soap, toothbrushes, personal wipes, and other essential items for health care. Later in the day, I had the unique opportunity to assist with the simulated grocery store within the food bank. The structure of the store allowed individuals receiving food to feel as though they were actively participating instead of passively accepting food and feeling helpless. Overall, I was able to instill a sense of self-efficiency in individuals who were struggling to provide for their families while personally interacting and sharing my time in a meaningful way.

Two years ago, I was sitting in a dimly lit packing room, wedged between a stalled out pale yellow refrigerator and a stack of boxes, packed to the brim with all sorts of canned fruits and vegetables. People worked quickly here, moving boxes from one corner of the room to another, creating a rhythm of sorts. Thump. Swoosh. Thump. Swoosh. The boxes left in droves as lines of people congregated around the open warehouse door with open hands ready to accept what was offered while statements of gratitude leapt from their tongues. The amount of people waiting outside far outnumbered the volunteers, but the volunteers worked hard, they knew they had to today. It was 104 degrees outside and some of these people standing in line, with children in tow, had been waiting for hours. It was distribution day at the South Texas Food Bank and I was there to help.

Over the last 17 years the number of families actively been served has fluctuated. As of right now, they are serving around 300 families per month. Each month, families are given approximately $100 worth of groceries. A member of each household arrives on either Monday or Friday to pick up their food box. Each week the food box contains bread, dairy, produce and pantry items. The future of Least of the Brethren is looking very bright. Later this month the pantry will be operating their Mobile Market. The Mobile Market is fairly new but has received great feedback. Volunteers will line food up outside the pantry and those in need will simply pull up, each vehicle is then load with an abundance of food. This is the only time families receive more than their monthly allotment of

Road Runner Food Bank has been beneficial in fighting the war against hunger in the state of New Mexico. This organization assists in feeding an overwhelming number of people, including infants and school age children. It is truly a blessing for many. Hunger is a main concern for New Mexico. The co-founder of Road Runner Food Bank has taken an oath to stop this problem. This program distributes more than twenty three million pounds of food to our state a year. Although they have ran into some problems they have usually managed to overcome these obstacles. Road Runner Food Bank is an organization that stores and collects food for our state. They donate and feed the less fortunate people. The ware house is stocked with thousands of pounds of donated food that is distributed to the less fortunate. They ease the pain of hunger for our state which has been very beneficial for us. New Mexico’s Road Runner Food Bank is a non- profit organization. Their annual revenue is about $42,397,488. This is due to the fact that they have acquired a great amount of donors and sponsors over the years. They also hold several fund raisers as well as other special events for promoting and supporting the warehouse. Road Runner food bank has impacted our state greatly. They are an organization whose primary goal is to feed the hungry. The many volunteers and paid staff inspect the food donations on a daily basis to

This semester the agency that I chose to work closely with is the Hays County Food Bank. This is a private nonprofit agency that distributes food to the people who are truly struggling to make ends meet. There is currently no longer a social worker at the food bank, but I did interview my two supervisors. I worked closely with my two supervisors, Jason and Chadwic, while both work for this nonprofit agency and both have a bachelor’s degree, they have very different backgrounds and experiences. The Volunteer Services Coordinator, Jason Kamimoto, achieved his bachelors at a school located in Hawaii. Jason makes sure there is enough volunteers present each day to make every distribution successful. Although this is Jason’s first nonprofit

The East Texas Food Bank is a nonprofit hunger relief organization based in Tyler, Texas. The East Texas Food Bank serves children, families and seniors through out network of Partner Agencies. Additionally, we target specific demographics such as children for our BackPack, Kids Cafe and Summer Food Programs. Seniors are targeted through our Senior Box Program. Our Priority Population are those who are deemed the “working poor”. This mean they are working, however they still can not meet all obligations for their household, especially regarding food. Needs for the community are assessed through a variety of surveys and data analysis. Some of this information is provided by the US Census, USDA and Feeding America. The subgroups that need

I have participated in the program Lunch Is Served, held at the First United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls. The goal of this program is to gather volunteers to pack lunches to aid the working poor, ultimately fixing the major hunger problem in Sioux Falls. I have attended this volunteer opportunity five times, and plan to volunteer again in the future. Essentially, those who participate pack as many brown paper bag lunches as possible in a streamlined fashion. Included in the bag is usually various nutritious snacks and a wrapped sandwich that will be given to those in need. My experiences there was very humbling, due to the fact that it made me realize the impact one person can have on the community. All it takes is a half hour of

On Monday, October 17th I volunteered to help the American Red Cross and other organizations at Purnell Swett High School. I was directed to a woman named Priscilla who oversaw a portion of the outdoor area. Our group was quite diverse. It consisted of young high school and college students, middle-aged parents, some senior citizens, and even a girl who appeared to be no more than nine years old. Everyone was in good spirits despite the recent tragedy. Our task seemed to be simple enough, however, we would soon discover it was going to take more planning. We were assigned to the rear of the school where we would sort through various bags and boxes of donations. Priscilla directed some of us to carry items to different rooms based on their size and whether the clothes were designed more males or females, children or adults. As organized piles began to form, these volunteers posted signs indicating the sizes in those piles. Priscilla asked a different group to take the flat boxes and fold and tape them to allow packing of the clothes. Another set of people were instructed to write the names of the recipients on the boxes. The final group, which later consisted of those who completed their share of the work already, was assigned to fill the boxes with appropriate items and seal them for delivery.

I volunteered at the Hubbard House, which is a home away from home for people who have family in the hospital or are being treated by the hospital and don’t want to live there, as the hospital is a 5 minute bus ride away. Our job was to serve the residents who were currently housed there, a hot homemade spaghetti and meatballs meal with garlic bread and assorted desserts. We served them as if it were a restaurant and brought smiles to their faces.

It was my first time ever volunteering for something. I believe I was more nervous because I didn’t know exactly what I was going to be doing and I didn’t want anything going wrong my first time. When I showed up to the mobile pantry it was completely different. Everyone volunteering was very friendly and helpful. They all work together as a community which is admirable. I was a stocker at the event. A stocker is one who is in charge of stacking tables with produce and disposes of empty boxes or makes them available to participants. I definitely enjoyed this because it opened my eyes of how many families out there are in need. Sometimes we take for granted what we have while other people wished they had what we do. I believe the Denton Hunger Coalition is a great organization that has many goals they want to accomplish and will continue to grow. One of the weaknesses the organization has is getting more people to come out to the food pantry. Since they are just starting some of the agencies out there maybe forget to promote them which is why many people don’t know about the pantry. Although, one of their strengths is that Denton community comes together as one in order to help others. I believe my volunteer time was of value to the agency because they were able to work faster with an extra pair of hands. I enjoyed volunteering and helping others

Our volunteers are the heart and soul of the program. Collectively they spent 39,000 hours this year delivering meals along with “human contact and kindness” to our clients. We thank them for the generous gift of their time.

The Wisconsin Food Bank is the recipient of a multi-year gift from Smith County Community Foundation that will double the number of children in the state who participate in its vitally important Kids' lunch Bag Program. Through the Foundation's initial gift of $200,000, more than 700 school children will receive nutritious food during weekends when other resources, including free/reduced price school meals, are not available to them.

There are a number of recent and projected developments for non-profit agencies located within the state of New Jersey. The vast majority of these revolve around organizations either looking for or moving into new facilities to assist in their conducting of various altruistic endeavors. Of those that have already procured a new location, one of the most spacious is the new digs for the southern branch of the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, which has begun the first fledgling steps of construction for its 29,000 square foot facility in Egg Harbor Township, close to the Garden State Parkway. The increased space will include room for a loading dock as well as for the ready operation of forklifts and additional freezer space. While the non-profit will look to move in during the summer, the HERO Campaign for Designated Drivers is moving into its new location in Galloway Township (at the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey) this month. The organization has a number of initiatives to spur the propagation of designated drivers, including registration efforts throughout professional football and baseball teams. Lastly, the South Jersey AIDS Alliance has procured new space on 7th Street in Camden, where it will attempt to increase fundraising efforts for those battling HIV and AIDS.

There are so many people in this world today, that are not aware of the huge storage in our local food bank community. Per the Houston food bank the goal of the Feeding America program is to make food accessible to feed hungry people in their greatest times of need. Therefore, our team is gear up to break the food shortage in defining the problem, analyze the cause, identify criteria, potential solutions and selecting the best solution.