South Texas Food Bank Case Study

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 met with Maria Thompson and Mark Paxton from the Community Food Bank in regard to their site improvements. The Food Bank is requesting CSDC administer a contract with Avila Construction for their site improvements to San Felipe Rd frontage and parking lot improvement that access their building. The contract amount is $57,461.The Food Bank Board has approved the expense and repayment in full to CSDC if we choose to administer the contract. A repayment agreement between the Food Bank and CSDC would need to be drafted prior to approving any contract.

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.

For those living in poverty in New Orleans, Louisiana, there are over 51 assistance programs and help agencies; from legal, medical, financial, and residential assistance programs to Food Banks, shelters, employment centers, and childcare agencies. The main to Food Banks for the area, the Bogalusa Help Center and the Second Harvest Food Bank, combined feed roughly 500,000 people in the greater New Orleans, Jefferson parish region. Aside from providing food access, these Food Banks also provide education, advocacy, and disaster relief. Community medical clinics such as the Cancer Association of Greater New Orleans, and the Louisiana Foundation of Dentistry, are non-profit clinics that run with the help of medical doctors and volunteers,

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.

Throughout my life, I’ve always had an immense interest in helping others. Being involved in the National Charity League for 5 years has given me the opportunity to be involved with charities that I otherwise would’ve never known about. I’ve had the privilege to help with over b charities in and around my community throughout my years as an NCL member. By far my favorite would have to be Grace’s Feed Our Kids that I have volunteered at every summer since my start in NCL. Through this charity, we are able to provide lunches and fun games to underprivileged kids in Grapevine during the unbearably hot Texas summer days. Each day we serve different meals, either donated from local restaurants or homemade by my NCL class, and have a variety of things for the kids to do, like coloring, water guns,

In conclusion, hunger in America is at an all time high due to poverty and the economy. The increasingly high number of starving children has gone up over the past years and needs to be stopped. There are government programs set up to help stop hunger in American, such as, SNAP Food Stamps and WIC. We can get involved by volunteering with Feeding America or other non-for-profit organizations set for feeding the hungry. Food donations and monetary donations have always been a great way to help out for those who don’t have the time to donate.

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.

Feeding America started as a clearinghouse for national food donations. Now it's the nation's largest domestic hunger relief organization, a powerful and efficient of 200 food banks across the country. For 35 years Feeding America has responded to America hunger emergencies, and has done a good job at it. The perception of food banks was started by John Van Hengel in the late 60s. Van Hengel born in Waupun, WIi, a retired businessman, was volunteering his time at soup kitchens giving food to people who couldn’t buy food for themselves. One day a poor mom was fishing through the grocery store garbage bins to find food for her family, She suggested that there should be a place where, instead of being thrown out, discarded food could be stored for people to pick up—similar to the way “banks” store money for future use. With that idea is what started the food bank business. ( feedingamerica.org )

Feeding America is a 35 year old charity helping feed the hungry. They are located in Phoenix, AZ. John

The Volunteer Center of North Texas (VCNT provides agencies with training programs, background checks for volunteers and employees, and goods donated by area businesses.

As John F. Kennedy said, “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. This world does not survive on only looking out for ourselves and the Salvation Army has proved that. We all need help once in awhile in some way. It becomes full circle once it is realized that in order to help ourselves, we must as help those around us. The Salvation Army is partnered with a number of different groups to include Project Able, Family and Emergency Services, Angel Tree, Spirit of Giving and Red Kettles (Salvation Army Representative Discusses

It gave me the chance to vanquish my fears while also realizing that it is God’s plan for me to help out my community. However, I am not surprised that there are still unanswered questions in my head such as: Why is there such a big hunger problem? Why is this problem not spoken about more often? Is there any other way I can help stop this problem? This service has made me more knowledgeable and aware of my community. In addition, this service project has made me take matters into my own hands. Currently, every time my family goes grocery shopping I make sure they get at least five canned goods for donating. As more of my friends volunteer and more donations come in I think we can end this fight for hunger in southern Louisiana. In addition, I believe that we should all take a step back and be thankful for all that we have because some people don’t have such luxuries. God is omnipresent, He would not want to see His children starving. Finally, I see it as a mission that we volunteers get more people involved to volunteer for the greater

There are so many people in this world today, that are not aware of the huge storage in our local food bank community. Per the Houston food bank the goal of the Feeding America program is to make food accessible to feed hungry people in their greatest times of need. Therefore, our team is gear up to break the food shortage in defining the problem, analyze the cause, identify criteria, potential solutions and selecting the best solution.

In 2014, a foundation called Feeding America did a survey on the people they serve and found that in order to stretch their food budgets 79% of them purchase inexpensive and unhealthy food in order to stay fed. This can seriously impact their health, because no matter the age, healthy bodies and minds require nutritious meals. In some cases, food insecurity can even lead to Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and obesity. These are just a few examples of why food insecurity is so harmful. Fortunately, there are many organizations, clubs, and foundations that are committed to ending hunger in America, and eventually the world. The first step to solving this problem is spreading information, and realizing just how dangerous food insecurity is, and who it affects. After learning these things, you may want to help and there are many ways to do that. I’m sure in the past, you've donated food to the annual canned food drive our school puts on, and that’s just one way you can contribute to solving this problem. There are many organizations that ask for donations and will put your money to great use, for example every dollar you donate to Feeding America will provide 11 meals for a child in need.If you don’t have food or money to donate, you can donate