Service Learning at the Greater Boston Food Bank by Rebecca Whelan

Service Learning at the Greater Boston Food Bank Report 1

I chose the Greater Boston Food Bank to do my service learning because I wanted a different experience. Although I have volunteered at an elementary school and the New England Aquarium, I have never worked with a charitable organization like the food bank. I was curious about the people I would meet there, and I wanted to be part of a project that makes a significant impact on people who may be struggling to make ends meet.

For my first shift, I chose to do general warehouse work. I had never volunteered at a food bank before, and I had no idea what to expect.

From the outside, the food bank looked like an average-sized building. On the inside, forklifts beeped, and voices echoed and bounced off the walls. The warehouse was far more massive than I had expected, and I quickly learned that the Greater Boston Food Bank handles a lot of supplies. My fellow volunteers included a group of business students from Boston University and a high schooler from New Hampshire. The shift leader, Kelly, was one of the most upbeat and positive people that I have worked under. Though we lifted and sorted food items into boxes in an assembly line fashion for over three hours, Kelly’s bright attitude put everybody into a positive state of mind.

The time passed rather quickly because I got the chance to talk to some of the other volunteers about what brought them to the food bank. They were also there for service learning for a class. Apparently, our group was able to sort the most amount of food in over quite a few months, and we got to put our school names on the board. My first experience had me looking forward to my next shift.

Service Learning Report 2

I chose the general warehouse job again for my second shift because I wanted to gain more insight into the day-to-day variation of the projects, as well as the different people who work there.

My second shift was even more enriching than the first. This time, we filled boxes with a variety of salad dressings and weighed them to make sure they were 35 pounds. We also sorted boxes of meat by date to be packaged and shipped later. My arms are still sore. Again, the atmosphere was friendly and positive. Kelly and the other employees had funny banter that made everyone smile and kept my spirits up, and nobody got mad at me when I accidentally smeared raw sausage juice all over my hands.

The group I worked with that day was highly diverse in nationality. I got the chance to talk politics and climate change with a woman from France, a guy from Russia, and a woman from China. It was enriching to hear their perspective on America’s place in the world and in the environment. I also got to practice my spatial recognition skills. Fitting the right amount of differently sized dressing bottles into a box was surprisingly tricky at first, but I got the hang of it eventually.

I was actually a little sad to leave this group of volunteers. After that shift, I decided that I may continue to volunteer at the Greater Boston Food Bank after this course is over. Hopefully, I’ll run into some of the people I’ve met, and I look forward to meeting new volunteers at the food bank in the future. I still have one more shift left.

Service Learning Report Part 3

My third and final general warehouse shift at the food bank involved sorting products on the conveyor belt into boxes categorized by type of food, health/beauty, and drink. The items included things I didn’t think the food bank collected — like coffee, tampons, and candy. The fact that the food bank is helping people get what they need by collecting non-food items necessary for hygiene and self-care is important in making a positive impact on the health of the community. After this project was done, we spent the remainder of the time preparing boxes for later projects.

I worked with a smaller number of volunteers for this project, but the work environment still had the same positive atmosphere. They played the radio, and having the music to listen to kept up my energy. I became sad when I thought about how it was going to be my last shift, which is why I have decided to continue volunteering at the food bank when I can in future. I would like to branch out and do different jobs, like the mobile markets.

My service learning experience with the foodbank has been only positive. It was much more socially engaging than I expected, and, of course, being part of a project that helps feed people every day was rewarding. I’m happy that our group chose the food bank because I was able to get involved in the community of a charitable organization, and now I am able to continue this service in the future.

Service Learning at the Greater Boston Food Bank by Roxanne Lee

First Shift

I first volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank on March 21, 2017. I worked a three-hour shift, from 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM. After walking to the facility and signing in, I primarily worked by sweeping. I was given a push broom and a smaller broom, and I was tasked with keeping the side of the warehouse where food was loaded into trucks and away clean. It is not a large area, so I walked back and forth along many of the same spots, making sure I cleaned up any messes before they grew too large. Except for a 15 minute break at 10:10 AM I worked through the whole shift. It was more physically demanding than I expected it would be.

I have mixed feelings about my time spent working cleaning the floors. It was intensive, and I know that I did something based on the physical evidence of the dirt and wood splinters I swept up and threw out (the area could become very dirty very quickly), but I don’t feel like it was enough. I was uncertain how necessary the task was, and not sure if I was even doing it right. Based on these feelings, I changed the job I signed up for the second day of volunteering, in the hopes that I could do more work there.

Second Shift

My second shift volunteering was on March 28, and went much better than my first time. For this shift, I signed up to help organize food, rather than another cleaning shift. When I got there, there were a handful of other individual volunteers like myself, but the majority of volunteers were from the financial group State Street. Once we all got there, we were taken to training room. Since I had not worked on organizing food from conveyor belt before, I watched the video presentation on the food bank. Learned more about mission, people they served, square footage of their very large warehouse.

After the presentation, a woman who worked at the bank told us how work on the conveyor belt would go, and we all went out to the belt. I chose a station, alongside most of the volunteers, and we all helped separate the containers of food that came down the conveyor belt into appropriate categories. I chose salad dressing, and so every time salad dressing came down the line, I put it in container with other salad dressings. When full, I gave to a man to package and ship away, and I got a new container to fill with dressing. I filled about three boxes this way.

I enjoyed this session of volunteering much more than my previous shift. I had a better idea of what I was doing and how specifically it was helping the mission of the Food Bank. I greatly enjoyed working alongside the State Street employees. They were friendly and helpful, and helped make the atmosphere around the place productive and encouraging.

Third Shift

For my third and final shift, I signed up for a 9 AM general warehouse shift again. This time, instead of working on a conveyor belt with a group I worked alongside five other individual volunteers. We were directed to work together to make and stack 32 boxes of food for Kids Who Care. I was very comfortable with the work, as it was similar to work I’ve done during summers volunteering for the food pantry my Grandmother works at at her church. Once we finished that, we stacked pallets of canned foods, and for the last 20 minutes I worked alongside one of the volunteers, Chris, and we unfolded new boxes for Kids Who Care, which would later be packed with more food.

My final shift went well, and again better than my first one. The work was quieter, and less hectic, but it was still fulfilling, and this time I got to know what organization I got to help, Kids Who Care. Overall, I greatly enjoyed my work with the Greater Boston Food Bank. The long walk to get to the facility aside, I was able to work alongside fellow volunteers to benefit other people, and got to do real, lasting work. It was a good experience, and I hope to volunteer again soon when I get the time, probably during the summer.

Service Learning at the Greater Boston Food Bank Part 1 by Mary Rikka Guillen

On the Tuesday and Wednesday of spring break, I went to the Greater Boston Food Bank’s main warehouse where I helped with various tasks around the facility. Before starting on my first day, I — along with other new volunteers — was given a mini-orientation by one of the staff working there. From the orientation, I learned that the GBFB had two dietitians on staff who ensured that about 80% of the food that the bank gave out was part of a nutritious diet (e.g. grains, fruits, vegetables, proteins, etc.). I also found out that because the GBFB works with such a large community, a lot of their food is purchased instead of donated so that they can ensure their clients get a nutritious meal.

TUESDAY

On Tuesday, I worked in two rooms for the 3 hours that I volunteered there. In the first hour, I worked with other volunteers to pack food for elderly folks that the GBFB served. When working there, I was part of a line where each person was designated to put certain items in each bag. For me, I was in charge of putting in the beans and carrots in the bags. The other foods that were packed were: juice, non-perishable milk (well the ones that don’t go bad as easily because all of the preservatives), cereal, peanut butter and jelly, cans of tuna, canned fruit, canned peas, pasta, and rice. After all of the food was packed, there was a person in the end that weighed each bag and another person that sealed it. I forgot how many pounds exactly was the measurement, but I remember that the weight couldn’t be above or below that specific number. In the end, we packed about 144 of those bags.

For the last two hours, I worked at the basement where we packed the snacks as well as sorted out SO MANY boxes — because there were two different labels and they needed to be sorted according to each label. When packing the snacks, we had to fill each one with assorted brands. In each of them, we had to put in different kinds of crackers and cookies. One thing that I noticed about the cases we packed them in is that the GBFB recycled old cases that used to contain bananas.

When sorting out the boxes, we basically had to count 72 boxes of each label, put them on a palette and tie them up so that they could be counted for when there are people doing the assembly line again (i.e. the first task that I did that day).

WEDNESDAY

On Wednesday, there wasn’t really as much that went on when I volunteered there compared to Tuesday and I only worked on one floor. Still, I did get to do different tasks. The first task that I did was working on conveyor belts and another assembly line, though much bigger. The main task that the group was doing was sorting out boxes with items according to their category. For example, there were hygienic products (e.g. shampoos, body soap, deodorants, and feminine products), kitchen supplies (e.g. sponges and dish soap), diapers, paper towels and tissues — basically house supplies as well. I found that part interesting because I didn’t know that the GBFB also provided basic house supplies instead of just food. After sorting them out, the conveyor belt actually extended to the lower level where there were people who received the boxes and organized them.

Finally, in the second half of my shift, I helped to organize the different foods that the GBFB provided in their bags into organized palettes. To me, that was the most strenuous part of my volunteer experience so far because we had to carry cases of the food. It was meticulous in a sense that we had to have the proper amount of each item and that they had to be organized on the palettes a certain way. The foods that we sorted were the same foods that I helped to bag on Tuesday and we got them ready for the volunteers to bag for the next day.

So far, that has been my volunteer experience and I still have one more shift to do to complete 9 hours of service.

FINAL SERVICE LEARNING POST of Mary Rikka Guillen

On my last day of service learning, I worked with a group of more elderly people and did the same thing where I worked in a distribution line to pack and sort brown bags. Afterwards, I helped to clean the room that we were in by sweeping the floors and disposing of all the packaging. In addition, I spent the rest of the time cleaning the rest of the floor by sweeping and sorting and organizing the different canned foods to get ready for the distribution line for the next day.

For me, the best part about volunteering at GBFB was that I was able to connect a part of the food chain as I was volunteering here. Last spring semester, I volunteered at ABCD Fenway where I was working in their food pantry. When volunteering there, I learned that most of the food that ABCD received was from the GBFB so it was really interesting to make the connection between these two locations. I saw the same canned foods that were provided in both locations. From a sustainability perspective, I think that canned foods have their pros and cons, but it is completely understandable that they provide canned food because they are able to be stored for long periods of time and they’re more compact (i.e. good for storage). One major downside of providing canned foods is that there is a lot of waste that is created from the cans — that are usually only used once and thrown out (unless they are recycled). This reminded me of the class where we talked about waste and recycling because the GBFB supplies food for 140,000 individuals monthly and they provided 57.7 million pounds of food last year. Since the GBFB counts the cans when they weigh the food, it makes me wonder how much of the weight is the cans instead of the food. Since there are more than 10 items that we put in each bag — all of which are packaged food — that would mean that there is a lot of waste that is created.

From volunteering there, I did also learn a little bit about how the GBFB has created some initiatives to be a greener facility Below is a picture of their poster about the parts of what they do to be a greener facility. For example, one thing that I learned about the building was that they had passive solar heating. On the other hand, they also try to have an energy efficient refrigeration system. Interestingly, like the solar energy (and heat) that they get from outside, they also uses cold air from outside to cool a part of their refrigeration system.

Overall, I thought that my experience with the Greater Boston Food Bank was a pretty typical volunteering experience as I mostly spent my time there on my feet constantly doing repetitive work. Still, I do think that the work that the GBFB does is really important as they serve so many communities around the Greater Boston area. I would also recommend volunteering there because they do need a lot of volunteers as a non-profit to operate.

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Service Learning Post #1

The members of our group are Roxanne Lee, Stephanie Enderson, Rebecca Whelan, and Mary Rikka Guillen.

Our group chose to volunteer with the Greater Boston Food Bank, the GBFB. The GBFB is a nonprofit, 501 ©(3) organization located near the Boston Medical Center. The organization, as the largest hunger-relief organization in New England, seeks to relieve vulnerable communities of poor nutrition and hunger and help create healthy, sustained lives and communities. It serves 190 cities and towns within Eastern Massachusetts. One of the goals of the GBFB is One Meal A Day, to distribute at least one meal a day to each hungry person in Eastern Massachusetts. Last year alone, 57.7 million pounds of food were delivered to those in need. Food is acquired from monetary donations and food industry product donations, and is distributed through their 530 member agencies and 60 direct distribution programs. The charity also focuses on partnerships with area community health centers, create awareness of connection between hunger and health.