The Hunger Relief Organization At The Puyallup Food Bank

During my second week of my community health hours, I was placed at River City Food Bank. River City Food Bank’s main goal is to lessen hunger in the Sacramento region by offering healthy food and assistance to vulnerable populations. They do not only provide healthy food but they also provide nutrition education and counseling. In addition, they provide diapers for babies and the older population. They also provide health services for mothers and assist them with contraceptives and other important education for their women daily life. Their mission is to help people from all ages, from homeless to the working poor and families who are struggling.

Our country is experiencing a food poverty explosion. Five years ago, food banks were a rarity. Nowadays, there are over a thousand across the UK and the phrase “food bank” is accepted into everyday vocabulary. Thirteen million people are living below the breadline, that’s almost one in five people, and the numbers are continuing to rise drastically. The use of food banks is continuing to grow, and doctors say the amount of people living in food poverty in now an increasing public health issue. In 2013/14, the Trussell Trust estimated that over 20 million meals were given to people in food poverty by the growing network of food charities across our nation. Far more has to be done

Thesis Statement: The Houston Food Bank uses the efforts of volunteers as well as donations to support the reduction of hunger in the community.

Considering the following statistics, it is clear why Hunger Free Colorado’s work is so important: Nearly 1 in 7 Coloradans struggled with hunger in 2013, facing times when there was not enough money to buy food for their families or themselves (Colman-Jenson, Gregory, & Singh, 2013). More than 1 in 5 Colorado households with children (22%) reported food hardship, facing financial challenges to put food on the table (Food Research and Action Center, 2013). More than 1 in 8 Coloradans lived in poverty, including 1 in 6 kids, during 2013 (Bishaw & Fontenot, 2014).

During the time I spent volunteering at John C. Lincoln’s Food Bank, I was able to provide food, individual hygiene items, and infant supplies to families struggling to obtain these critical items for their families. When I first arrived at the food bank, I spent time constructing care packages with soap, toothbrushes, personal wipes, and other essential items for health care. Later in the day, I had the unique opportunity to assist with the simulated grocery store within the food bank. The structure of the store allowed individuals receiving food to feel as though they were actively participating instead of passively accepting food and feeling helpless. Overall, I was able to instill a sense of self-efficiency in individuals who were struggling to provide for their families while personally interacting and sharing my time in a meaningful way.

On Tuesday, October 3rd Monica Banks, a Wake Forest Divinity School student and a co-founder of New Communion, shared her experiences about her career/field of study and how it began to intermingle with food. Banks first began her career with a degree in business leadership and management and opening approximately 40 restaurant venues. After years of experience, she was looking for something more in life. After pursuing nursing she felt her calling was in the pastoral field and specifically surrounded food and poverty. As a second year student at Wake’s Divinity School, Banks was required to complete a group project, which led her the idea of the mobile pantry—now new communion. Banks felt such a passion for this project that she completed a grant application to United Way, which was eventually granted for the interfaith mobile food pantry. Banks took

Harvest Hope’s mission consists of, “Providing for the needs of hungry people by gathering and sharing quality food. With dignity, compassion, and education (Harvest Hope Food Bank, 2015).” Based on their mission, I was easily motivated to treat all clients with the same dignity, compassion, and respect I would want in receiving services. For example, bread in the bread bins often grows mold on certain sections. I would try and find another pack because I understood the client would appreciate my consideration. Staffing on a daily basis consists of a number of volunteers who help Harvest Hope run smoothly. Food distributed included vegetables, canned drinks, canned goods, fruits, and dairy products. The amount of donated items a family receives is

In last week’s activity, we had to put ourselves in the shoes of a parent with a nine year old child, who relies on food stamps in order to eat every week. We had forty two dollars to spend on groceries from the food stamps and had to make it last a week. Our strategy consisted of picking the cheapest types of food we could find that had a lot of servings, while also making sure the nutrition was somewhat sufficient to keep us healthy. We used Walmart to shop for groceries since it had the cheapest prices compared to local grocery stores like Publix. Planning out the meals, we realized that living on only forty two dollars a week for food really limited the variety of our diet. We realized that having a child to support with this low variety

Being homeless brings the challenges of eating nutritionally and at regular intervals. Thus, food poverty (Jenkins, 2014), food insecurity (Martins et al., 2015), health risks, chronic health conditions, and obesity as an adaptive response (Koh, Hoy, O’Connell, & Montgomery, 2012) to the aforementioned, are the priorities of my future academic work. My immediate goals then, are to ensure that food donations, for disbursement and preparation purposes, meet the recommendations provided by the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture, n.d.) as to decrease health discrepancies, the rates of incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases (specifically Diabetes, Heart Disease, and Hypertension) and other health risks like dental caries. The objectives to reach these goals are: educational workshops focusing on nutritional guidelines (Hamm, 2010) for applicable agencies, churches, pantries and soup kitchens, and homeless

The increase in partnership with The Regional Food Bank expands the pantry’s scope of aid by allowing them to house large quantities of food. The food is purchased at an even more (than previously) reduced rate. In the event of a natural disaster, Food Resource Centers house food and are ready to meet the needs of the community. In order to become a Food Resource Center, Project 66 needed a larger and permanent building.

Imagine that you and your family didn’t have enough food for every member of your household. It may be challenging to think about, but many people in our great town of Floyd may be unable to afford snacks or even meals for their family. We as caring citizens should take every step we can to prevent that. Doing activities such as having more food drives, asking stores and restaurants to donate, and starting a community garden, are some of the ways we can help. It may not be easy, but it is very important.

Before 2005, Feeding America food banks would just keep what was donated to them or new donations went to the food banks that had been waiting for a long time. This method of collecting and distributing food seemed to work, but they didn’t consider what certain food banks needed.

Metropolitan region are increasing simultaneously while donations to local food banks are decreasing. According to Federation of Virginia food banks, (2014) “Virginia’s 11.8% food insecurity rate means that over 912,790 people do not know from where their next meal will come. With the average cost of a meal in Virginia being $2.68, Feeding America ‘Map the Meal Gap ‘concluded that an additional $406,935,780 would be needed to meet the state’s food needs”(para. 1). The research further explains that “… With donations over the past years, decreasing by as much as 50% and food assistance requests increasing as much as 40%, our food banks are in crisis and need major support to meet the needs of Virginia’s food insecure” (para. 4). In addition, according to the Darden Foundation, (2014) “about 35 million tons of food waste reaches landfills and incinerators each year in the United States” (para. 1). Devising and implementing programs to reduce our food waste as well as a donation program, has multiple benefits for all stakeholders and the

The SDSU Food Pantry Project aims to meet to goals of decreasing food insecurity on the campus of SDSU and increase the knowledge of nutrition. Bridgett Tuschen will be the project director of this program and will teach the nutrition classes. This program is needed because food insecurity affects over 15 million individuals worldwide and it can affect the future of students. Using a food pantry and nutritional classes we hope to educate individuals in making wise dining choices and provide food for food insecure individuals. This program will be focused on helping individuals that are freshmen and sophomores so that we can give them the information they need to advance in college. Our program will last for a year in which we will administer

The cupboards aren’t bare, but with the upcoming holidays the Community Action Program food pantry could use more donations to help meet the needs of low-income Bennett County residents.