Reflective Essay on Volunteerism in Hunger Resource Center

During your volunteerism, what were your duties?

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During the volunteerism, I was in charge of taking the food out of big boxes and classified the canned food accordingly. There were some vegetable can foods and meat can foods all mixed in a big box. Some cans were totally destroyed, and other were expired. I classified them and placed them in order.

By coincidence, I found another a volunteer who just graduated from the University last semester. Now as alumni she continues to volunteer for the Hunger Resource Center whenever possible. Her name is Mary, and she helped and guided me with the duties for the day. She spoke wonders about how passionate is the professor is about students helping and volunteering to provide for the community. Her explanations and passion for volunteering activity offered me great insights regarding how my decision to volunteer in Human Resource Centre would impact my life as well as that of the community that I served.

We also helped to clean two big refrigerators before the truck with new food arrives the next day. It ensured that the food brought by the vehicles would be kept in clean places while waiting to be distributed to the community around. As you know, a clean environment is necessary for maintaining the food healthy and thereby eliminating any potential or possible food contamination. In collaboration with Mary, we ensured that the fridges were cold enough between 0 and 5 degree Celsius thereby preventing any microorganisms such as the bacteria and fungi from growing and infecting the stored food. For the food types such as meat, however, we first stored meat and poultry in clean, sealed containers on the bottom of the self of the fridge. Our work was however based on the storage instructions given by the agency concerning the appropriate ways of ensuring that food is stored correctly to avoid possible food poisoning.

What did you notice about the selection AND quantities of each type of foods?

The selection is excellent, families that come to the Food Bank have the opportunity to obtain a variety of quality food that is very nutritious and in various cases comes organically. The quantities in each item differed based on the donation. For example, on that specific day, I was able to observe that in my section we had tons of cans of condensed milk as well as spaghetti sauced, canned meat compared to canned meat, or fruits. However, the agency took into consideration the issue of balancing the manner in which foods are distributed to the various families within the community served. Because the families supported had nearly the same requirements and needs when it comes to food, I noticed a stronger exercise of the equality in the distribution. The distributing department favored no individuals or families. However, the Hunger Resource Centre ensured that the supported families receive the adequate amount of food enough to take them through an extended period especially during the emergency times. Through the nutrition classes and the recently implemented cooking demonstrations, the families have further learned about various ways of using the quantity they acquire to cook meals that will nourish their families.

Which foods were more plentiful? Do these foods vary throughout the year?

The Food Bank has plentiful big gallons of canola and olive oil. As well as tomato sauces. They also had a lot of formula for babies (liquid and powder) and diapers sizes 3 and 4. Yes based on the Supervisor the amount of food and quantity varies every week and every season. The variation, in this case, is based on a wide range of factors such as the demand for a given type of food by a particular group of people and the fall in the order of the other. For example, at one time, I experienced a rapid rise in the supply of the formula for babies both liquid and powder. In my view, there was a tremendous demand in more of such items to meet the existing demand from various families who had young babies.

The variation was further caused by the prevailing market factors such as the price among other factors. While it is noticeable that these factors could not necessarily affect the amount of food donated by the partnering agencies, they were crucial in decisions made by the supervisors.

Are the available foods nutritious in value? Do they cover all foods groups? Are most of the foods available processed, or is there a variety of fresh foods, including produce and meats?

The food is very nutritious in value, I saw cans of vegetables and also cans of different seafood items. Most all the time, the food donated by Grocery Stores cover the demand for food from all groups. The two refrigerators I saw and cleaned contain some fresh vegetables but no poultry or meat. Unfortunately, there is more processed food in containers than fresh food available to donate. The most exciting part of it is that even the available big groceries are storing and keeping the processed food, instead of the fresh food. In my view, healthy nutrients, vitamins, and minerals are significantly removed from the food during processing. Secondly, the processed food contains more additives and preservatives compared to the fresh food. Moreover, the processed food has the high quantity of sodium or sugar in addition to hidden allergens. Finally, high calorie and low fiber processed foods may contribute to overeating and weight gain based. Although some of the points, in this case, may apply for some types of foods offered by the HRC, the preliminary assessment has considerably revealed that the kinds of foods provided by the agency are subjected to quality tests before being given out. The type of food offered have shown to have higher amounts of nutritional value and contents concerning the presence of the phytochemicals, more vitamins and minerals, the presence of fire and other beneficial fats and other benefits such as slowing the rate of digestion thus allowing better absorption of nutrients.

What is your assessment of the value of the HRC in this community?

The assessment of the value of the Hunger Resource Center is excellent. They help the community and help recycle the items they do not need or have them overstock to other groups like farmers (Dutch Community) from far away counties and even other States. Broadly, I am particularly impressed with the overall activities that the HRC is doing within the community. While its primary role as its names suggest is to provide food for more than 600 families across the United States, the organization also involves itself in initiatives such as the early childhood development, foster care and adoption, homelessness and housing, health and well-being, legal immigration services, mental health, and the workforce development. In this way, therefore, the HRC has been able to establish a productive business relationship with the local, regional and the national businesses. The recipient agencies and individuals volunteer groups can reach out through the organization's network and services that allow them to connect those around in need.

The commitment to help the families manage both immediate crises as well as the long-term threats of the individual stability is a good thing to do within our community. This is based on the fact that food one of the fundamental basic need that human beings cannot do without. In this way, the provision of a wide range of services as observed in the case of this organization not only helps provide stability to the communities around but also ensures that comprehensive case management of the families in need is achieved through. Other than being the largest food provider of the emergency food assistance in the region and the sole provide whose services integrate the SNAP Outreach, nutrition education, and cooking demonstrations, it is worth mentioning that the HRC's component is also focused on the research related work. This is in addition to the advocacy around the expansion of the participation in the federal nutrition programs. The involvement in the research activity has played integral roles in identifying possible areas and families in need and therefore boosting dietary nutrition for all individuals.