Campaign against hunger

Shayla John

The work that I participated in for my first service learning project was helping out in a food pantry, and I worked with the campaign against hunger. Yes, I definitely do feel like I was able to provide the help that was needed. I feel this way because while I was there, I was able to get a lot of work done. While I was there, I was able to pitch in and help package thanksgiving bags for families in need so that they could experience the holidays as well. I was with another volunteer that I met when I arrived and together we were able to put together 595 bags for distribution. I kind of did feel a connection with the other volunteer I was working with. Although she was much older than me, I could tell there was a shared understanding and satisfaction with knowing that we were working together towards a shared goal of giving back to a greater cause. What I learned from the opportunity is just how difficult it can be for organizations like the campaign against hunger. A challenge I encountered during volunteering was lack of goods/supplies. During the packaging of the Thanksgiving bags, we ended up running out of rice and pasta, which caused some bags to go without it and it made me feel bad knowing that some people still wouldn't be able to receive the full amount of what to give them. A way that I envision giving back to the people I worked with and helping them gain a voice, is by spreading the word the organization and helping them earn more volunteers and donations so that more people could help pitch in and contribute to the overall bigger goal of this organization, which is to help the fight against hunger. One change that can be made on a societal level to help improve the lives of the people I worked with is getting more donations that could go towards making sure that we can help everyone the best way we can. This change would help ensure that we are  doing the best that we can and also making sure that we can help those in need equally and fairly. Stated in the “What is Democracy?” documentary, “The wealthy being on top, middle class being in the middle and the rest of us sitting at the bottom. And so you have the middle class being told by those at the top to watch out for those at the bottom because "they're coming after you", and those at the top are just watching it all unfold and profiting off of the hard work of those at the middle and the bottom.” This quote stuck out to me because it makes me wonder if only we had these bigger corporations and companies helping contribute to smaller organizations like the campaign against hunger, how different the process and outcome could be. Another quote that stuck with me from the “What is Democracy?”, “If our lives were banks they would have saved us." I feel like because bigger companies don’t see any profit for themselves in contributing to these organizations, that's why they don’t pitch in and help as much as they could.

Resources:

Kino Lorber. (n.d.). What is Democracy? Kanopy. Retrieved from https://www.kanopy.com/en/sfc/video/5329435.