discovering myself through volenteer work

in the past couple months i have been spending some quality time volenteering at the Snohomish Food Bank. My duties entail serving the general public by handing out quality free food to those in need. I ration out various items such as dog food, flour, sugar, baby food, baby supplies and place them in enclosed container for people who come through the food bank to take home with them. Distrubution of food is a priority of my job title we often handout non parashible items such as boxed pasta, canned meats, canned soup, top ramen, and items like muffins and bottled water. also availible to consumers of the food bank are fresh fruits and vegtables, milk, yougurt, packaaged meat, bread, rice, beans and other items like ice cream and milk. another aspect of my job title is sorting donated foods in our back room into such sections as canned soups, dairy products, pasta, breads and other coding to help simplify the structure and organization for the food bank as well as maintaining item inventory of what is availible to the public and what repeatdly keeps getting donated. however through my experiences volenteering at the food bank i have learned to apprichiate life from a whole other standpoint. i am a struggling college student but i am very motivated and i find the means to live a fairly gifted life. i often dont worry to much about putting food in my mouth or of those i support. i have a large variety of clothing to put on my body everyday. i can enjoy some luxuarys like having my hair done, recieving pedicures here and there and occasionally i get to see a new movie in theater. many of the indiviuals and their families i see come through the food bank visibly don't have some of these gifts. many of the repeating families i see have about three seperate outfits, show no signs of going to the beauty salon considering their hair is typically all naturals and there nails have no color as well as they fact that they can barley bring in enough money to pay for groceries. i have never once been a selfish person but i have stuggled in life and hace figured out ways to get by and i know that there is a saying by whom i am not sure but they clearly state "as life continues on the richer become richer and the poorer become poorer."however i disagree with them you may not one day be dirt poor and the next a billionare, but there are ways to become more fortunate and i wish nothing but sucess to come to the civilians that come through the food bank and their families and i strongly believe that it will.

Snohomish County Food Bank's relation to Greg Mortenson

Snohomish County Food Bank and Greg Mortenson, from the novel Three Cups of Tea share many qualities.While the food bank helps the community by handing out free food to feed the families who have trouble affording the ever rising prices of groceries. All the while Greg Mortenson helps the community by building schools for children whom their option of school is strictly limited based off distance of the nearst school or the commitment these children have to their communities. In both attemps to give back to their community Snohomish County Food Bank and Greg Mortenson share simularities and differences on how they go about their missions.

In the book three cups of tea mortenson states "Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them." through my service learning experiences i have obsereved the countless numbers of civilians coming through the door from many different backgrounds and a wide range of family members and experiences. I have observed snohomish food banks executive director daryl bertholet a have come to some comparissons between him and greg mortenson. Both men sincerly care about the community in which they are in and they both offer a helping hand. Daryl focuses on ensuring mouths in the snohomish area are feed including single mothers and fathers, infants, children,elderly, young adults, middle aged and even large families. Daryl may play a small part in helping the community but he makes a differences. The way Daryl approaches the civilians that come through the food bank is as a friend. Daryl is observant of others will sit back a recieve a background education on why each man woman and child are using the food bank to get by. He ensure that each person enjoys their time at the food bank and leave happily. Along with Daryl Greg Mortenson is the same way in how he approaches his community. Greg wants to be trusted and come off as a friend trying to help his community he does so i sitting back and drink three cups of tea and allowing the members of the villages he works at tell him about their lives and learn from their experiences. He is like daryl trying to make a difference even if it is small , as well as understanding the indivuals around him.

On the contrary although both of these men share simiular communicational values they are also diffenrent in plenty of ways. One main difference is their missions. Greg Mortenson feels strongly that all children should have an education and his mission is to build a school in many villiages where a school is non exsistant. Daryl's mission is to put food on the table to encourage norishment and avoid starvation with indiviuals and families. How they go about their missions is simular but also different. Greg Mortenson writes hundreds and hundreds of letters asking for assistance in building his schools, as for daryl encourages local grocery stores to donate food that they must get rid of due to a steady maturing experation date or dings and dents in non presentable items. While the both ask for assistance their responses are quite diffenrent. grocerie stores in present day naturally give food banks the food they are to rid of because it has become habit and of their nature since food banks have been around for many years. Greg struggles because he is having to ask for large incorments of money to manufacture his schools. Large encorments of money is hard to recieve because typically money isn't just given out to anyone.

However both of these men share the desire to give back to their communites. Even though these men have a different way of acomplishing their missions they are both sucessful in their attempts.

Service Learning site 1st entry

I am currently a volunteer and the city of Snohomish food bank. I work with a large variety of the public. The individuals that come to the food bank vary in class and families. the individuals vary from young mothers, to large families, elderly, many people vary from their twenty to their sixties living on their own. It varies from ethnicities Caucasian, Hispanic, African American to Asian the food bank is open door to anyone in need. By observation socio - economic class varies from single mothers/fathers, self reliance individual status, to those who barley get by due to the loss of a current job in our economic dilemma. Though i have only volunteered a few days i have had the opportunity to meet a few reoccurring faces to the food bank. I have meet this elderly Caucasian woman who lives on her own and can no longer work. she relies on the food bank to help feed herself and keep her healthy. One other Caucasian gentleman i have meet is a single father to two who has just lost his job due to decline of work. He comes in and typical stocks up on macaroni & cheese, spaghetti and top ramen. Filling and child approved meals. The last woman id like is a Hispanic single mother to two very young children 1year old and 4 year old. Her children love coming to the food bank because the food bank volunteers give them lollipops and play peak a boo with them. she stalks up on any potential items that can supply her with many meals and the food bank has special items available to parents with young children such as formula, diapers, baby food and baby wipes. My typical day volunteering at the food bank typically entails me to assist individuals and their families enforcing portion control and helping them sort through the food and offering them many food options. At the food bank all the food and supplies are donated. Food options change from day to day. the food bank always supplies dried pastas, soup, and large variety of bread. due to reliance on donation and the flow of traffic through out the day in the food bank everything given out is rationed dependent upon the members in your family and how many people you are feeding. everyone gets a paper bag full of non perishable items such as pasta, tuna, peanut butter, spaghetti sauce, and can fruits and vegetables. Items that are rationed are cereal, soups, packaged meat, yogurt, frozen juices, select produce and items like cake cookies and pies. One thing that is never rationed is bread. The food bank has massive amounts and varieties of breads donated to them and since bread goes bad so quickly there is no limit on how much bread anyone can take. I personally have taken alot from my experiences at the Snohomish food bank. i have observed how many people the food bank reaches out the the public and the differences they make in peoples lives . They help prevent individuals and their families from starving everyday. I volunteered to participate at the Snohomish food bank because my parents had me in their late teens and my sister in their very early twenties they heavily relied on the food bank to feed my sister and i. I am thankful for the food bank because they fed me for many years and i felt it was time to return the favor the provided for me when i was little and growing up. As i continue to participate in the food bank i hope that i can have an impact on individuals and their families like the food bank participants had an impact on me when i was young. to find out more about my service learning site please visit this website http://www.snohomishcommunityfoodbank.org/index.htm