The Difference Between Service Learning, Volunteerism And Community Service

In the assigned article entitled “Why Service Learning” by Bruce W. Speck, it provides great insight as to why we need to engage in service learning. This article focused on the questions that were like the reasoning behind service learning and how does it benefit the student. One definition in the article that stood out to me was service learning being defined as a pedagogy that fosters the development of skills and knowledge needed for participation in public life. This was prevalent because it allows the student to network with others outside of the community while giving back. Service learning was created to get away from the traditional way of learning while implementing a new learning system.

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

Their program consists of a food bank where anyone can donate food or money. This is all provided at an on campus resource center. The center consists of a food pantry, laundry facilities, lockers and workshops. Cleveland’s program has proven success because within the first five months, faculty and staff donated over 9,500 pounds of food. This program could be useful in a college like NJC, because it is part of a strong community that comes together; they would be able to raise tons of pounds of food through this program that they could use for athletes. “Many colleges offer food banks and are increasing efforts to help students” (Farkas).

The benefit of service learning for the student and community is again a better inform civic minded individual who may use his experience from service learning as a launching pad for career opportunities to better serve within that community. In an article published in the College Student Journal its author noted that with service learning “students gain further understanding of course content, a broader appreciation of the discipline, and an enhanced sense of civic responsibility" (Strange,

Community service is intended to help others at any given reason, service learning is intentional and is meant to have educational structure and purpose behind it. Community service takes a less structured place to volunteer and can be focused anywhere. Service learning is a little more tedious and has a stronger focus on working with and learning about the targeted focal group of the intended group or community. According to the article of “The effectiveness of service learning: It’s not always what you think” “Service-learning is also a teaching strategy that offers students opportunities to learn both in the classroom and in the wider

Food banks are a non-profit organization that collects and gives to charities such as hunger relief. Now where does this food come from? Well, it comes from various places. Such as grocery stores that would throw away the food otherwise. And normal everyday people that donate. Food banks are mostly found in bigger communities they mostly run on donors and volunteers to keep everything running smoothly. But food

The Houston Food Bank (HFB), their mission, “leading the fight against hunger” their vision is “food access for all”. The Houston food bank is a member of the nations largest non-governmental, domestic hunger relief organization Feeding America. In the fiscal year of 2013-2014, HFB distributed 59 million nutritious meal food and other necessities.” The vision for the future is to expand services to the community to 100,000,000 nutritious meals by 2018” (HFB, 2014).

I did not know what service-learning was until I read the articles assigned for class. The articles along with going to the Harpers Ferry Job Corps orientation really showed me what it was all about. The reading and the class presentation have challenged my first thoughts by giving me a better understanding of what service learning is. Service-learning goes a couple of miles further than community service. Service-learning allows students to help the community, as well as learn about something. For example, my Education class is going to be tutoring students at Job Corps. Our class is providing the Harpers Ferry community a free service of tutoring to those who need it while hopefully my peers and I will gain a solid understanding of what it would be like to teach one-on-one. Service-learning has three main components: community service, instruction, and reflection. Those components work well together and make service-learning seem like the perfect answer to helping education grow into a more progressive way. However, students need to have a high responsibility, they have to take the initiative, as well as make choices. If students do not do that, the success of service-learning will be lacking.

I chose to volunteer at the Houston Food Bank because many people are affected by not getting enough food to eat every day. The Houston Food Bank is a member of the nation’s

Community Service is a way to help others meet their needs. It is important for people to help their neighbors so a community can be strong and successful. By helping doing community service one can also learn new skills to help enhance one’s education.

“Service-learning is a teaching and learning strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and reflection to enrich the learning experience, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen communities” (Learn and Serve America National Service-Learning Clearinghouse). This assignment gave students the opportunity to go outside of their comfort zone, which is typically the classroom and see what the “real world” is like. As Gandhi would say “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” (Gandhi). I believe that this project really allowed us to appreciate what we have because many people are not as fortunate. During this service learning project I had certain expectations going into the project, but in the end, my results were not exactly as I expected.

The diversity issue I chose to research and observe was the interlinking issues of hunger and poverty and what should be done to alleviate these struggles. I knew beforehand that these issues are globally rampant, but I did not know the extent of their effects in my own community, the Wichita Falls area. Government policies and programs such as welfare and SNAP are in place to help those in poverty provide basic needs for themselves and their families. However, I wanted to learn more about community organizations that are set up to help to provide food for those living in poverty. Whether or not government involvement or private-sector organizations are sufficient enough on their own in this matter and what would be the best possible solution

Students are often close minded when it comes to learning, but when they are forced to volunteer they learn new things that are beneficial to their future. When helping others, students learn how to think outside the box and to be innovative. Volunteering can give students the chance to explore and be creative when helping those in need. Being innovative and creative can give students the chance to excel in their academics and school events.They take problem solving to a whole new level that they would have never thought of . Community service is a useful tool to give students a chance on a second outlook on

According to Kathleen Flecky and Lynn Gitlow, service-learning is defined as, “learning that occurs in experiences, reflection, and civic engagement” (Flecky & Gitlow, 2011). In recent years more universities are implementing service learning into their curriculum. A key concept of service learning is civic responsibility. Civic responsibility can simply be defined as your responsibilities as a citizen. As will be shown later in this paper, service learning can have many benefits not only to a student, but also to the community members

In accordance with Whole Foods’ consistent operation principle, all of the employees are required to devote ourselves to make a commitment “to be active participants in our local communities.” Besides 5% profit donation to non-profit organizations and employee volunteering events in local communities, many Whole Foods stores begin to donate surplus food to local food banks. As a manager of the Whole Foods on Ponce de Leon Avenue in Atlanta, I launched such food donation program to local food banks.