St. Mary's 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.

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

“Feeding America is a non-profit organization created by John Van Hengel in the 1960’s” ("U.S. Hunger Relief Charity | Feeding America®," 2015). He was a retired business man who would volunteer at a local soup kitchen to feed the hungry| (Feeding America®," 2015). “He came upon the idea after a women was desperately looking for food to feed her children”, “she suggested to him there should be a place to store unwanted food instead of throwing it out for trash so the hungry can go and pick up the unwanted food”| (Feeding America®," 2015). Feeding America does not sell products it provides services. It’s an organization which provides the less fortunate and low-income families with free food through nationwide food banks across America| (Feeding America®," 2015). Van Hengel created his first establishment in Phoenix Arizona, and named it Saint Mary’s Food Bank| (Feeding America®," 2015). After several years Van Hengel along with his team the organization “distributed over 275,000 pounds of food to those in need”| (Feeding America®," 2015). In “1977, 18 cities began establishing food banks to serve those in need”| (Feeding America®," 2015). In “1979, the Second Harvest was created, which was later called America’s Second Harvest the Nation’s Food Bank Network” | (Feeding America®," 2015). In “2008. it became known as Feeding America, now our nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization” | (Feeding America®," 2015). “There are over 200 regional food banks located across

On Tuesday evening, over fifty of our leaders from Auto, Innovation, and Recovery came to fight hunger and feed hope at the San Antonio Food Bank. Collectively they sorted through 20,330 pounds of food which resulted in 16,264 meals for the city of San Antonio and it's surrounding counties. It was an evening of camaraderie and fun that will never be forgotten.

contributing determinants for this case. Food banks are initially started to help those in need, but

Feeding America is a United States organization that consists of nationwide network of more than two hundred food banks and food rescue organization that serves the United States as well as Puerto Rico. It is the nation leading hunger relief charity. In the late 1060s, John van Hengel, a retired businessman in Phoenix, began volunteering at a local soup kitchen, and began soliciting food donations for the kitchen. He ended up with far more food than the kitchen could use and when he talked to his client around that time, she told him she regularly feeds her family with food discarded from the grocery store’s garbage bins. He then got an idea where there could be a place where discarded food items could be stored so that

The social issue that they are addressing is poverty, hunger, and low income. A lot of people who are on disability, food stamps, and people with no jobs are the ones who receive from the food pantry. The Plain City food pantry impacts the community by providing for those who have no other support.

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.

This particular article is written by Patricia A. Duffy who states that low income families use the food pantry for emergence assistance for food, aside from the traditional government programs; this article suggests that food pantries are heavily used for emergency food (Duffy). The article focuses more on lower income families instead of the homeless. It compares food stamp programs along with the food pantry to understand how they both tie in to one another. There are various statistics and interviews of those who participate in such programs across the nation.

According to the survey conducted by the U.S conference of Mayors, 67% of adults requesting emergency food aids are people with jobs. Recently, American food banks are experiencing a “torrent of need which they cannot meet”. In Maine, Ms Ehrenreich needed immediate food aid or cash assistance as she was new to the place and most of

Feeding America started as a clearinghouse for national food donations. Now it's the nation's largest domestic hunger relief organization, a powerful and efficient of 200 food banks across the country. For 35 years Feeding America has responded to America hunger emergencies, and has done a good job at it. The perception of food banks was started by John Van Hengel in the late 60s. Van Hengel born in Waupun, WIi, a retired businessman, was volunteering his time at soup kitchens giving food to people who couldn’t buy food for themselves. One day a poor mom was fishing through the grocery store garbage bins to find food for her family, She suggested that there should be a place where, instead of being thrown out, discarded food could be stored for people to pick up—similar to the way “banks” store money for future use. With that idea is what started the food bank business. ( feedingamerica.org )

Another great program they have is the “Life Skills & Personal Growth,” it teaches the teen dad on how to manage school, work, and support their child. Also, the “Life Skills & Personal Growth,” helps the teen dad on how to manage their money. The program of life skills also provide the teen dads with skills on how to “Honour anger, positive thinking, and live your dream ().” The agencies also have counselling services for teen dads, the counselling provide them with support (). According to the St Mary’s Home (2017), the Ottawa Food Bank is partners with the St Mary’s Home, and food back service is always provided weekly. The St Mary’s Home agency is really good because they are not judgemental, they support the teen dad by believing that they can be their for their child well-being, that they I can grow a great helathy family, that they are capable of being a great parent to their

It gave me the chance to vanquish my fears while also realizing that it is God’s plan for me to help out my community. However, I am not surprised that there are still unanswered questions in my head such as: Why is there such a big hunger problem? Why is this problem not spoken about more often? Is there any other way I can help stop this problem? This service has made me more knowledgeable and aware of my community. In addition, this service project has made me take matters into my own hands. Currently, every time my family goes grocery shopping I make sure they get at least five canned goods for donating. As more of my friends volunteer and more donations come in I think we can end this fight for hunger in southern Louisiana. In addition, I believe that we should all take a step back and be thankful for all that we have because some people don’t have such luxuries. God is omnipresent, He would not want to see His children starving. Finally, I see it as a mission that we volunteers get more people involved to volunteer for the greater

Recently I was given the opportunity to volunteer at the grand opening of a food pantry ran buy a local church. I was first approached with this opportunity by a family member, I wasn’t quite sure what exactly what a food pantry was and what it took to operate it. I

There are so many people in this world today, that are not aware of the huge storage in our local food bank community. Per the Houston food bank the goal of the Feeding America program is to make food accessible to feed hungry people in their greatest times of need. Therefore, our team is gear up to break the food shortage in defining the problem, analyze the cause, identify criteria, potential solutions and selecting the best solution.