On December 3rd, I got the chance to volunteer at a local food bank called Neighborhood Services.
https://www.neighborhoodservicesinc.org/
This food bank has been open since 1962! I volunteered here from 9:00 am -2:30 pm! It was a long day but a great day.
1950 N 4th St E, Columbus, OH 43201
I helped first with sorting and placing all the meat donations received into different freezers. It seems Thanksgiving was especially kind to the food bank as the donations received were far more than normal! I was luckily able to find a cold place to put all of the meat in an intense game of what felt like Jenga! Then I was taught how to walk each neighbor (the person who we give food too) by walking them around the store and showing them what options of food they could have based on their assigned number of people in the family. This was by far my favorite place to volunteer. I got to meet interact and talk to so many different neighbors about their struggles and it was truly a great experience to see how similar they are to everyone else. A lot of times lower income and homeless people are stigmatized and I saw through this volunteering experience that all of these stereotypes were wrong. Everyone I met was very nice and gracious for the help they were receiving. I learned truly how important social interactions for change are to me. I really feed off the energy and it seemed like the day blew past when I was interacting and really making a difference in these peoples lives. Many of these people were deciding between a sharpie marker or a loaf of bread. It truly taught me how vital simple objects like tape and markers are to making you feel human. Because of service learning, I am grateful for all I have.