Second Harvest Food Bank Reflection

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.

I have been a part of different activities for my community service. I have helped the TLC preschool afterschool with cleaning tables and toys once all the children have gone home. I have also been to the shelly baird school where they disabled kids go for schooling and helped out there with the students doing their work and played games .I am currently in “Dude Be Nice Club” and recently we participated in project night night where we would gather donated security blankets a book or stuffed animal and deliver them to children who have very little in homeless shelters. My community service in this case helped me realize that there are people out there who need some encouragement to help them get back on their feet and realize in life that

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.

At church, in addition to my participation in the worship services, I volunteered at our church’s soup kitchen, medical camps and elementary school for underprivileged children. These experiences opened my eyes to the deprivation of love and care in the world and a dire need of God’s grace for people at large so they could receive forgiveness, healing and restoration in their lives.

Around the globe there are many who are at a state of no access to food. Not only does this effect the homeless, but also those with a family and children. Because of their low income or environmental state and even poverty, not everyone has a fair chance of a proper nutrition. This is where the role of food banks comes into place as it limits these problems to these individuals. Through charitable events at school, I have participated in giving canned food items or food items that will not rot within a couple of years or months. Participating in these events not only gave me a ticket to partake in the well-being for others, but it also gave me a more understanding as to how many people are really impacted with hunger as well as other forms of their needs.

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.

My community service experience at All Souls Friday Soup Kitchen taught me the impoverished population of New York City and myself. The volunteer work pushed me to better myself in several areas. Serving the diners helped me expand my social skills with fellow workers and customers by forcing me to communicate with others. Also, setting up and deconstructing the dining room helped grow my management skills by having me order where the plates, mugs, etc. should be placed. Most importantly, working at the kitchen helped humanize the poor population of New York City for me. Often on the subway and on the sidewalk, I try my hardest to avoid the homeless man or woman begging for money, acting like they didn’t exist. Gratefully, my experience at

At a young age I discovered a passion for helping others and I have continued to be passionate about serving my community since then. At the age of eight years old I began the first year of what would soon be my ten year membership of 4-H. Through that program and my church’s youth group I truly began to understand what selfless service was all about. I first began helping others by walking dogs at the local shelter and helping my 4-H club clean the sides of the highways. I later was able to experience several mission trips that opened my eyes to the larger aspect of service. My love for helping people continued to grow as I got older and I continued to find ways to make a difference. One of my favorite experiences was getting to help cook and serve a meal at a homeless

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.

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

“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

Every Wednesday and Friday, I served with the Last Call 4 Grace ministry. I helped provide meals for people who barely have a roof over their heads. First, the other volunteers and I formed an assembly line. Then, we packed food in to go boxes. On Wednesday of the first week, we packed pizza and brownies. On Friday, we packed hot dogs, potato chips, and cookies. During the following week, we packed burritos for the first day and rice with broccoli for the second. In addition to the main meal, we also provided bread, Halloween candy, and other sweets.

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

I have participated in the program Lunch Is Served, held at the First United Methodist Church in Sioux Falls. The goal of this program is to gather volunteers to pack lunches to aid the working poor, ultimately fixing the major hunger problem in Sioux Falls. I have attended this volunteer opportunity five times, and plan to volunteer again in the future. Essentially, those who participate pack as many brown paper bag lunches as possible in a streamlined fashion. Included in the bag is usually various nutritious snacks and a wrapped sandwich that will be given to those in need. My experiences there was very humbling, due to the fact that it made me realize the impact one person can have on the community. All it takes is a half hour of