Case Study: Second Harvest Food Bank Of Metrolina

During my second week of my community health hours, I was placed at River City Food Bank. River City Food Bank’s main goal is to lessen hunger in the Sacramento region by offering healthy food and assistance to vulnerable populations. They do not only provide healthy food but they also provide nutrition education and counseling. In addition, they provide diapers for babies and the older population. They also provide health services for mothers and assist them with contraceptives and other important education for their women daily life. Their mission is to help people from all ages, from homeless to the working poor and families who are struggling.

Specific Purpose: To inform the audience of the workings of the Houston Food Bank and the concepts discussed during the course which were demonstrated through our volunteer experience.

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.

A direct action that resonated with me from the course readings was that of the Mass Hunger Clinics provided by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty(OCAP), starting in 2005. The Mass Hunger Clinic resonated with me because it is, for me, something real. It is a struggle that I see every day at work with a lot of my students and I have been for many years part of the food for learning program with my school board. The lack of nutritious foods and the resources to obtain them is something that shouldn’t happen. It made me very upset to think about these families and the length they had to go to in order to provide for both themselves and their families. The OCAP developed these Mass Hunger Clinics as an “initiative focused on the special diet

I go to St. James every other Wednesday. On Wednesday, the food truck is delivered to St. James Food Pantry. The assignment for the day is listed on the white board in the back of the pantry. The assignments state what bag a volunteers are doing and what contents needs to be in each bag. In each bag, the items will consist of one item from each food group on the food pyramid. St. James is about supplying their clients with nutritional food because they want to help clients not only physical but mental. After filling the bags that the specific person is assigned to, volunteers go to help other groups and organized shelves. At that time any open cases of food: are either stock them or put them in any assigned bags. Before lunch time, volunteers start to prepare the homeless lunch and for nutrition class. My job tasks, is to prepare the homeless lunch and lunch table. I have to prepare about forty-five sandwiches, desserts, chip and juices for the homeless in zip-codes St. James serves.

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

The Volunteer Center of North Texas (VCNT provides agencies with training programs, background checks for volunteers and employees, and goods donated by area businesses.

Harvest Hope’s mission consists of, “Providing for the needs of hungry people by gathering and sharing quality food. With dignity, compassion, and education (Harvest Hope Food Bank, 2015).” Based on their mission, I was easily motivated to treat all clients with the same dignity, compassion, and respect I would want in receiving services. For example, bread in the bread bins often grows mold on certain sections. I would try and find another pack because I understood the client would appreciate my consideration. Staffing on a daily basis consists of a number of volunteers who help Harvest Hope run smoothly. Food distributed included vegetables, canned drinks, canned goods, fruits, and dairy products. The amount of donated items a family receives is

My time spent at Community Harvest included a Thursday and a Friday where my first day spent there included packing bags full of food for senior citizens who would come to pick up their groceries throughout the day. Furthermore, each bag contained the same groceries which made this task fairly simple in comparison to my second day there. One my second day, I assisted those who were shopping for their groceries. Furthermore, I filled out forms which indicated how many pounds of food each person could take. My role was to keep track of 7-10 different shoppers at times while instructing them to what items they could take and how many pounds of those items. Senior citizens as well as those who are in an unfortunate situation benefitted from my actions due to the fact that I filled their bags with groceries and helped instruct people on what groceries they were allowed to

On July 23, 2015, I applied for food assistance. As you would be able to find out from the attached application, you would find out that I stated clearly in my application that both of my children were in a 50/50 timesharing arrangement (including 50/50 overnights). See attached application “Frank-07-23-2015,” page 15 and Court order, “Agree Final Judgment July 14 2015.”

Sherri Anderson once said, “Volunteers don't get paid, not because they’re worthless, but because they're priceless. I have been involved towards my community for years and will continue to do so. I attend community service events once or twice a month to help an organization, animal shelter or center. I have contributed the community with 100 hours of my time to help others. Recently, I volunteered at the North Texas Food Bank, a top-ranked nonprofit relief organization. Thanks to this organization and volunteers, it has provided with more than 170,000 meals each day. During the summer, I helped shuck over 3,000 pounds of corn, which was estimated to help feed 2,000 people in my community. That following week, I spend some time on the weekend

Unfortunately not all organizations see the world in a humanitarian point of view, but the handful that do includes The South Texas Food Bank. This organization was founded in 1989 and has been helping the community of Laredo ever since. The South Texas Food Bank allows the unfortunate to receive food and also educate the community about the realities of hunger. It has helped more than ten thousand families throughout the years.

On August 4, 2015, Vivian Cu and I chose to volunteer at the Second Harvest Food Bank located on 700 Edwards Ave. in New Orleans. Our Tuesday morning of service started at 9AM and ended around 11:30AM. In preparation for my first time at Second Harvest, I wore comfortable clothes that were easy to move around in and that were possible to get dirty in. The man in charge of all volunteer services, Vince, quickly gave me my duty for the day. There is a huge case of canned goods and my job was to put as many canned goods as possible on a conveyor belt. The conveyor belt would carry these cans to many aisles where other volunteers would put them into smaller boxes that had to weigh from fifteen to thirty pounds. After packaging these boxes, Second

The social problem the Charleston Area Churches Food Pantry, a non-profit organization, deals with the social problem hunger. According to our textbook, Social Problems, a social problem is a condition that undermines the well-being of some or all members of a society and is usually a matter of public controversy. With that being said, world hunger fits the category of a social problem for many different reasons. Being hungry can cause humans to get very sick and have starvation related illnesses. Not only may someone suffer from these illnesses, they could potentially be killed from them. Those who work with the Charleston Area Churches Food Pantry favor the solution of making those in need of food aware of food pantries so starvation related illnesses are less likely to occur. When our social group spoke with the manager of the pantry, he gave us a sheet that has eleven different food pantries listed with their locations that he often gives out to customers because they are unaware of all the help them actually can receive.

Ishmael did well while working with us at Harvest Outreach Center. Ishmael never shied away from negative situations such as fights or arguments. Ishmael was present and in the moment with the kids to foster more positive outcomes by modeling appropriate behavior. Ishmael led various fitness activities such as an obstacle course and other athletic games such as basketball. At its core athletics is conflict, Ishmael was able to mediate between many arguments and disagreements that stemmed from that conflict. Ishmael was there to assist Harvest staff with therapeutic group’s activities. I believe that Ishmael has done well to learn from his environment how to better server this community in a positive way by teaching children how to respect themselves and others. Ishmael is dependable he was always present when discussed and he got on the same