Presenter: Alec Santiago, Kinesiology, Global Public Health Scholars
The practicum project I am doing or have done is volunteering at my local food bank Nourish Now. Nourish now is a food bank that takes food donations from various places like grocery stores or individuals, and once they have collected the donations they send them out to distribution centers to give food to those who need it. My role in volunteering is more involved with the behind the scenes of collecting the food and getting it ready to distribute; as a volunteer, I perform whatever task is asked of me like taking in, sorting, weighing, and packaging donations. Occasionally, I help “shop” for customers by building nutritionally balanced packages of food for people to take. Maintenance of the warehouse facilities where the food is stored is my main job, and as a volunteer my goal is to help with organization so that things can flow more smoothly from donation to distribution of food.
Hi! I thought this topic was super interesting! What other programs do you think Nourish Now should implement to combat food insecurity?
The work that you and Nourish Now do is really important and I am glad that there are people and organizations like this that take the time to help people in need. You say that the reach of the food banks is small, other than sending food to people's homes, how else do you all plan to spread awareness about your program?