Week 1 Reflection: From New to Norm

Sunday, May 14, 2023

            Now that I've successfully volunteered at the Houston Food Bank for an entire week, my biggest takeaway is that it is remarkably easy to make a significant impact on your community, as I typically find myself doing repetitive tasks for about 4 hours at a time and somehow ended up making well over 1000 meals that can be distributed to feed 1000 families and children in need. The nicest aspect is that anyone of any age can come here and work for 2-3 hours and still make a significant difference. I saw folks as old as their late 60s come in and help out on the assembly line, as well as high school students like myself come in to assist with the heavy lifting. I watched youngsters as young as six years old come in and assist. Everyone can contribute, and the more individuals that volunteer, as I mentioned in my blogs, the greater the impact we can have on feeding the community!

Honestly, my first 8-hour shift was dull because it was just repetitive labour, and there wasn't a great turnout at the food bank, so I assumed that this would be a pretty dull week despite the fact that I am helping the community. With each passing day, I became more comfortable with the employees and began to befriend some of the volunteers, especially the kids my age, so I began to have a lot of fun even though I carried out the same tasks, at least I was mentally happy from talking to people. The closest connection I was able to create with the local high school seniors that came in to assist shocked me the most; we became so close that we went out together after our shifts. Coming here, I didn't expect to make any friends. 

Mentally, I have a stronger sense of purpose, as though I am part of this effort to solve world hunger, and I don't feel stressed or pressured to do well because everything I do in the shelter benefits others. Physically, I'm more active since I don't have muscular pains from sitting at the table all day, and I definitely feel like I've become a better version of myself. 

I wanted to put myself through a meaningful experience of volunteering and contribute to the overall objective of helping the community from the beginning because it is extremely uncommon that I have the free time and opportunity to go through the experience of volunteering. Now, a week later, I've already met those objectives, and I aspire to volunteer more frequently in the future.