Presenter: WooYoung Jang, Chemical Engineering, Global Public Health Scholars
I've volunteered at the Foodbank Program operated by the Frederick Community Action Agency. The foodbank provides three ~five day supply of food and other basic necessities to families and individuals who cannot afford to buy their groceries. My job at the food bank mostly involved two things: helping out people get their goods while at the same time, restocking the warehouse. It has given me the opportunity to be able to interact with different individuals who are going through economic crisis and and at the same time, it allowed me to witness how the city of Frederick deals with such crisis.
This is a good idea, and seems like fun! I like how you focused on conveying the main principles of the food bank and what it was designed to do. This project was particularly striking to me because my health intervention paper for colloquium II was based on food deserts and their correlation to obesity. I think it would be interesting to relate food deserts to food banks and discuss the various ways that people can gain access to fresh, healthy groceries regardless of their financial standing. Volunteering is always such a rewarding task! What are some of the economic implications of this program? Is it funded by the state? Unfortunately sometimes people can end up taking advantage of such…
Hi WooYoung! The presentation was very interesting because I also believe that food insecurity is a major issue in many communities, and it was great to hear that you volunteered at a local food bank near your own community. I have personally volunteered at a food bank before, but the only jobs I was given involved behind the scenes stocking or item managing. It seems that you got to interact with some of the benefactors of the food bank, and I was wondering how was that experience? Did you get to talk with some of the people about their circumstances? I was also wondering how healthy was the food that you were handing out? Great job with the project, keep…
Hi WooYoung! I really enjoyed reading your project because volunteering at a local food bank is something I'm interested in doing as well. However, because I've never experienced an actual food bank setting, I had a couple clarification questions regarding the information I read. What did you mean by "improves education among students," under Public Health Implications. I know that by fulfilling hunger, students are able to focus more and thus learn better; but were there ways that the food bank itself educated kids? Also, in your description, you mention how the food bank provides 3-5 days worth of food/necessities. After that supply runs out for the family, are they free to come back for more whenever? Or are there…