The Food Basket Brigade

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.

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.

“Feeding America is a non-profit organization created by John Van Hengel in the 1960’s” ("U.S. Hunger Relief Charity | Feeding America®," 2015). He was a retired business man who would volunteer at a local soup kitchen to feed the hungry| (Feeding America®," 2015). “He came upon the idea after a women was desperately looking for food to feed her children”, “she suggested to him there should be a place to store unwanted food instead of throwing it out for trash so the hungry can go and pick up the unwanted food”| (Feeding America®," 2015). Feeding America does not sell products it provides services. It’s an organization which provides the less fortunate and low-income families with free food through nationwide food banks across America| (Feeding America®," 2015). Van Hengel created his first establishment in Phoenix Arizona, and named it Saint Mary’s Food Bank| (Feeding America®," 2015). After several years Van Hengel along with his team the organization “distributed over 275,000 pounds of food to those in need”| (Feeding America®," 2015). In “1977, 18 cities began establishing food banks to serve those in need”| (Feeding America®," 2015). In “1979, the Second Harvest was created, which was later called America’s Second Harvest the Nation’s Food Bank Network” | (Feeding America®," 2015). In “2008. it became known as Feeding America, now our nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization” | (Feeding America®," 2015). “There are over 200 regional food banks located across

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.

Community First! Village is sponsored by Mobile Loaves & Fishes, a catholic charity that has has grown to working every night, all year long, providing food, clothing,and hygiene products to the homeless in surrounding cities of Austin. They have served over 5 million meals with the help of 19,000 volunteers. Their recent innovation (Community First!) is a 27-acre development that has been building a tiny home community for homeless people to buy for inexpensive prices. The village features miniature neighborhoods of homes, a church, garden, medical facility, market, movie theater, and other amenities. The project continues to grow as donations and volunteers come in for construction of housing and purchases of needed materials and goods. As of now, the village has housed almost 200 former homeless men and women. Mobile Loaves & Fishes continues to house more people as construction is completed and word has spread to other major cities of the work this organization has founded and grown.

Feeding America is a United States organization that consists of nationwide network of more than two hundred food banks and food rescue organization that serves the United States as well as Puerto Rico. It is the nation leading hunger relief charity. In the late 1060s, John van Hengel, a retired businessman in Phoenix, began volunteering at a local soup kitchen, and began soliciting food donations for the kitchen. He ended up with far more food than the kitchen could use and when he talked to his client around that time, she told him she regularly feeds her family with food discarded from the grocery store’s garbage bins. He then got an idea where there could be a place where discarded food items could be stored so that

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.

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

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.

Over the last 17 years the number of families actively been served has fluctuated. As of right now, they are serving around 300 families per month. Each month, families are given approximately $100 worth of groceries. A member of each household arrives on either Monday or Friday to pick up their food box. Each week the food box contains bread, dairy, produce and pantry items. The future of Least of the Brethren is looking very bright. Later this month the pantry will be operating their Mobile Market. The Mobile Market is fairly new but has received great feedback. Volunteers will line food up outside the pantry and those in need will simply pull up, each vehicle is then load with an abundance of food. This is the only time families receive more than their monthly allotment of

I go to St. James every other Wednesday. On Wednesday, the food truck is delivered to St. James Food Pantry. The assignment for the day is listed on the white board in the back of the pantry. The assignments state what bag a volunteers are doing and what contents needs to be in each bag. In each bag, the items will consist of one item from each food group on the food pyramid. St. James is about supplying their clients with nutritional food because they want to help clients not only physical but mental. After filling the bags that the specific person is assigned to, volunteers go to help other groups and organized shelves. At that time any open cases of food: are either stock them or put them in any assigned bags. Before lunch time, volunteers start to prepare the homeless lunch and for nutrition class. My job tasks, is to prepare the homeless lunch and lunch table. I have to prepare about forty-five sandwiches, desserts, chip and juices for the homeless in zip-codes St. James serves.

Before participating in this project I was not fully aware of how people in my area were suffering and I had no idea of the aid certain institutions provided to the people who were in need of help. Through this project I was able to see that a large number of low-income people in Decatur were suffering from a lack of access to healthy and affordable food options. Being able to go to the grocery store anytime I want and buy anything I need is a privilege that I took for granted for far too long. I now understand that there are some people in the area that have no means of transportation so they must walk or take the bus just to get something to eat. Unfortunately many of the places surrounding these low-income residents are overpriced so they residents are forced to eat unhealthy food. This is why the Inn plays such a vital role in the lives of these people. Everyone in the area has access to fresh and healthy food every single day thanks to the Inn, which for some people is probably a life saver. The Inn receives donations of food all the time from people all over the area. I have seen a few flyers and posters around campus about donating food to homeless shelters and it seems there is always someone doing a food drive. Every year Millikin has a chili bowl event where art students make bowls in the ceramics studio. People can they purchase the bowls at

of Statesboro offers a hot meal to need residents every Tuesday and Thursday. The food bank opens it doors at two o’clock Thursday weekly give food donated b the lions club and local stores in statesboro. They ask that you are a resident of statesboro and have proof of identification and a form of eligibility from the department of health and children services. The cost of the food bank is fee to all residents.

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