In the service learning opportunity, I was able to be a part of the United Food Bank, an organization that locates food and distributes it among local Arizona communities. During the activity, I was assigned to the packing and weighing line. My job was to make sure all items matched their categories, weigh products together to the according weight limit for that category, properly label with the date, and then place the food onto the pallet where the weight limit was assigned. My job for the organization was overall very physically demanding, but even with all the hard work social interactions were always occurring around me. According to Andersen, Taylor, & Logio (2015), a social interaction represents “a behavior between two or more people that is given meaning” (p. 423). The social interactions that occurred that day would have to be from the group first arriving to the facility to when the activity began. The meaning of the behaviors displayed showed me that true character is still a trait within society, and even a group who barely knew each other could come together as one and unite the fight against hunger. Now behaviors shown throughout the activity would have to be caring, kind, faithful, considerate, and enthusiastic. The people who displayed these types of behaviors when interacting would have to be faculty members, organization members, and students. My first impression was that the organization members loved what they did, and regardless of it being on the weekend the members wanted to spread their passion positively among all of us. The members gave advice on how to perform an action better, a helping hand during the activity, and even background about themselves to help create a better understanding on their purpos... ... middle of paper ... ...ven were able to provide nearly four thousand pounds of food to those in poverty. Now if you put that into perspective, if every class within Chandler Gilbert Community College would do about three hours of labor at the food bank it could easily equal to about hundred thousand pounds of food for those in poverty within the valley. Some issues currently on my mind that weren’t before, would have to be what is our federal government doing about the issue, why do social norms hurt organizations like the food bank, and how can people within society believe an individualist approach is best. When people in society around them are in poverty based on the corrupt social class system we have today. This experience has changed my life significantly, I want to engage more with non-profit organizations to help fight poverty and make social equality possible for everyone.
While sitting in my dorm room watching a DVD, I looked around and suddenly realized how lucky I was. I lived in a decent sized room with lighting and air conditioning that I could adjust to make myself comfortable. Then I thought how even more lucky I was to be able to go home too yet a nicer living facility at my own house that I have to share with nobody but my immediate family. It made me begin to wonder how many people there are that do not possess this luxury. That is when I thought of Habitat for Humanity. The only thing that I knew about it was that they built homes for underprivileged families with inadequate shelter. I wanted to see though exactly how this specific organization made a difference in peoples lives. Hopefully my research will enlighten my readers of the living situations of many families around the world, maybe even convincing some to volunteer themselves.
According to the “Hunger and Poverty Fact Sheet” on Feeding America’s website, in 2014 there were over 48 million Americans living in food insecure households, which included 32 million adults and 15 million children. For over 35 years, Feeding America continues to be in the forefront in solving this crisis by providing food to people in need through a nationwide network of food banks. In the late 1960s, Van Hengel established the nation’s first food bank and years later established the first national organization of food banks, Second Harvest. Second Harvest was later called America’s Second Harvest the Nation’s Food Bank Network and in 2008, the national organization changed its name to Feeding America.
I performed mainly behind the scenes tasks such as making boxes and packing food. While I did not deal with feeding the hungry directly, I still learned and observed many lessons that were reflected in class. One thing I observed that we discussed in Reconciling All Things is people ignoring and crossing divides to help those in need. The people at the food bank did not care what the person’s socioeconomic status was, they still served and helped them. A lesson that became more solidified through this project was the fact that everyone’s job at the food bank, no matter how big or small, is important to getting to overall mission completed. Whether it was someone like me making boxes or someone serving food in the kitchen, we all played a role to end hunger. Another thing that I noticed through this project was that some problems are easier, maybe not by much but still nonetheless, to solve than we make them out to be. Hunger is probably the easiest social problem that can be solved in America due to the excessive amount of food wasted every year. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and watched things that were discussed in class come to
The lunch bell rung at full volume as the main doors flung open. I predicted that a herd of people will rush in like the water from a spill gate. But instead every person was a line; in fact it was a neat single filed line. Another thing I was astonished to see was to the fact that every single person I served to was superbly well mannered. It was the magical word of thank-you which left great remarks in my life and made my volunteering experience an enjoyable one. After the shift, I have come to realize that everything my family and friends have said about impoverished people was nothing but just a stereotype. In addition, I have self-discovered that volunteering is what I want to do on my spare time. The joy from making new friends, appreciated and making a difference in society was too meaningful to put in words. From then on, volunteering had become one of my most highly valued priorities. Whenever I have time to spare, I will go
For my Annotated Bibliography I decided to stick with my original core reading, “How a Government Computer Glitch Forced Thousands of Families to go Hungry” I chose to stick with this piece because of my interest in the social service field. I’m not exactly digging into how the government plays a role in food stamps, but how people view them and the affects that they may be causing.
Doug O’Brien, director of public policy and research at Chicago-based Second Harvest, says “’we’ve seen a real shift in who we serve. A decade ago, there were almost always homeless, single men and chronic substance abusers. Now we have children and working families at soup kitchens’” (Koch). These families that are feeling the effects of food insecurity will not be the only ones affected by it, but all of America.
In 2013, there were 45.3 million people in the United States who fell under the parameters of poverty (Iceland 129). This is a number that may be shockingly large to those who have always been well-off in life. It’s easy to look at a statistic like this one and say that it’s horrible that so many people in America have to struggle below the poverty level. Even though it can easy to feel shocked by these statistics, it can sometimes be much harder to feel the spark of motivation needed to do something about the situation. There are plenty of charities that run food pantries or offer hot meals. While this is an excellent way to aide those who are struggling to survive, it isn’t going to solve the problem. In order to effectively combat the problem of poverty in the U.S, we need to focus more
Thousands of books and essays about poverty, causes and possible fixes have been written for others to gain an understanding and pocket a little bit of knowledge so this can soon be fixed. There are millions of organizations in today’s world that beg for money, clothes, and food so they can be sent overseas to help a poor child in Uganda or Haiti. Helping nationwide is always a good thing to be a part of; however, there are many things that can be done in each person’s community, which is always a great place to start.
What connections do you make between your service-learning experiences and some of the themes addressed in class (justice, love, rights, responsibility, relationships, etc.)?
We’ve all heard the phrase “Charity begins at home.” This statement holds very true in my case, not because we needed help but rather because we were taught at an early age to provide help whenever possible. In our current economy there are many people not just in our community but throughout the world and beyond that are struggling. I was fortunate to grow up in a household with two loving parents who shared the importance of fundamental beliefs and values. Cynthia Street, the street I grew up on, was a comfortable middle class neighborhood that served as my first perspective of American life. Through my experiences in my neighborhood and also my interaction with my church family at Central Christian Church in Newark, I learned the importance of outreach work.
I volunteered at the Activity Center for my Service Learning project. My duties were to watch the kids who participated in the after school program, play with them and help them with their home homework. I really enjoyed interacting with the African-American people and culture. I learned many things from the African-American population I worked with. I learned how the Activity Center staff teaches the after school kids good manners and behavior. I mentioned in one of my service learning journals that the staff was very strict and treated the kids like prisoners, but I came to the realization that maybe that is how they teach the kids discipline. I had the opportunity to be around all the Activity Center kids and interact with them. They were kids just like any other kids. Of course they are kids and sometimes they did misbehave but overall they were really great kids. I noticed that most of the boys want to be more independent of them, but they were such sweet kids.
Poverty is a huge topic, one with many different branches and types that affect nearly half the world’s population. Hunger is the number one cause of death in the world, killing more than HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined. That is absolutely insane, and it’s not just a statistic, these are genuine people who have to go through their lives without proper
I chose to do my service learning project at Feed My Starving Children. I chose this service learning project because I had prior knowledge and experience by doing it with my family and church. Feed My Starving Children has been a huge impact to those who have participated in this service experience because their mission is to pack meals that go to very hungry children around the world. Being from a single parent family, it is hard for us to not be concerned about where the money for food is coming from, yet we have food on our tables for everyday meals. Therefore, I can’t imagine what it is like for those who experience hunger.
Social interactions are the manner in which we socialize and react to other people. Social interaction has been around humanity since the beginning. It is so important that without it, settlements and groups wouldn’t have formed the way we know it today. It is the building block of society, people get together and design rules, institution and select officials to guide their way of living. It means interaction is social relationship among the individuals. It is a sort of action and reaction position among the people. It involves the acts that people do to others and the return the expect. Social interaction consists of many concepts which are: Exchange, competition, cooperation, conflict and coercion.
The World Food Program has been extending funds and food donations in enormous amounts to countries that are in dire need of help. They’ve concluded that there are 842 million people who suffer from famine and malnutrition every day. The nations are coming together to solve malnutrition and famine by investing in good nutrition and productivity, which eventually creates economic opportunities for these countries that suffer from famine. The World Food Program has started the process o...