For my community service hours I chose to work at the food bank, separating and packing food items, and also handing out food to people in need. It was a nice humbling experience to help out at the food bank because for one: I had no idea that we had this resource available to those who are in need in the community, and two: I didn’t know that we had that many people in desperate need of food around here. I will always remember one specific experience I had with a woman who had come to receive food right before we were closing the doors, and she and her daughters were dripping with sweat, carrying empty bottles of water in their hands. We all wondered and asked if they were fine, and as they were waiting in line, the girls mentioned how they had come walking from across town just so that they could receive food from us!
The service is offered every week on a Tuesday at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church at 1 PM, but volunteers help make this happen by sorting out and packing food out on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays. Working at the food bank also made light to the whole idea of why the community garden was established, and why it is located where it is. Lots of people in this area of town struggle to find ways to put food on their tables, either because of financial issues, or because of the fact that all of the grocery stores are all the way at the other side of town. People don’t have a way of getting food, but this provides a way for those in need. The only catch is that one is only able to collect food once a month, but that’s where the community garden comes in to fill those gaps.
