College Park Community Food Bank: Addressing Food Insecurity

Presenter: Abbie Kemp, Public Health Science, Global Public Health Scholars

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During my practicum, I had the opportunity to volunteer at the College Park Community Food Bank. The food bank is a nonprofit organization that distributes food to residents of College Park and surrounding areas in order to address food insecurity. During my time, my role was data collection, which consisted of writing the zip code of the person picking up food and tracking the number of bags given to the person. We used data collection to track and update the food bank, on how much food we need per week on average, but also to give an overview of the increase of food insecurity in College Park. Throughout this experience I learned the importance of food banks, but also the systemic differences that inhibit people from gaining food security like lack of transportation, financial hardships, and language differences. I learned to develop my communication and data management skills. This practicum underlines the importance of cultural competency, and has deepened my understanding about food access, and how the lack of it can increase disease. Overall, this practicum has made me understand the beneficial ways communities can decrease food insecurity while also creating community resilience. Working with the College Park Community Food bank, has allowed me to collaborate, and witness the beneficial change the community is making to improve well-being in underserved populations, while also reminding myself that public health starts at the community level.