...Assignment: Houston Food Bank Volunteer Day Service Learning, volunteerism and community service are similar acts of service, but they are certain characteristics that distinguish the three as well. Service-learning involves students in community service activities and applies the experience to personal and academic development. Service-learning course objectives are linked to real community needs that are designed in cooperation with community partners and service recipients. Service-learning engages students in a three-part process: classroom preparation through explanation and analysis of theories and ideas; service activity that emerges from and informs classroom context; and structured reflection tying service experience back to specific learning goals. Volunteerism is any activity that involves spending time, unpaid, doing something that aims to benefit the environment or someone (individuals or groups) other than, or in addition to, close relatives. Central to this definition is the fact that volunteering must be a choice freely made by each individual. This can include formal activity undertaken through public, private and voluntary organizations as well as informal community participation. Community service is services volunteered by individuals or an organization to benefit a community or its institutions. The terms are similar because they are all benefiting an individual and ultimately an entire community. Also, each method is a learning experience, whether it is learning...
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...Experience at the Houston Food Bank My Exciting day all began Saturday afternoon at 1pm, I had just arrived on time at the main entrance of the “Houston Food Bank”. The food banks sliding doors parted as I walked in the direction of a young lady who was smiling and taking everyone’s queue code to enter as a volunteer. As I approached my 1pm group, our team leader was giving everyone insight about the food bank and a guided tour. Our group walked all the way to the doors in the back where we started unwrapping large pallets of food in boxes and started to break them down and sort them. Every single minute I was there, I witnessed everybody performing with positive attitudes. Everyone was willing to listen to one another’s advice and ideas as well as always engaging in the work. Service learning is a method of teaching that combines classroom instruction with meaningful community service. This form of learning emphasizes critical thinking and personal reflection while encouraging a heightened sense of community, civic engagement, and personal responsibility. Volunteerism is the reliance of volunteers working towards helping a specific social, or educational duty in the community. This is similar to community service, because by definition of both terms, both groups of people take time out to help a community. Community service differs from volunteerism by catering to organizations which does not just benefit a community, but also an institution. Having been founded in 1982, the...
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...The Oklahoma Regional Food Bank was created on the 15 of May 1980, which was the 21st food bank to be created in the United States of America and the first in the region. It was formally known as the Oklahoma City food bank. The Food Bank serves a total of 53 counties in Oklahoma. The majority served are children, working poor and senior citizens. In its first year of operation, the Regional Food Bank distributed 280,000 pounds of food, which is now distributed every three days. The nonprofit provides enough food to feed more than 116,000 people every week with administrative and fundraising costs of less than four percent. Since its inception in 1980, the Regional Food Bank has distributed nearly 590 million pounds of food to families who find themselves in need. The food bank also offers programs such as: Backpack Program: Provides chronically hungry elementary school students with a backpack full of kid-friendly, non-perishable, nutritious food every Friday to sustain them over weekends and school holidays. Kids Café: Provides a safe haven, tutoring and nutritious...
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...Food Banks-Solution or Obstacle “What we have done… is to continue down a road that never comes to an end (p.800).” Mark Winne, the co-founder of a food bank in Hartford, Connecticut, takes a unique perspective on food banks in his thought provoking article “When Handouts Keep Coming the Food Line Never Ends” published in the Washington Post on November 18,2007. Instead of focusing only on the benefits of food banks and the good that they provide, Winne poses the argument that food banks are sidetracking the needed efforts to eradicate the root cause of hunger, poverty. Although Winne made some valid points about the problem facing Americans and made me re-examine my previously held beliefs about food banks, I would have to disagree with his claim that food banks are adding to the problem; food banks are not trying to end hunger or poverty they are trying to help the hungry and impoverished. Winne begins by discussing the increased awareness that many have during the holidays to donate to their local food banks providing needed food for those who are food insecure. This need though does not end when the clock strikes midnight, millions of American’s stand in line at soup kitchens, food banks, and food stamp offices every day. He reasons that if we do not adjust our commitment to food donation, “the cycle of need—always present, rarely sated, never resolved--will continue (p. 798).” Next Winne points out that emergency food programs are such a dominant institution in this county...
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...Volunteerism Concrete Experience The nature of my learning experience encompasses volunteering from two different perspectives. When I first started volunteering it was because I was directed to by someone in my chain of command. And today I volunteer because I enjoy the positive feeling of giving back to the community. Over the years I feel I have grown personally by helping others. One of my first volunteer experiences was while I was stationed on Whidbey Island, Washington in October of 2009. During March 2009 I was afforded the opportunity to help clean up the Child Development Center on Naval Air Station Whidbey Island. My initial reason for going was to get out of the office for a day, however renovating the outdoor play areas turned out to be hard work. After spending hours getting everything cleaned up and in order, it was emotional seeing the happiness it brought to the children to be able to play outside again. It was at that point in time that I realized giving up some of my free time to the community leaves me with a great feeling of accomplishment. My second volunteer experience in Oak Harbor, Washington a group from my command set up a volunteer day with Habitat for Humanity H4H. At first I did not want to go because I did not think I would be able to provide any valuable help as I do not have any experience in construction. The H4H site coordinator was ready for all of us and had jobs planned for those of us with no experience so that we could equally...
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...August 18, 2013 “Food Banks, how they help people in need” The population of the state of New Jersey is, 8,801,624. The current rate of unemployment is 9.5%, which means that almost 880,000 people face the question each day of “how am I going to feed my family today?’ As the director of Community Food of New Jersey is a hard task, you have to be prepared each day to face the challenges of feeding families in need. Majority of the people that are served by food banks, have children. The biggest challenge of about serving so many needy families is knowing that without the programs we (the food banks) run many of these people would not be getting any of the nutrition that they need on a daily basis. (FeedingAmerica.org) In the world today there are people who never have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. However, there are other who face those woes every day. Food banks are one of the options people have to help feed their families. The community food bank of New Jersey, along with our partner agencies, feed an estimated 900,000 people throughout the year in the state of New Jersey alone. There are also many other options available to New Jersey residents including the WIC program for pregnant woman and their children and SNAP (supplemental nutrition assistance program). But it is still hard for many residents to make ends meet and provide enough food with enough nutritional value for their families. The rising cost of putting food on the table is becoming...
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...their customers, who do not simply use the service but also can be integral to its production: Because customers' involvement as producers can wreak havoc on costs, companies must also develop creative ways to fund their distinctive offerings, by providing a self-service alternative, for example, or by offsetting expenses with operational savings. A close look at successful service businesses - Wal-Mart, Commerce Bank, the Cleveland Clinic, and others - reveals that effective integration of the four elements is key. There is no "right" way to combine them; the appropriate design of one depends upon the other three. If managers don't get all four pulling together, they risk pulling the enterprise apart. Incumbents can fend off attacks from highly focused upstarts by becoming multifocused - that is, by pursuing multiple niches through optimized service models rather than trying to cover the entire waterfront with one model. Shared services within a firm (functions such as HR and finance) can help, since they will enable it to generate economies of scale and experience across models....
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...Food insecurity- (not knowing when or how the next meal will be obtained) is only one facet in the operation a Food Pantry which distributes food to various groups of people of a community. A food pantry or commonly known as a food closet, food shelves or local food bank are non-profit organizations that provide assistance to communities in need. Their main focus is to assist people of various groups to maintain a healthy life. You will be surprised to see the groups within the community affected by food insecurity. Food insecurity, defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), is a limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Children are the number one victims of food insecurity because their family has to make the hard decisions whether to pay bills or to feed their child in a manner that is healthy. On a national average, 15.9 million children suffer from food insecurity. Food insecurity in children can hinder not only their physical health but their state of mind as well. Most children in a food insecurity environment might have a difficult experience in the performance of normal learning objectives in school. Low income families make up a very small percentage of food insecurity’s total population because most low income family has at least one working adult. Most people believe that people living in poverty, the homeless,...
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...Food Bank Essay Experience at the Houston Food Bank My Exciting day all began Saturday afternoon at 1pm, I had just arrived on time at the main entrance of the “Houston Food Bank”. The food banks sliding doors parted as I walked in the direction of a young lady who was smiling and taking everyone’s queue code to enter as a volunteer. As I approached my 1pm group, our team leader was giving everyone insight about the food bank and a guided tour. Our group walked all the way to the doors in the back where we started unwrapping large pallets of food in boxes and started to break them down and sort them. Every single minute I was there, I witnessed everybody performing with positive attitudes. Everyone was willing to listen to one another’s advice and ideas as well as always engaging in the work. Service learning is a method of teaching that combines classroom instruction with meaningful community service. This form of learning emphasizes critical thinking and personal reflection while encouraging a heightened sense of community, civic engagement, and personal responsibility. Volunteerism is the reliance of volunteers working towards helping a specific social, or educational duty in the community. This is similar to community service, because by definition of both terms, both groups of people take time out to help a community. Community service differs from volunteerism by catering to organizations which does not just benefit a community, but also an institution. Having been...
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...Harvard Business Review The four things a service business must get right Article Summary Submitted By Sushil Yadav MBAe Marketing The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right Article Summary This article talks about the four things a service business must get right. These Four are the offering, the funding mechanism, the employee management system, and the customer management system. The offering The offering is based on service attributes. Is the service friendly, convenient or does the firm target for excellence. Another aspect of the offering is which attribute does the firm compromise in order to achieve superiority in the other areas. The funding mechanism This aspect is based on determining a reasonable price for the product. The article states that everyone knows there is no such thing as a free lunch. Here the author offers four ways in which the funding mechanism takes place. -Charge the customer in a palatable way -Create a win-win between operational savings and value-added services -Spend now to save later -Have the customer do the work The employee management system Managers must give careful attention to recruiting and selection process, training, job design, performance management, and other components to make up the employee management system. If a customer walks into a company and the service was not as expected, it could keep...
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...Topic 1: What factors affect the consumer's perceptions of fast food and its services? Summary: The two studies by M.K. Brady et al and Kim et al are concerned with the same question: what factors affect the consumer’s perceptions of fast food and its services? But while Kim et al. focuses on American college students to find out what factors that segment finds favourable in a fast-food service, M.K. Brady et al takes their study to the international level to find out how different cultural values can affect the consumer’s behavioural intentions relative to the fast-food industry and its services. Both articles agree that the majority of America customers prefer to trade-off between quality of services and expenditure required (expense-conscious). The American consumer tends to judge consumption of goods and services with a ‘neutral’ and logically based mindset; always asking the question of “is it worth my money?” Kim et al claims that due to relatively inexpensive, quick and convenient service, fast-food is becoming more and more popular among college students in North America. How could restaurants attract this emerging market? Further discussing in particular the college student market, and selecting Wendy’s, Burger King and McDonald’s as target examples will figure out the way to attract college students in fast-food services restaurant. Several factors are taken into consideration, including low price, quality food, fast service, and variety of menu, variety of healthy menu...
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...developed from previous work and service experiences I have had. I am hoping to have a dual-career in Personal Financing, owning my own Financial Brokerage or Firm, and in the Church Education System (CES). I will be getting work experience in financial planning during school, and then will use my initial degree in Personal Financial Planning to get my CFP certification and begin my business. That degree and certification will open up partnering and hiring opportunities I would not have otherwise, and enable me to help others find financial security and prosperity. I then plan on pursuing an...
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...Field Experience Overview and Goals Paper The Food Bank of Central Missouri Supervisor: Melanie Lake A. Vision, Mission, and Goals of the Organization and the Population They Serve While there are many organizations out there that need help, I have decided to volunteer my time and effort to the hard working and quite generous organization of The Food Bank of Columbia Missouri. The Food bank has been serving central Missouri since 1981, and has grown exponentially ever since due to the help of the strong community in which The Food Bank is embedded. In 1981 The Food Bank started by distributing 18,000 pounds of food, and in 2012 has grown to distributing a staggering 28 million pounds of food. In Central Missouri, The Food Bank is serving 32 counties which contains about 121,000 people living at or below the poverty line. The working poor make up more than 70% of the people that are receiving food assistance, with the elderly being the fastest growing poverty population due to fixed income and rising medical bills. The Food Bank helps thousands of people throughout Central Missouri, but this is done indirectly through partner agencies. These agencies are the actual places where the poor and hungry receive the food they so desperately need in their lives to ease at least one of their many burdens. The reason why the food bank is able to serve so many people is because of their large warehouse. The Food Bank is able to purchase food at wholesale...
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...Background Richard Loat, founder of the non-profit organization, Five Hole for Food, begins his successful operation in 2010, in an effort to raise food donations for the Food Banks in Canada. His initial idea of organizing street hockey games on a cross-Canada road trip tour using online social media and volunteers, with the goal of gaining food donations to benefit the Food Banks in various cities along his journey proves to be successful. Much to his surprise, his adventure turns out to be, not only lucrative and rewarding; it becomes an opportunity to raise awareness for the growing cause of people in need. He goes on to his second year, gaining momentum with sponsors, volunteers, support for the games and most of all, food donations which greatly exceeds their expectations. The remarkable reputation of Loat and his talent for continued success in gaining help on a volunteer basis via his internet network, as well as 100% of the donations going directly to the Food Bank, leads them to find ways of perpetuating the organization. Problem With the full responsibility of organizing and operating Five Hole for Food, Loat becomes concerned with the fate of his charity and looks for ways to perpetuate the cause without compromising his grassroots basis. He looks at options for future success of the organization where his legacy can continue on a volunteer basis, with the majority of donations going to those in need, along with for ways to keep up with increasing demands for expansion...
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...importance than social responsibility. Company Q is not making an effort to be socially responsible, which may have played a part in the lack of profit of the closed stores. Many people in the community are unable to provide basics, such as food and water, for their families. In an effort to assist these people, food banks reach out for help from the community, in the form of monetary and food donations. One of the more common donation sources is grocery stores. Some grocery stores donate their day old and damaged food items to food banks. This gives the food to the local food banks, which is then given to the needy people in the community. This is a relatively easy thing to do, and something which utilizes a product which would likely be disposed of anyway. Company Q has failed to take this important, and much appreciated, step towards showing that it is socially responsible. The company’s choice to not donate the day old food is telling the community that their needs are not important to Company Q. By citing lost revenues as the reason for not donating, Company Q is showing that they value profit over being socially responsible. Company Q is not taking into consideration that other companies are making donations to the food bank, and likely face the same issues that Company Q is giving as a reason to not donate. The loss of day old...
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