Lincoln Desert Mission Food Bank

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.

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.

Recipient of outstanding achievement in: Algebra 1, Spanish 2, Spanish 3, and Honors American Literature

I am honored and appreciated to have been selected to receive the Jim & Phyl Woodhouse Endowed Scholarship, in the amount of $1000.

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

Throughout my high school years, I have been apart of the Interact Club run by Rotary International. Several volunteer opportunities transpired from this experience, but I discovered a newfound interest in one of the encounters. Volunteering at the local Richmond Bethel Church for the organization Food4life, I was ecstatic once I began serving food, not only were there many familiar faces that came weekly, but there were much more that were in need of these charitable acts than I had anticipated. Having lived in Richmond my whole life, I was truly oblivious to the reality of poverty within it. Joining Interact Club was truly both uplifting and humbling and was a stark reminder of how vulnerable we all are to circumstances that can affect our

“We are Chicago's Jesuit Catholic university - a diverse community seeking God in all things and working to expand knowledge in the service of humanity through learning, justice, and faith.” In attempt to fulfill this mission as a student of Loyola University of Chicago, I decided to volunteer at the Lakeview Pantry. Personally, I believe that this was the most efficient way to effectively volunteer while being myself. I aim to either cultivate or participate in physical change, and at Lakeview, I could.

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

Early one November morning a woman stared at me with utter disbelief, tears of gratitude streaming down her cheeks."Thank you," she mouthed silently to me, clutching her son to her chest. I was proud knowing that, because of my efforts, her family and many more who struggle with poverty would be able to share a Thanksgiving meal. I knew that many children in my community would not be able to celebrate the holiday as others might because their parents could not afford to buy food items, and so as Vice President of a community service club called Interact, I was inspired to provide these children with a Thanksgiving dinner. The club officers and I sat crowded around our adviser's desk brainstorming how we would collect ingredients. We decided

During this semester's service learning project, I chose to serve at a community organization called Church On Wheels, Breaking Bread Soup Kitchen. Every night Monday through Friday Breaking Bread opens its doors to the community and provides a meal at no cost. Their mission statement is simple: To carry the gospel of the Lord through feeding the hungry and helping those in need. With this Christ-like love to His people, every night employees and volunteers come together to provide a meal that does not only feed them physically but nourishes the soul of everyone that enters the doors. Within the city of Midland, Texas you will find a diverse culture and community. Due to the recent oil boom, many families found themselves struggling to put a meal on the table. Breaking Bread saw the need in the community to open the doors every night to see that no one would go hungry in our town. With a commitment to see that the poor and needy are served with the love of Christ. On any given night you can expect to find

It is an honor to have been considered a recipient of the One Future Coachella Valley Scholarship.

According to Feeding America, a U.S. Hunger Relief Organization, over 50 million people suffer from hunger in America. Although a complex issue, nonprofit organizations such as food banks make tremendous contributions each year toward combating hunger. Unfortunately, the majority of food donated to the Puyallup Food Bank located in Puyallup, Washington is heavily processed. A heavily processed diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies in fiber, calcium, iron and vitamins. These nutrients are vital to human survival.

Have you ever wondered where you would rest your head at night? Where you would find your next meal? How would support your family given unforeseen sudden circumstances? I’ve never thought about the importance of these questions until a recent experience I had volunteering at a food pantry. There are organizations whose main purpose is to help those in need and provide resources to members of the community who are going through difficult times. A food pantry is a non-profit community serviced organization that provides members of the community with groceries and resources. From volunteering at this food pantry I learned more than ever to never “judge a book, by its cover”, or in other words, even though I person may look well put together on the outside, you never know what it is they are dealing with on the inside. I’ve encountered homeless members of the community, people who have suffered from physical abuse, and people who have experienced unexpected disasters such as house fires to expected job layoffs while volunteering at a food pantry. I’ve also come to appreciate everything that I have in my life from the roof over my head to the food in my stomach and that some people are less fortunate than me.

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.