My Experience At The Regional 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.

* With the statistics presented earlier on the percentage of families that are hungry but still have homes, it really touched me in the way that a hungry person could be someone that I know or care about.

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

During my summer breaks I volunteer at the Second Harvest Food Bank. I do specific shifts such as labeling meat products and packaging them or storing food boxes with non perishables (food cans, cereal boxes) and boxing them for one family. I am a current member of Key Club, it also partnered with Second Harvest. Every Thursdays, I help out in Key Club by cleaning the campus and recycling to make the school more environmentally friendly. Outside of school, I attend Aktion Club and monthly car washes to help fundraise for DCON and grow relationships with people in our community that are disabled. There were occurrences where I had to take a role in setting up events like in the Diabetes and Breast Cancer Walk, I was responsible making every

John will be able to contribute to the LFA community with his sense of service through his experience with the Boy Scouts, his love of sports and his local hospitality. John has been involved in the Cub Scouts and is currently working towards his Eagle Scout through the Boy Scouts of America. The Boy Scouts is centered around service to the community, whether it is volunteering at Feed My Starving Children, helping to collect food for our local food pantry in Waukegan, cleaning our neighborhood of garbage, putting up wreaths for our fallen soldiers at our local Fort Sheridan Cemetery to putting up/taking down of the the LF flags and wreaths for special events in Lake Forest. John will bring this sense of service to LFA.

Coming into my second year of high school I was so tired the first day of school not wanting to get up just wanting to sleep forever and not having to worry about school. Unfortunately living in a Mexican household that was not an option. So forcing myself out of bed and heading to school I could say I was productive over the summer. When Mr. Jarashow asked me what I had done over my summer I told him I finished all my community services hours. This helped me grow as a global citizen by taking action because I devoted my time to helping out at my local food bank (valley food bank) by helping hand out food to those who needed it, during my time at the food bank I meet a lot of new people. They shared their reason of being there and some valuable

Catonsville emergency food ministries (CEFM), which provides food, and household supplies to the homeless and needy population, is where I did three hours of my service hours. All though this was not my first choice, as I thought I could not learn anything from it, and it would be boring and not engaging. I was wrong; I didn’t know the work and knowledge that went into planning, for the day to day operation of a food bank. The building itself was small, and lack adequate space for storage, and working. The week prior they lost all of their meat supplies due to a freezer malfunction, which left a slight death smell in the building. The volunteers were very nice and helpful in showing me around, and answering question. I was actually surprised that one of the volunteers was 16, and was doing it just to get out of the house.

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.

Serving AmeriCorps will allow me to pass the torch of knowledge to empower all that I encounter. My passion is to inspire others to improve their quality of life through higher learning. Specifically, my target audience is low-socioeconomic class citizens within the community. Education has empowered myself and daughters out of unfavorable circumstances. Therefore, I believe all change first begins with the gift of knowledge. Ultimately, I aspire to help others find their way to self-actualization. I hope to encourage others to reach their life goals and dreams. So, I believe AmeriCorps will be an excellent opportunity to use my skills to change lives. Post AmeriCorps I plan to continue to help within the community and abroad to teach others

This week at the internship, GVAHEC project manager asked us to develop a project regarding wellness education by the request of St Mary’s food bank. Remember that St Mary’s food bank is a nonprofit organization that provides food assistance for low income people. They collect the leftover food from food company, such as Safeway, Starbucks, Fry’s, and others. I think that was a good idea to collect the leftover food from food producers instead of damping them, while some people were dying of starvation. According to the St Mary’s food bank request, some of people who come to the food bank for food do not have personal car. They walk or take bus as their form of transportation; however, we are living in Phoenix and we all know how hot it is, especially in

I choose these services because I wanted to experience different ways of helping the community. I also wanted to become more confident in my self by taking different opportunities. I wanted to learn some leadership skills through my services as well. I have learned to be myself through services like the Big Brothers Big Sisters program. I enjoy helping the community and seeing others smile. I am very passionate about the human heart and learning many new medical terms from doing some services for the American Heart Association. I am proud to say that I am making a difference with the service that I have chosen.

As I was and still am in the process of applying for other AmeriCorps programs, I have had the chance to speak to two different Teach for America staff members who through their informational meetings showed me the importance of the work I would be doing with Teach for America. As a kid, I grew up in poverty with my mom and four other siblings’ living paycheck to paycheck off government assistance. This experience was my motivation to change my future and the statistics I faced as a Black male who grew up in poverty, and also showed me why giving back to the community was the right thing to do! All my life, I have received help from different people, groups, or organizations from neighbors, to my big brother from the Big Brother Big Sister

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.

Galveston County Food Bank’s main objective is to receive, warehouse and distribute nutritional food through collaborative partnerships with churches, schools, charitable organizations and social service agencies providing direct services to low income residents. The Food Bank is requesting $120,000 in United Way support for its Agency Services program, which incorporates food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, senior living facilities and other participating agencies. Providing the agencies access to nutritious food at low or no costs allows them to dedicate their resources in providing their clients with services that will lead to better health and self-sufficiency.

I believe that AmeriCorps is a great organization that wishes to bring aid, create leaders, and create a sense of community. I wish to support and assist marginalized communities. By lending a helping hand, mentoring, understanding, and positively reinforcing individuals I wish to help communities that just need extra assistance or that need to be strengthened. I also wish to aid in building the confidence of individuals. I believe that with the proper guidance and assistance people are inspired to seek opportunities to become their best selves. I know first hand how powerful civic engagement can be in a community and would like share my own experiences of community upliftment having through programs similar to Americorps. I have worked in the field of insurance and have skills of: customer service, organizational, analytical, data entry/editing, and empathetic listening. In addition to having insurance knowledge, I have experience working with diverse groups. From leading an empowerment group for women called Unconventional Womyn for seven months and volunteering with various non-profits I have learned leadership skills, public speaking, educational skills, and much more. I am interested in taking the skills that I have and strengthening them by working with AmeriCorps. I am also interested in assisting