Food Bank Experience

I selected to volunteer my time to the food bank because they are the local non-profit organization serving the needy in our community, and I consider that food bank is essential for stopping hunger. My volunteering at the local Bread of the Mighty Food Bank has provided a great experience for me. This food bank was established in 1987 to serve five counties in Florida. The primary function is to acquire, store, package, and distribute food and other required essentials with the help of more than 160 agency vendors consisting of food pantries, shelters and soup kitchens. This food bank also hosts special events to raise funds and collect food for our community. This food bank receives food from numerous stores in the Gainesville community such
as Winn-Dixie, Publix, Sam’s Club, Walmart, Dollar General, and some other vendors in the area. I was positively impacted by getting involved in reducing hunger in the community, and it changed my perception of hunger. I really enjoyed helping the community through food bank volunteering, and the experience was different than my expectation.
During my volunteering, I had an opportunity to meet with others coming from various locations around the Gainesville area and different types of people who were all together helping in the warehouse to sort, shelve, check and repackage bread/sweet items. The first thing that caught my eye was the location of the food bank and type of people college students, men and women coming over there helping in the warehouse office as well as involved in fundraising activities. Some people were volunteering based on their assigned community service, but others appeared to be there just because they desired to help the community. In addition, several college student volunteers helped in the food bank mobile pantry to deliver foods to
communities.
The volunteer coordinator assigned me to sort the different varieties of foods delivered in to the site. I interacted with other staff and volunteers at the site while doing my assigned work and asked many questions about how this food bank operates on a daily basis, with reference to food delivered to hungry citizens and how they can try to end the hunger in the community. Additionally, the real facts of hungry people in North Central Florida completely surprised me. After hearing from the staff, I was shocked by how many people are living with hunger. There are approximately 61,090 members of the general population affected by food insecurity, of which 14,570 are children. It has impacted me as well, as this experience greatly influenced me to serve for people. Being on that day, a lot people arrived at the food bank and waited in a long queue to obtain food from the bank. Unfortunately, on that day several staff and volunteers were absent and the food bank was not able to deliver certain food to people in times. So all volunteers were worked hard and helped to speed up the delivery of food for the community.
I started to empty delivered food boxes, sorting, boxing and repacking them along with other volunteers.
Sure it looks like a simple work, but it was physically demanding. I did this work behind the scenes and it was difficult for me to notice the impact of spending my time in the food bank. I would have liked to observe families obtain food in times of need. The thought of the pleasure and cheerfulness these families would experience changed my perception during the time that I was at the food bank. It is very satisfying to me to help the people in the community during their tough times, even though I only spared few hours for sorting and boxing food in a
warehouse.
This volunteering activity changed my opinion on hunger reality and how many people are insecure in getting food daily. This activity changed my thinking and opened my eyes to think about hunger and what way I can contribute to reduce hunger in the community. This has become a huge problem everywhere. Ending hunger is important for the community and to our country. When I think about children not having a meal, it is truly heartbreaking. Even a few hours of volunteering can make such a vast difference. It cannot take much time or money to buy a few extra canned goods items to drop in the food bank on your way to work or home. That is only one of the many ways of helping in the community to reduce hunger by feeding the needy. When I left the food bank, I felt happy. It is fulfilling knowing I did something good to help someone when they needed it. I think that feeling made this experience a huge success for me. Moreover, I would like to volunteer often in the food bank to help the community and make a difference.
I have gained a great deal of knowledge from this experience. Before spending my time at the food bank, I did not know much about it, other than that it provide food to underprivileged people. I have learned that there is a tremendous amount of work involved in the food bank rather than just giving away food to people. After completing my assigned work, I left the food bank satisfied and feeling like I made a small contribution to the community. This experience has helped me to open my eyes to how much hunger has become a problem everywhere.