River City Food Bank: Community Analysis

The Trussell Trust website says that their food banks “help prevent crime, housing loss, family breakdown and mental health problems”. I think food banks can actually make a huge difference to people’s lives and the government seem to be offering no better solutions anyway. The Trussell Trust are also running courses and providing help to get people back on their feet. Mark, a former food bank user who now volunteers for the Trussell Trust, says “Without the food bank I’d probably be back on the streets, drinking and shoplifting for food. The food bank has changed me as a person, it gives me a reason to get up… Food banks do so much for communities; every town should have one”. Food banks rely on public donations and volunteers, and receive no help or funding from the government. Most people are under the impression the government will protect us when we fall on hard times, as it is one of their most fundamental duties to do so. So why are they not giving people the help they

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

On Tuesday evening, over fifty of our leaders from Auto, Innovation, and Recovery came to fight hunger and feed hope at the San Antonio Food Bank. Collectively they sorted through 20,330 pounds of food which resulted in 16,264 meals for the city of San Antonio and it's surrounding counties. It was an evening of camaraderie and fun that will never be forgotten.

The Plain City food pantry collects donations from people and/or stores like Wal-mart, Wendy’s etc. They also have a small thrift store that they run based off only donations. Their mission is to contribute to the small community of Plain City by providing food, toiletries, clothes etc. They want to feed people who struggle and can’t afford to put food on the table or clothes on their back. The specific area they provide for is the locals in Plain City. The schools in Plain City will have food drives and all the donations would go to straight to the pantry.

My family didn’t eat at all for the first two weeks and we were starting to develop health problems, fortunately none of my family had to go to the hospital but this wouldn’t be the case in real life. According to Canales, Coffey, & Moore (2015) “Eating nutritious food is one of the major modifiable determinants of chronic disease”. Low income families are especially at risk for malnutrition because more often than not healthier foods are more expensive and do not last as long as less nutritious food. IN addition to malnutrition, families who live in food insecure households are also more at risk for chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and depression. “In order to eliminate persistent health inequities related to food insecurity, nurses and other health professionals need to direct efforts toward identifying food-insecure patients and increasing access to healthy food for low-income populations” (Canales, Coffey, & Moore, 2015). It is also important for nurses to be empathetic and remain non-judgmental towards low income families because difficulty feeding ones’ family can be embarrassing and hard for families to discuss with other people especially

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.

This particular article is written by Patricia A. Duffy who states that low income families use the food pantry for emergence assistance for food, aside from the traditional government programs; this article suggests that food pantries are heavily used for emergency food (Duffy). The article focuses more on lower income families instead of the homeless. It compares food stamp programs along with the food pantry to understand how they both tie in to one another. There are various statistics and interviews of those who participate in such programs across the nation.

The South Texas Food Bank was one of the many agencies that we were working with through Rebranding the Border, a non-profit social venture that I co-founded. Rebranding the Border, at the time was focused on tackling one of the many side effects of the ongoing border violence, a decrease in the number of volunteers assisting local community organizations. Through Rebranding the Border we were able to set up partnerships and deliver

According to the survey conducted by the U.S conference of Mayors, 67% of adults requesting emergency food aids are people with jobs. Recently, American food banks are experiencing a “torrent of need which they cannot meet”. In Maine, Ms Ehrenreich needed immediate food aid or cash assistance as she was new to the place and most of

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.

The Field Education Experience I chose Food bank/ Pantry, is a non-profit, charitable organization that distributes food to those who have difficulty purchasing enough food to avoid hunger. Food banks/ pantries are usually faith based operations. However, they can operate on a much larger scale, such as a warehouse (Food Bank of Central and Eastern North Carolina, Raleigh, NC.). The warehouse act as a storage that holds large quantities of food for smaller agencies. Some of the smaller agencies are churches, schools, food pantries, homeless shelters, also soup kitchens just to name a few (www.foodbankcenc.org).

When I was in San Francisco all the time I saw a big truck driving to the Food Bank, and I saw many people are working in this place the go to inside

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.

If one is looking for a place to eat for free in Wichita, KS, there are 32 churches and food pantries that offer meals to the public. With a simple Google search, one can note that all 32 of these food sources for low income areas converse and attempt to divide the dates they provide food. (RSS and RSS) They do this that way a family or individual does not ever have to go without a meal. The meals are not limited to dinner, but they also provide meals as early as 8:00 A.M. Food pantries also provide bags of food for people that qualify for their service. The services provided by food pantries and churches are helpful in many ways, people without a home

Food insecurity is one of the leading public health challenges in the United States today, since millions of people (children and adults) are food insecure because of insufficient money income and other socioeconomic and demographic factors. (Seligman, Kushel, & Laraia, 2010)