Houston Food Bank Volunteering

Community engagement education or service learning is combination of learning goals and community service that enhance both student growth and the common good. In Houston Food Bank, service learning is more directed towards learning service while working projects that benefit millions of lives. The service was solely based on volunteerism which is an action carried out voluntarily; actions were carried out voluntarily, according to an individual's own freewill. The experience was very unique because no volunteer feels obligated by law, contract, nor by academic requirement. Personally, I volunteer for the common good, to serve my community. I spent my times, actions for the benefit to feed others in need of foods. Here are few experiences from Houston Food bank.

During the first break, I learned that Houston Food Bank is America's largest food bank. It has distribution networks of nearly 600 hunger relief charities in 18 southeast Texas counties. The coordinators leading our group said that Houston Food Bank provides 59 million nutritious meals to food pantries, soup kitchens to senior centers and to other agencies. They are feeding about 800,000 people each year. The Houston Food Bank, created in 1982, is a certified member of Feeding America. Houston food bank has plans to grow to an annual distribution to 100 million nutritious meals by 2018. Houston Food Bank has a vision for "food access for all" and their mission, "leading the fight against hunger". Here is my first assignment.

During the volunteering hour at Houston Food bank, my assignment was to scan the packaged products sent by Kroger. Kroger is Houston food Bank's one of the golden sponsors along with HEB, Noble Energy and Chevron etc. Kroger provides packaged foods and as well as non-foods. Our group was assigned in station with a computer and were told to scan all the items. The instructions were that the software would tell us to "donate", "destroy" or "hold" if the product is recalled. The process is mainly to credit the vendors of Kroger, to let them know that Kroger has donated these items to Houston Food Bank to avoid Kroger not to be billed. It is merely a primary selection process. After this process, the instructors at Houston Food Bank said that they will go through these products again and decided what products are suitable to donate and not to donate. Each team comprised 4 people in a station. We were each delegated a certain task. I was one bringing the boxes, while the other takes out the products and passes it to the person who is scanning these products. We also have to separate the products according to system message and then forwarded to another person who packages the donated products in Houston Food Band boxes. As our group, we finished approximately 50-55 boxes in 3 hours times.

Working at the Houston Foodbank taught me teamwork spirit, and many other opportunities. I got the chance to work effectively with people from different places, and backgrounds to complete various assignments. Due to tasks in Houston Food Bank, I had good way to pay attention to details as well as listen carefully to the instructions given to ensure that products, containers, and boxes were correctly put in their right areas. Most of all, I had to work quickly but efficiently within the given time-frame. Working in Houston Food Bank required to be flexible to work in any of the units or positions. The tasks were interrupted few times. I have to be able to maintain a high level of discipline and a positive attitude at all times. I planned an immediate go back to Houston Food Bank because I enjoyed my rewarding experiences knowing that I helped someone out there.

Our assignment was completed without anybody complain. I quickly learned the enthusiasm, the compassion we all had in our heart fulfilling our duties. Communication made it easier to reach a mutual understanding, where participants exchange information, ideas. We reached a mutual understanding of our tasks to contribute to our group. Communication helps solve problem such. For example, during our project, we were told to check package of products if it had sticker that says, "Not to be resold, returned by customer". While I was scanning a cereal box, the scanner said donate but it had the sticker. Unfortunately, I did not notice since it was on the bottom. Happily, my teammate identified it and he helped me out. I also noticed that we were all on the same page because all ideas were kind of common interests. After all, I became friends with many students. I even made a connection with our project coordinator. She was very knowledgeable all areas in Houston Food Bank. She even proposed me to come back and volunteer for food bank with her anytime. The place was great opportunity to network with others from the community. The privilege of volunteering had led to successful teamwork and helped building a valuable path towards traditional networking.

It was great privilege volunteering at Houston Food Bank. It taught great values in life. I learned about how Houston food Bank contributes towards people who are employed yet have no money to afford food simply because their daily expenses. It exposed me to issues facing many people in our community. I was convinced to take more active responsibility in helping others by volunteering at places like Houston Food bank. I am more determine to help our fellow human beings because I believe that my small contribution can make a difference. Learning all the facts about the reality of food shortage in our community extended my knowledge about our current society problems. I am very thankfully learned that I can definitely contribute and help. It is very important to give back what we can others. There are so many people in our society who need help. Our civic responsibility very important. One thing for sure, participating socially leads to stronger society. Specially after a devastating hurricane Harvey, my little contribution would help my new city Houston become stronger. Volunteering through service learning is important aspect because whenever we are able to help someone, we gain happiness.