Neighbor Settlement House Narrative

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.

During 2014/2015 we served 354,170 meals, including 330,735 hot lunches, to our homebound neighbors. The remaining meals provided either a lunch or breakfast bag to help our most vulnerable clients. Recognizing that seniors in our state are disproportionally susceptible to going hungry, we are making every effort to combat food insecurity by providing more quality and nutritious foods.

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.

In the student center on the Marietta campus, I along with a friend of mine, assisted in making sandwiches for the homeless. I observed and 30 fellow students rally together and make 500 sandwiches. This action will help provide food for many homeless citizens.

The movement can be traced back all the way to England in 1884, which is called the Progressive era movement and then spreading to the United States in 1886. In the early 1900’s the settlement house movement seemed to have its impact with the European immigrants living in slum dwellings. Having a basic need to improve their daily quality of life through education and health services. They were the first to benefit from the lack of welfare programs of the time. Initially the Kindergarten program was a way to attract parents to the settlement houses, but eventually evolved to improve living conditions for children. According to the Texas State Historical Association, children in the South suffered from a higher illiteracy

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.

The Progressive Era was a time of social work, the struggle for women’s rights, and millions of immigrants expanding into the United States. During the era, there was many poverty stricken neighborhoods. Poverty reforms were created to help poverty in the U.S., one of them being settlement houses. Settlement houses were influenced by Toynbee Hall in London. Their idea was that students and wealthy people should “settle” in impoverished neighborhood and provide services and improve the lives of the neighborhoods and those living in them. Settlement houses were designed to help the poor, including immigrants, with the help of middle class workers, in an effort to improve the neighborhoods in the poorest parts of the cities.

The homeless program, feeds over 250 homeless and at-risk individuals in and around the Atlanta metropolitan area. We assist approximately 150 families monthly through our Food Pantry program, located in Jonesboro. Our Food Pantry program provides nutritious, perishable and non-perishable

Volunteering at a local soup kitchen has become an important activity that humbles me, having witnessed the difficulties this population faces. The Christian Medical Association Homeless Meals Program at Wayne State University School of Medicine will allow me to continue this type of community outreach.

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.

Homeless, almost homeless, and unemployed veterans were able to get two free meals. They were also given a health check-up, haircut, clothes and other services.

Through Raymond Carver’s minimalist styled writing, comes “Neighbors,” a story about a seemingly ordinary couple who live dreary and plain lives. In the first few paragraphs we have a detailed description of the type of people, the relationship, and occupations Bill and Arlene Miller have. Later on, the story begins to spark a more dark and mysterious conflict by unraveling the Miller’s strange obsessions. Carver uses third person objective point of view to add onto his technique of simplistic writing & to create a more intense mystery.

Settlement house movement – The word settlement speaks for itself; according to The Social Welfare History Project website “The indication of a settlement – as a colony of learning and fellowship in the industrial slum” (Scheuer, 2015). The settlement house movement first started in 1884 in Britain providing education and social service as it is now called to the poor working class residents by London middle-class reformers.

Many area charities focus on the short term survival needs of the area’s homeless population, and provide food and supplies to them by traveling from area to area to reach them. These charities policy feed anyone. From the hardcore homeless population to a family down on their luck, their patrons include drug addicts, criminals and vagrants just passing through town. They have information on the resources available, but it is not standardized and these organizations and individuals are not coordinated in any

The Abandoned house stood there, with fog rising to the sky. Lights flickered being the only light in the dark….. The fog dragged a cold breeze, that sent a chill up my spine, this house has been here forever and nothing like this has ever happened before, I gulped and strolled into the cold night fog. As I approached the house, the door slowly opens and a Shadow steps towards me. The weather just dropped like 40 degrees, I don't like this at all.