Soup Kitchen Reflection

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 social issue that they are addressing is poverty, hunger, and low income. A lot of people who are on disability, food stamps, and people with no jobs are the ones who receive from the food pantry. The Plain City food pantry impacts the community by providing for those who have no other support.

Some families could not even afford as little as one single meal. The soup kitchens and breadlines were made as a very beneficial charity giving the fresh bread and soup to the people that could not afford it. There were so many homeless people on the streets. They were all over the place. Every block and every street you looked on you would see homeless people.

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

By having your friends and family donate canned goods, you can make a difference. If a person skips the coffee shop for one day, that money could go towards giving a hungry family a meal. By creating a food drive, others can help these families as well. There are countless ways to through a food drive. You can have a competition with your friends to see who can gather the most food. You can collect donations from your coworkers. You can even have a gift party for your friends to come in with the canned goods. Be creative and have fun while helping fight hunger. By collecting food, you will provide a meal to those who do not have a guaranteed chance of eating. To create a food drive, visit the link

This textual evidence was then followed by a statement by many interviewed volunteers. These volunteers felt that their work at the soup kitchen was the only thing they participated in that made them feel as though they were doing a good deed. Seeing as how Americans have no concern for the amount of food they waste, and seeing as how Americans rely on the constant need of food as some sort of confidence boost goes to show the reader that there is no actual cure for hunger – because no one truly cares enough to find one.

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.

The non-profit organization that I chose for the semester project is Feeding America, a non-profit organization that consists of a network of food banks assisting food insecure people throughout the nation. What does a food insecure family look like in the United States? It is parents going without food in order to feed their children, it is families rationing food and skipping meals.

The homeless and low-income families have numerous resources available like the Interfaith Church that offers a Soup Kitchen Supplemental Nutrition program that is made up of these sources: commodity supplemental food program, emergency food program, food assistance, and USDA commodity program. The number of soup kitchen meals served peaked in July to just over 50,000, and were the lowest in April at just under 40,000. Majority of their clientele is homeless adults. Another good resource is Social services that can assist with charitable healthcare, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or S.N.A.P. These programs help to provide access to health care and proper food and nutrition. The Affordable Housing Project offers studio apartments, 1-bedroom

Enactment and enforcement of laws that restrict groups sharing food with homeless persons in public space

Soup kitchens and food pantries are also important and mostly unfunded organizations that are helping to fight hunger. Food pantries are located throughout North Carolina and almost every county or town has one. Here, families can purchase foods at a discounted price or receive them for free. Most are set up just as a grocery store would be and have many different options for food. Almost all sites accept donations of money or food. The most common donated items are canned foods, such as soups and canned vegetables; and boxed sides such as mashed potatoes and macaroni, because most just need to have water added and can be easily fixed. Although there are thousands of food pantries, twenty-eight percent of clients get turned away because a shortage of food, which means many end up going hungry (“All About Hunger”). Soup kitchens also provide free meals to families and their children. Soup kitchens rely on citizens to volunteer to cook and serve food. Volunteers must buy and cook the meals with their own money and some money donated by the kitchen. Most kitchens serve foods with a lot of carbs to keep the children full longer since most only get one to two meals a day. This is also a good resource for children because they can come by themselves to have a free meal, or by coming with their

Describe the program’s Theory of Change: The Salvation Army food pantry believes that though their programs that their clients would eventually in the long run become educated on resources and knowledge that would help them overcome poverty. The food pantry provides monthly food services and other resources for clients. From those their hope is to provide low income families, individuals with one hot meals for families of 4-5 people a month. They also hope to offer other recourses that could be hindering families from saving enough money to buy groceries every month. Their end goal is to improve food insecurity in the community.

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

Food is a necessity for survival in our everyday lives. But have you really thought about the energy that is put in to make the delicious meals? What we eat matters. A vegetarian meal has a lower embedded energy compared to a meal with meat yet we often chose the meal with meat. One of the perks of having more vegetarian meals is the health benefits that come with it. The energy input for meat foods are higher than plant based foods because these foods requires machinery that uses a lot of electricity.

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.