Hello!
My transition to working with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida has been amazing. I’ve run into old peers at my high school and met a lot of new recurring volunteers that I’ve gotten to know and learn from.
In my first blog post, I mentioned how I was planning on doing something entirely different: working for the EPD as an intern, sadly this didn’t work out but I am actually very happy with the way things have turned out because I’ve discovered a whole new side to Florida, and doing something hands on for my community for the worldwide issue of food insecurity.
I can pick up shifts at my convenience, I’ve been choosing to be a donation sorter volunteer and because I’ve been going somewhat regularly, they’ve allowed me to ‘supervise’ the donation boxes and package them up when they are full to the brim to be weighed and put on the pallets. Additionally, I’ve worked in the assembly lines that work to package non perishable goods that are later distributed to the community.
The fellow volunteers and leaders are very kind and motivating, I’ve additionally begun to meet with coordinators and directors to learn more about the bank’s operations from an economic standpoint, I can talk about that in later blog posts as I’m still having meetings with them! I hope for my capstone to be a combination of the information learned about the economic situation of the food bank and the people they serve, as well as the volunteering side of things and all the things the bank has been able to accomplish.
I really like this type of volunteer work that is somewhat physically demanding at times when it comes to working in a warehouse, and i’m very excited about the ‘research’ I’ve been accumulating through meeting with higher ups at the bank.
-Manal
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